The Clarksville Cubs got off to a rough start in the opening week of the opening season of the URL. The Cubs dropped 8 of 14 games while splitting two others. “Obviously, this isn’t what we had in mind when the season started” manager Ron Santo said on Monday afternoon. “Our starting pitching took a good beating in the first week and we just were not able to make up for it at the plate”.
The Cubs won only two batting categories and two pitching categories, splitting one of each as well. With a team ERA of almost 6.00, the Cubs were easily beaten by the Style’s league leading 1.71. “Wow, they had some good arms last week” hitting coach Andre Dawson said in an interview on Sunday. “We will spend a little more time in the cage this week to get ready for the Alley Cats next week.”
The hitting star for the Cubs last week was Eric Byrnes. Eric had 11 hits in 31 at-bats for a .355 average while hitting two homeruns and driving in 7. Eric also was credited with 4 of the Cubs 13 stolen bases. “He really kept us from being shut-out,” Santo said. “What a great pick-up he was for our team in the off-season.” Not to be overlooked was a pair of former Cubs, Aramis Ramirez and Derek Lee, who each went 11 for 25 last week for averages of .440.
The pitching staff took a beating in the ERA category, however, a few pitchers did stand out. Ben Sheets opened the season with a complete-game two-hit shutout. For the week, he did wind up with an ERA of 3.60 because of the rough start on Saturday. Starting pitcher John Maine had a very good game, throwing 7 innings of shutout baseball, allowing only 1 hit while walking two and striking out six. “He really did his job out there” pitching coach Ferguson Jenkins told reporters after the game. We just didn’t do too much more to help him out.
In this week for the Cub’s home opener are the Atkins Alley Cats. The Cats will make the 35-minute drive up I-40 to take on the Cubs starting on Monday.
