In his first inning, Stephen would strike out two batters and force one batter into a ground out. In his second inning of pitching we experienced the type of baseball drama that you tell your kids about. His first two batters were players that had actually been called up at the end of last season. The Arizona Diamondbacks’ Brandon Allen and the San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey received huge applause as they faced Strasburg. The Giants have a pretty strong following locally due to the farm team that the Giants used to have here and the fact that their Spring Training facility is about four miles away.

Facing players with big league experience, Strasburg did not miss a beat. He would walk Allen after several pitches and was followed by Posey who grounded into a double play. The third batter would then ground out. Another double play in the third would help keep his appearance scoreless before he was removed from the game in the top of the fourth. Strasburg would make 50 pitches with 32 of them strikes, allowing no runs, two hits and striking out two.

While the Air Force is not exactly known for their baseball, after throwing a no-hitter against the team while at SDSU, we were extremely interested in how he would perform. Not to mention the hype that surrounded him for the latter half of the 2009 regular season. We admit we were skeptics but, after seeing his composure in a relatively high-pressure situation, we are excited to see what else he can do.

Things began to look bleak for the Dogs as they were unable to get runners on base in the first few innings of play. Mesa looked solid as they scored the game’s first run in the second inning and followed up with two more in the top of the fourth. The two runs would come off of a home run by former ASU Sun Devil, Jeff Larish’s two-run homer. The Desert Dogs would score once in the fifth inning which would include a triple by Danny Valencia of the Minnesota Twins. Valencia would come in to score on a sacrifice grounder by Evan Frey of the D-Backs.

Phoenix would trail by two runs going into the sixth inning before Mesa would score again to extend their lead. With a healthy lead, Mesa would watch it diminish in the bottom of the sixth inning as Phoenix scores five to lead the game by two. Phoenix would repeat the offensive attack in the bottom of the seventh inning, scoring four more runs. Three of the runs were a result of Josh Donaldson’s three-run home run as the Oakland A’s prospect adds to his spectacular game.

Josh Donaldson went 3-for-5 at the plate with one home run and four RBIs. In a game that looked to favor the excellent hitting of the Mesa Solar Sox, the tides quickly turned as the Desert Dogs took advantage of some shaky pitching. Wild pitches, hit batsmen and passed ball plagued Mesa as Phoenix would end up capitalizing on all sorts of fielding errors. Although the box score would only show one error for each of the teams, there were some fielding choices gone terribly wrong.

We are glad that we had the opportunity to bring you all of this year’s Fall League action and look forward to next year. A special thank you goes to our visitors who make the AFL such a fun place to be. Watching baseball in such intimate settings is always fun and we are glad that we were able to share this tear’s exciting season with you. We will be continuing to work through the winder meetings to maximize our Arizona baseball coverage to bring you more new and exciting action.

Mesa would beat the Javelinas to maintain their place in the standings by beating Peoria by a score of 10-4. Mesa’s designated hitter Lou Marson went 2-4 with four RBIs and a double to lead the offensive attack. Catcher Steve Clevenger of the Chicago Cubs had an RBI of his own to go with his notable 2-for-3 performance. Four others drove in runs for the Solar Sox while they went on to dominate the game this afternoon in Peoria.

The Saguaros visited Phoenix on a mission to gain some ground on the Solar Sox by earning a victory. Although both teams won their games and it had no net effect on the standings, the Peoria Saguaros beat the Phoenix Desert Dogs 14-8. The Dogs are sitting pretty in their division as they are headed to the playoffs with their clinched berth. In a high-scoring performance by both teams the Dogs will have two more games to gear up for the big game on Saturday.

Meanwhile in Surprise, pitching was the story as the Scottsdale Scorpions shut out the Surprise Rafters by a score of 1-0. Both teams threw eight strike outs a piece as they baffle each others batters. A loss by Surprise would cap off the day’s losses for the AFL National Division as all division teams have a loss today. On Wednesday the AFL American Division leaders will be going head-to-head as the tie for first place will be broken and Mesa looks to extend their seven game winning streak.

The Javelinas even up the records of both Peoria teams by beating the Saguaros by seven runs in an 18-11 victory at the Peoria Sports Complex. Pitcher Sean Watson of the Cincinnati Reds takes the victory as a major offensive contribution was provided by Rhyne Hughes of the Tampa Bay organization. Hughes had 4 RBIs that were stemmed from a single, a triple and a home run.

The previously struggling Scorpions seemed to be finding their stinger in Drew Sutton’s bat. While Emmanuel Burriss had contributed early on with two RBIs, Sutton has launched three home runs in the past three games for Scottsdale. While Sutton’s streak ended Tuesday night, Phoenix took the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning as the game begun to turn around for the Dogs. Phoenix seemed to have found a weakness in Scottsdale’s pitching staff by scoring six runs in the sixth and another three in the seventh inning to end up beating Scottsdale by a score of 10-6.