It's been a month, but the second round of games for the Outlandish Baseball League is finally complete! I have a system in place that should help speed up future games, but as always, plans can fall through, so we'll see how this shakes out. In any case, let's talk about this past round!
Nexus Division
We'll start the Nexus Division with the Belmont Curse and Baron Red Wings, who struggled through an 11-inning game before the Curse got the best of the Red Wings late to win 3-1. The Red Wings took a gamble with Relm Arrowny pitching a third inning late in the game, which backfired almost as quickly as it started. For the Curse, Nathan Graves looks to be getting closer to his output in Season 1, and Maria Renard has been a surprise emergence as a consistent bat. The Red Wings, meanwhile, are struggling on offense outside of Cecil Harvey's stellar first game, and are more reliant than ever on their pitching. The win by the Curse ties them with the Red Wings at 1-1 in the middle of the division. They'll need to make their games against the division leaders count if they want to reach the top 2 by the end of the first round robin.
Speaking of division leaders, the Fire Emblems continue to surprise no one by starting the season 2-0, with a grand slam by Leif Claus giving them an insurmountable lead in their 7-3 victory over the Octopath Travelers. Also not a surprise was the struggle of Alear Leuer, who once again is showing difficulties with allowing runs to score. Though if the offense of the Emblems continues to be stellar, it may not matter that Alear gives up multiple runs a game this time around. The Travelers, meanwhile, are struggling with getting runners to score. With only 3 runs on 11 hits, the Travelers had plenty of opportunities to get runs across home. A reorganization of the lineup may be necessary for the Travelers to increase their efficiency.
The other division leader is definitely a surprise, with the Golden Suns now jumping to a 2-0 record after another win against Shards United. A powerhouse of a team in both Seasons 1 and 2, Shards United is struggling quite a bit early this year with grounding into double plays, already having 5 turned on them early on in the season. Add in to that a lackluster defensive effort, and you have a recipe for disaster. Though all of the Suns success shouldn't be laid at the feet of Shards United's struggles. Having now revamped their roster from their days as the Camelot Aces, the Suns are a much more cohesive team. Every player in their starting lineup has at least 1 hit to their name, a rare feat already this season, and their pitching has been stellar. The Golden Suns may be a team to watch going forward.
Terminus Division
The Terminus Division has also been separated into 3 tiers after 2 games with a surprise within the top two teams. That surprise is the now 2-0 Ivalice Alliance, a team which finished dead last in the entire league last season. The Alliance defeated the Tohjo Trainers in their second meeting 4-1, with the only run against them being batted in by Giovanni, who has been a consistently good bat for the Trainers in the past. The Alliance, meanwhile, have been getting consistently good batting from their top half of the lineup, with both Luso Clemens and Basch fon Ronsenburg starting the season with a .429 batting average. Add in Frimelda Lotice getting a 3rd RBI during this game, and that top of the lineup is looking quite potent for Ivalice. The Trainers, meanwhile, need to find their best pitchers and fast, as they still struggle getting outs in high pressure situations.
The other team atop the Terminus Division, the Balamb Guardians, isn't quite as much of a surprise. They did make the playoffs in their first season during Season 2 of the league as the Midgar Station, after all, though they did suffer an early exit in the playoffs. What's been more impressive this year is just how good they've started the season, winning this game 9-0, getting 20 hits during the game, and having shut out the UA Heroes in both their games against the Heroes so far. The Heroes also struggled in Season 2, finishing with the 2nd worst record in the league, but the start to this season has been far worse. Both Midoriya Izuku and Bakugo Katsuki have shown little ability to get on base so far this season. Star players not performing is always a recipe for disaster, so there may need to be some reconsideration of the UA lineup going forward.
To round out the Terminus Division, the Crystal Braves got back on their feet with a 3-2 win against the Pelican Stars. The Stars jumped out to an early lead due to an error by Estinien Varlineau in the 1st inning, but both Estinien Varlineau and G'raha Tia made excellent diving catches later in the game to hold the Stars at 2 runs for the rest of the contest. Don't count the Pelican Stars out yet this season, though. They are still showing good offensive capabilities with 10 hits in this contest. A little bad luck here and there shouldn't wipe them out for the entire round robin.
Margins Division
The Margins Division is still shaking out who will be the best in the division this year, though the Menovar Redtails have quickly shown they are willing to fight as hard as they can to get a win. Now sitting atop the division with a 2-0 record, the Redtails defeated the Chaos Emerals 10-6 in a 10-inning game despite jumping out to a 5-1 lead by the middle of the 4th inning. The Chaos Emeralds started fighting back in the 7th inning, and managed to catch up to the Redtails in the bottom of the 9th, but it was all for naught as the Redtails scored 4 runs in the 10th to seal the game away. That said, the Emeralds will also be a great team to watch as Knuckles continues his extremely impressive start to the season, having now gone 8-for-10 in the early games.
The other team atop the Margins Division, the Star Warriors, managed to barely keep the Shinagawa Aces at bay in a 5-4 win. The Aces managed to take advantage of a costly error by Star Warriors third baseman Tuff in the 5th inning, scoring 3 runs after the inning should have been over. Though technically not a blemish against Marx, the enigmatic pitcher was pretty frustrated with the young fielder after the inning was over, to the point that he refused to return to the game the next inning. Burning Leo was able to keep the Aces to just one run for the rest of the game, preserving the slight lead the Warriors were able to maintain.
