Shipman Saves Series, Named Reliever of the Year

Andy Shipman

Lompoc's Andy Shipman slammed the door on his old Kansas City T-Bones team as the Gary (In.) Southshore Railcats advanced to the finals of the Northern League Playoffs. The top-seeded 'Cats won the series 3 games to 2 with Shipman saving all 3 wins.

In the opener on September 2, Andy was called into the game with Gary clinging to a 4-3 lead. They had crawled back into the game after giving up 3 runs in the 1st inning by scoring single runs in 4 different stanzas. He faced 4 batters, inducing 2 ground balls and a flyball to left for the outs, but allowing a two-out double.

He didn't pitch in Game 2 (3 Sep), a 7-4 loss, with the T-Bones scoring 6 runs in the first 6 innings, but was classic in Game 3 (4 Sep). Called to save a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the 9th, he was flawless. Tossing only 11 pitches (9 strikes) he set down the 'Bones on a grounder to the pitcher, a pop-up to short, and a grounder to 1st base.

September 5th was a day of contrasts for The 'Ship. He was named the Northern League Reliever of the Year and then had his only blown save of the series. Tied 1-1 in the ninth, Shipman was called on to "hold 'em" in the top half of the inning. He got the first two batters on a pop-up & a line out - both to 3rd base, but then gave up his only walk of the series, followed by two hits. That scored the only run run he would allow in the series, but it was enough for him to take the 2-1 loss, since the Railcats couldn't score in the bottom half.

In the rubber game of the semifinals, on the 6th, the real Shipman was back. Twelve pitches (8 strikes) - groundout to 2nd, pop-up to short, ground out to short to seal the 5-2 victory. For the series: 4 games, 0-1, 3 saves, 3 hits & 1 run allowed (unfortunately all with two out) and a series win against a team that gave up on him --Priceless.

The Railcat open the finals today against the Fargo-Morehead Redhawks.

meanwhile....

Chris White

White's Erie Seawolves dropped their last 5 games to fall out of playoff contention. Just as Chris began to get his bat heated back up - he was 3-9 (double) with 2 RBI & a run scored in the last two games. In his short stint with the Seawolves after his call-up he played in 15 games and went 7-37 at the plate, with 5 RBI & 6 runs scored, but of those 7 hits 3 were doubles and two were home runs. Most of the players on the team are 3-4 years older than Chris who is the youngest member of the squad by 10 months.