2015: And Right Back to First
March 26 was Opening Day for the 2020 MLB season… or at least it would have been, if not for the COVID-19 outbreak that has put our entire world, and basically all sports, on an indefinite hold. However, without the coronavirus, today would have been 5 days until MiLB Opening Day. With 15 seasons in the books for the West Virginia Power, it’s to turn back the calendar and revisit each of the first 15 Opening Days in Power history.
We opened the first chapter of the West Virginia Power with the 2005 Opening Day game in Hagerstown. Friday, we looked back at the first home opener in team history in 2006. The winning streak continued Saturday with the 2007 opener, and then we dredged through the rain-soaked 2008 debut. We relived the excitement from the 2009 All-Star season, moved on to the 2010 campaign, and dove into the 2011 opener. We broke down one of the heaviest MLB-laden teams in the 2012 season, and then we saw a return trip to the postseason in 2013. After looking through the team’s worst overall record ever in 2014 yesterday, it’s only fitting we dive into the team with the best record in Power history, which came just a year later.
So, as little as there was to talk about with the 2014 squad that posted the worst record in Power history, there’s that much to discuss with this 2015 team. What a turnaround a year makes, as new manager Brian Esposito came in and guided the team out of the doldrums and back to the postseason with an astounding 87–52 record that included a 50-win second-half (something no other Power team has done). This team was charged to make a deep run in the playoffs, and although that didn’t happen, as the Hickory Crawdads took two of three from West Virginia in the Division Series en-route to their most recent SAL Championship, the 2015 Power was one of the exciting programs to watch in all of Minor League Baseball.
The fireworks started on Opening Day, as the Power faced off with the Savannah Sand Gnats in their initial contest for the final time (Savannah would relocate and become the Columbia Fireflies following the 2015 campaign). It was a back-and-forth affair, with West Virginia plating three runs over the first two innings on a pair of RBI singles from Michael Suchy and Cole Tucker and a run-scoring double from Tito Polo. Savannah would respond with five runs over the ensuing three frames to snag a 5–3 lead, but the Sand Gnats would not muster another hit against the final quartet of Power relievers. Eric Dorsch, Junior Lopez, Nick Neumann and John Sever combined to hurl five hitless innings to keep West Virginia in striking distance, and the offense responded in the bottom of the eighth. Tyler Filliben stroked an RBI single to pull the Power within one, and then Tucker brought in two more with his own run-producing knock to vault West Virginia ahead 6–5. Lopez blew the save in the ninth after walking the bases loaded with one out and letting a run score on a ground out, but Jerrick Suiter came through in the bottom of the 10th, bringing home Jeff Roy on a fielder’s choice and notching a 7–6 win for the Power.
A couple of Opening Day and season notes before we dive into the players:
Opening Day Facts:
- The 7–6 walk-off win snapped a seven-game Opening Day losing streak for West Virginia, their longest opening game skid in team history
- The Power has only been to extra innings three times in Opening Day history (2–1)
- West Virginia is 1–2 vs. Savannah in Opening Day games all-time
- The game took 3 hours and 29 minutes to complete, which marks the longest game time for an Opening Day affair in Power history
- This 7–6 win was the only time West Virginia has ever won their Opening Day contest via a walk-off.
- The two teams combined to use 11 pitchers in this game
Season Facts:
- The Power’s 87 wins are the most wins in a season in Power history, along with the third-most wins all-time in Charleston, WV history. The 1991 Charleston Wheelers had 92 wins, while the 1958 Charleston Senators totaled 89 and the 1961 Charleston Marlins recorded 88 victories.
- The Power’s 52 losses are the least losses in a season in Power history, along with the third-least losses all-time in Charleston, WV history. The 1913 Charleston Senators and 1991 Charleston Wheelers each had 50, while the 1941 and 1942 Charleston Senators each suffered just 51 defeats).
