Sweep!
Sweep?
“We could have played better today”, Coleman Lukas says.

Do you remember august 12th 2012? That’s when Hajarnas regional team last swept a double header, taking two against Skövde. Back then, it was pretty close.
This time it wasn’t.

The regional team took a huge bite off of Norrköping Blue Sox early in the first game, scoring five runs in first and adding another five in the second inning. A solid outing from starting pitcher Joakim Melin provided the Hajarna defense with the calm they needed.

The defense would unravel just a bit down the road. Some questionable plays and for a while, it looked like Norrköping was on their way back in to this one. In the end, things turned around and Martin Sundh came in to close out the game in the fifth inning with Hajarna taking it 14-4.

“Winning is better than losing”, Jason Norderum, advisor to the General Manager and special assistant to the Executive of Transportation, added.

Game two started out a bit differently. Norrköping let the bats talk and went to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Starter Mikael Lindquist settled down after a while and the game eventually started to look like the first.

Hajarnas bats stayed hot and the runs kept on coming up on the board. With Louis Bischof on the mound in the fifth, Hajarna got the zero they needed. In the bottom half of that inning, Göteborg scored on a wild pitch to make it a mercy rule win at 15-5.

“First sweep in forever for the regionals, but we could have played better. Making the routine plays and be sharp on defense. We got to work on that”, head coach Coleman Lukas says.

Next chance to see Hajarnas regional team play is on July 25th when they’re hosting Malmö Pilots at Shark Park.

No errors, still no win.
Sharks go to summer break hungry.

The Sharks (2-14) had the long road trip north to the capital to play the Butterflies, the Stockholm Monarchs (10-0). And game one started out well enough.
Coleman Lukas scored as Hajarna took a bite of the Monarchs starting pitcher Jakob Claesson (8-0) in the top of the first, scoring on a wild pitch.

As usual, Jason Norderum started game one for Hajarna but the battery had a new look to it. With regular catchers Erik Earnest and Toofan Khazal unavailable, Trolle Brandt got his first taste of catching the lefty. Norderum (1-4) eventually gave up 6 runs (5 earned) in 4.1 innings but had encouraging words for his new catcher.

“He did well. And when he’s playing on tv someday, I get to say that I pitched to that guy”, Norderum says.

The Monarchs tied the game in the bottom of the first, added two in the second and three in the fifth eventually taking game one 7-1.

In the second game, Hajarna managed to get out of it with no errors. Quite an accomplishment for a team that’s had some trouble on defense. The offense, however, was not as fun.

Ted Bratsberg (0-2) started game two and pitched well, giving 3 runs in 4 innings. The lefty tried his best to help his own case, going 3-4 at the plate but to no avail. Stockholms bats did all the work in this one, pouring runs as the game went along and won this one 7-1.

On a more positive note, both John Lachine and Joakim Melin picked up their first Elitserien hits.

“No errors is a huge step forward, unfortunately we had some really untimely hitting today”, head coach Coleman Lukas says.

With the summer break now in effect, the Sharks will have to wait to get a chance for their next win. Next scheduled game is on August 8th but with rumors flying around about Botkyrka pulling out of the league, it might have to wait until August 15th.

Coleman Lukas an umpire?
Sharks regional team getting shut out?
It was a weird Sunday in Tranås.

The Sharks regional team (2-6) faced off at Tranås (6-2) on Sunday and the first game was a wild one. Göteborg took a big bite off Tranås starting pitcher in the first inning, scoring three runs but left the bases loaded. Tranås, however, would return the favor and score five runs off Hajarnas Mikael Lindquist after some defensive mishaps.

It looked to be “one of those days”. The runs kept on coming over the plate and after three innings it was 10-8 in the home teams favor. Unfortunately for the Sharks, that also proved to be the final score. Starting pitcher Lindquist settled down after those first wild innings and the defense behind him started to make some plays. He was tagged for ten runs (at a random guees, a lot of them were unearned) and went all six innings.

It should also be noted that Coleman Lukas stepped in to umpire the first game of the double header and was flawless. Neither team had much to complain about.

The second one started as wild as the first one. Before the top of the first was over, players had collided and yammered at the (new) umpire. After a Hajarna player was blocked by the umpire and, questionably, called out at the plate. The umpire of the first game was inches away from being ejected by the new one.

But this one was not anyones fault but the Sharks. After that, the bats stayed silent througout the game and even though Sharks starter Joakim Melin turned in a quality performance on the mound. Neither the offense nor the defense really turned up for this one and the final score was 10-0 for Tranås in five innings.

The offense wasn’t there.
That won’t play against Sölvesborg.
“We came out flat today”, Coleman Lukas says.

Hajarna traded zeroes to start off the game away to the Firehawks of Sölvesborg. Jason Norderum looked sharp to start the game for the Sharks and battled Kent Karlsson through four innings. The Firehawks drew first blood, scoring three runs in the fifth on a couple of defensive misplays from the Sharks. Hajarna, however, came back in the top of the sixth with three runs of their own to tie it up. Unfortunately, that was all the offense could do on this day.

The Firehawks feasted on more defensive miscues and eventually took game one 8-3. Starter Norderum finished with nine strikeouts, giving up three runs (one earned) in five innings of work.

Ted Bratsberg started game two and pitched three solid innings. After an early run for the home team, Bratsberg settled down and baffled the Firehawks lineup with his big curvevall. José Martinez came in and pitched three solid innings of his own.

The Sharks bats stayed silent however, and eventually the Firehawks found a hole in the Sharks defense. Adding to their lead in the late innings, Sölvesborg came away with a 5-0 win.

“We faced some good pitching today. Probably the best we’ve faced so far this season”, Coleman Lukas says.

The Karlskoga Bats, 2012 Elite Series champs, swept the Sharks’ regional team Saturday, 13-3 and 6-0. The Sharks where within striking distance coming into the sixth inning of game two, trailing just 2-0, but the Bats mounted a four-run, two-out rally to put the game away.

Newcomer Jack Warwick from Australia was impressive in his debut for the Sharks both at the plate and on the mound, blasting a towering three-run homer to left-center in game one and limited an explosive Bats lineup to just one run in three innings in starting game two.

Outhit and outpitched in Karlskoga, the Sharks are nonetheless optimistic about continuing their winning ways in Tranås next Sunday.