Rounding out the Margins Division, the Piffle Dragonflies earned their first win of the season with a 5-2 victory against the Blood Gulch CobraHawks, who just can't seem to find their feet on offense this season. Both of the CobraHawk runs came on an error, as well, meaning that the CobraHawks have still been unable to record an Earned Run against an opposing pitcher. The current starting lineup for the CobraHawks may need to swallow their pride and reexamine who is batting where in order to get more production out of a lackluster offense. The success of the Piffle Dragonflies should not be overlooked, however, with every batter in the lineup either contributing a hit or sacrifice fly during the contest. The Dragonflies look to be a rallying team, as well, having earned 3 runs in the 6th inning through Small Ball offense.
Expanse Division
Finally, the Expanse Division isn't quite as separated as the rest of the divisions in the league, with only the Remnant Hunters standing atop the division at a 2-0 record. Their 3-1 victory over the Mario All-Stars came during a rainy contest that saw the All-Stars struggling with their own home. The All-Stars only earned 3 hits during the game, and committed 2 errors on defense, allowing the Hunters to take the lead in the 6th inning and never look back. The Remnant Hunters relied solely on the arms of the Schnee sisters, with Weiss pitching a solid 5 innings and only giving up a single run to the Mario brothers, while Winter was able to completely shut out the All-Stars in the last 4 innings, not even giving up a hit. The loss for the All-Stars does drop them to a 1-1 record, but that is solidly within reach of the top of the division.
That is partially thanks to the Metro City Fighters winning 7-1 against the New Eridu Bangboo, forcing both those teams to a 1-1 record. Luke Sullivan pitched a fantastic game, only really struggling in the 9th inning after having spent most of his stamina keeping the Bangboo off the base paths as much as possible. Luke only gave up 6 hits in the game, with 3 of those going to Anby Demara. The Fighters, meanwhile, racked up 12 hits against the Bangboo in just 5 2/3 innings. Cammy, Dee Jay, and Blanka each recorded multiple hits and 2 RBIs in the game, showing that this potent offense may be more spread out than initially believed. That doesn't mean the entire team is doing well, as Terry Bogard is struggling massively to find his swing. Terry managed to strike out all 4 times he came up to bat in this game, which sticks out as a sore thumb even with nearly the entire Fighters lineup earning strikeouts.
That said, the Fighters still have a win on their record, which can't be said for the Ravnica Gatewatch. Ravnica fell to a 0-2 record thanks to a 6-4 loss to the Velvet Masks this round even despite earning 16 hits. The 14 runners left on base is tied for the largest of the round, though at least the other team to do so, the Balamb Guardians, earned 9 runs in the process. The Velvet Masks are showing a heavy dependency on their utility fielders, with Ren Amamiya, Yuuki Makoto, and Narukami Yu earning 7 of their 12 hits and 5 of their 6 runs. Narukami, in particular, was responsible for those 5 runs scoring, though 2 of them came thanks to an error by Elspeth Tirel, keeping Narukami at 3 RBIs instead of 5. As the UA Heroes have shown, being dependent on specific players performing well can come back to bite you if you aren't careful, but the Masks aren't worried about that quite yet.
Round 2 Awards
The best batter of the round has plenty of options thanks to the high number of runs scored in round 2, but Cloud Strife looks to be the most dominant of the bunch. With a 4-for-6 performance, Cloud himself scored 3 of the Guardians' 9 runs and batted in 4, including a 2-run homerun. He may have had 2 strikeouts, but with production like that, I'm certain that the fans in Balamb Gardens will have no issues with him striking out every so often.
We'll also be staying with the Balamb Guardians for the best pitcher of the round, with Laguna Loire pitching a complete game shutout against the UA Heroes. Laguna recorded just 5 hits along with 6 strikeouts and not a single walk or hit-by-pitch to mar his outing. The dominant performance of the Balamb Guardians both at the plate and on the mound cements them as a force to be reckoned with early in the season.
The best game of the round, though, has to be found elsewhere. Specifically, the chaos that unfolded late in the game between the Menovar Redtails and the Chaos Emeralds in Station Square Stadium. Despite the Menovar Redtails jumping out to an early 5-1 lead in by the 4th inning, the Emeralds never gave up. The cracks started to show in the bottom of the 6th inning where, despite the Emeralds not scoring in that inning, managed to force the Redtails to throw 2 runners out at home as Fielder's Choices. The cracks became wider in the 7th, with Sonic managing to get on base after a Fielder's Choice, stealing both 2nd and 3rd, and then scoring on Shadow's groundout to second base to bring the game to 5-2. In the 8th, the comeback looked much more real, with Shadow again earning a pair of RBIs thanks to a double after Amy's single and Sonic's double of his own, bringing the game to 5-4. The Redtails managed to scrape together a run against Blaze the Cat, with Ewan Tallinde batting in Alamar Vaske on a hard hit double to bring the score to 6-4, only for the Emeralds to turn the whole game on its head after a sacrifice fly by Mighty the Armadillo and a double by Tangle the Lemur brought the score to a tie at 6-6. The Redtails showed up for extra innings, though, with Avon blasting a triple off Blaze. The Emeralds hoped that Whisper the Wolf would be able to hold the Redtails at bay, but a double by Dewia, a single by Takame, and a 3-run homerun by Alamar created an insurmountable 10-6 lead to earn the Redtails the win.
