Gonzalez reflects on Outlaws' noteworthy season
Aug. 2—Head coach Gonzalo Gonzalez didn't have tempered goals and expectations ahead of his first MINK League season with the Joplin Outlaws.
From day one, he made it clear to his ball club that he wanted to win it all. Whether the Joplin organization had done it before didn't matter.
"I would be lying to you if I said I didn't tell these guys that I wanted to win the championship," Gonzalez said. "That was the first thing we talked about on day one. We understand what summer ball is about — getting repetitions, working on things you need to work on. But at the end of the day, we wanted to win games. Learning to be a winner is just as important as everything else."
After a roller-coaster start to the regular season, the Outlaws eventually his their stride after the all-star break and put together a run that led them to their first South Division title and championship series appearance in their organization's history.
However, Joplin's Cinderella run ultimately ended one win shy of the MINK title after they were downed 11-1 by the St. Joseph Mustangs in Game 3 of the league's championship series on Saturday in St. Joseph.
The Outlaws finished with a 25-23 record as St. Joseph (33-15) claimed its third consecutive championship and eighth overall.
"We could tip our caps to them (the Mustangs) and still be proud of the way be battled till the end," Gonzalez said. "We finished the season playing our best ball, and it was a great way to go out.
"Obviously the competitor in all of us — the players and the coaches — had us wanting to win it all. It just didn't go our way there at the end. But to say that I'm proud of these guys is a complete understatement. They worked their butts off all summer to get as far as they did."
The turning point in the season for Joplin came right after a four-game losing streak they took into the all-star game on July 10. From there, the team put together a nine-game win streak that catapulted it to the top spot in the South Division standings by the start of the league's postseason.
The Outlaws went on to claim a 4-2 triumph over Jefferson City in the South Division championship. Then they opened their championship series with a 7-3 win over the Mustangs in Joplin before St. Joseph closed with back-to-back wins (6-5 and 11-1) on its home field.
"To kind of see where we were at the halfway point of the season with a lot of highs and a lot of lows, we were pretty much riding a roller coaster," Gonzalez said. "We played more consistent baseball toward the end, having better at-bats and better appearances on the mound. When things started coming together that way, we had an inkling that we had a real shot at something special.
"Again, we wish we would have ended the season with a win. Things just didn't work out for us there at the end, but it didn't take away from the success our guys had and how proud our coaches and community were of our players."
Gonzalez added that he recognized the potential of his team early in the season when it claimed a hard-fought 2-0 road win over Jefferson City in mid-June.
"Edrian Rangel threw six innings of great baseball, and then we closed the door with Kohl Cooper and Cole White to put it away," he said. "That was one of the only games where we had less than five walks. To see the at-bats we were capable of an the two-strike approaches we were capable of, I walked away thinking we'd be on the winning side of things a lot more if we could do it consistently.
"Of course, we eventually were very consistent."
Joplin had six players sport a batting average of .300 or better through 50 plate appearances. Garrett Chun led the way at .413 and was followed by Liam Bailey (.343), Michael Long (.343), Matt Woodmansee (.327), Caden Bressler (.301) and Max Bruff (.301).
Chun also led the team with 32 RBI and tallied two home runs, one triple and eight doubles. Bruff and Carson Carpenter led the team in homers with three apiece.
Ethan Sally went 4-3 on the mound with a 5.80 ERA and 29 strikeouts while Rangel went 3-2 with a 2.63 ERA. A.J. Moreno (3.52 ERA, 34 Ks) and Jack Kelley (38 Ks) both went 3-2, and White (3.00 ERA) went 1-1 with one save. Justin Schrader (4.26 ERA) led the pitching staff with three saves.
Gonzalez said he's unsure if he'll be able to return to Joplin next summer for a second season with the Outlaws.
"I don't know right now what exactly is going to happen next summer," he said. "I did recently just take a job with Mac N Seitz Baseball Academy in Kansas City, and that job might hinder my ability to come back. That's something (Outlaws general manager/president Mark Rains) and I will be talking about in the future.
"To have that chance to come back again, if my job allows it, I think that's something I would love to do."
Contact Jared Porter on Twitter at @JaredRyanPorter.