- There are 12 players from the 2015 Power roster that have made it to the big leagues: Colten Brewer, Montana DuRapau, Kevin Kramer, Connor Joe, Jordan Luplow, Alex McRae, Dovydas Neverauskas, Kevin Newman, Pablo Reyes, Edgar Santana, Stephen Tarpley and Cole Tucker
- Funny enough, only two of them played in the team’s opening game that season (Reyes and Tucker).
Plenty of players had some big time numbers during the 2015 campaign. We’ll start with Austin Coley, who, in this writer’s opinion, was robbed of a Postseason All-Star nod in 2015 when you look at these numbers: 16–6 with a 3.66 ERA in 27 starts across 147.2 innings with 111 strikeouts compared to 25 walks. Those qualifications equate to nearly 4.5 strikeouts per walk and a 6.8 K/9 IP ratio, meanwhile, he also led the league in wins, had the second-most innings and compiled the sixth-most strikeouts. HOW IS HE NOT AN ALL-STAR?! — One of life’s forever unanswered questions in my book. Heck, Coley didn’t even win a Pitcher of the Week award that entire season. Hilarious.
By the way, lost in the all of that lack of All-Star status calamity is the fact that his 16 wins are tied for the most-ever wins in a single season in Charleston, WV SAL history, matching John Ray’s mark set in 1991 (remember, that team has the most wins in CWV history with 92, and they also lost in the playoffs — the 1990 Wheelers had won the SAL Championship the year prior). Also, Coley’s 147.2 innings pitched was the most all-time in Power history at the time he hurled them, but Dario Agrazal broke that record a year later after he posted 150.0 stanzas.
Speaking of pitching, Yeudy Garcia had himself quite the year as well, producing the league’s best ERA (2.10), which also happens to be the third-best all-time mark in CWV SAL history. And yes, that number, along with his second-most wins (12) and BAA (.204), third-lowest WHIP (1.07) and fifth-most strikeouts (112) in the SAL, earned him both Midseason and Postseason All-Star nods. Good for Garcia, but man, that’s still a tough break for Coley. Yep, not letting it go.
The other Midseason All-Stars for West Virginia that season were: Elvis Escobar (who later returned to the Power as a pitcher in 2018), Lopez and Chase Simpson, while Suchy joined Garcia as the pair of Postseason honorees for the Power. Interestingly enough, none of these players have made the big leagues, while 12 others from the 2015 squad have. Baseball is beautifully ironic, isn’t it.
Sticking on the mound, Tarpley had himself a dandy of a season too, registering a 2.48 ERA, the fourth-best mark in Power history (and 4th-best in the SAL that year). He also boasted the fifth-most wins (11), seventh-lowest BAA (.241) and WHIP (1.15) and ninth-most strikeouts (105) in the SAL that season. Nope, he wasn’t an All-Star either…. I give up.
One final guy on the bump to delve into is Neumann. Like Garcia, Neumann also holds a top spot in Power history, as he converted 17 of his 19 save opportunities in 2015, setting the club’s new single-season mark. That number, however, was not tops in the SAL that season, as Josh Michalec posted a whopping 30 saves for the Asheville Tourists that year.
Last, but certainly not least, we turn to the base paths and Polo. The Colombia native actually spent two years with the Power and is remembered more for his 2016 campaign than the 2015 one, but he was quite the speedster in his first year with West Virginia. Polo swiped 46 bases in 59 tries that year, an eye-popping 78 percent success rate. That’s insane. But, if you’ve caught on to the trend yet, you’d know that he wasn’t the league leader in the SAL that year. In fact, he was tied for fourth. Some guy you probably know named Yoan Moncada swiped 49 (49-of-52, which, by the way, came in his professional debut season with the Greenville Drive), while Johneshwy Fargas stole 59 bags for the Augusta GreenJackets and Jorge Mateo went 71-for-86 (83% success rate) with the Charleston RiverDogs. Polo’s mark does sit fourth all-time in CWV SAL history, however.
One last fun fact: Montana DuRapau is one of two players in Power history that is named after a state. The other: Utah Jones, who played for us this past season.
Just four more years to go! Stay tuned for the 2016 season breakdown tomorrow!
