Evening State Sports Briefs: Brewers lead majors in base running mistakes

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The Milwaukee Brewers lead the Majors this season in the number of mistakes while running the bases. According to the website Baseball-Reference.com, Milwaukee had 53 outs on the base paths as of Saturday – and they added two more in yesterday’s 2-1 loss at San Francisco.

The number does not include force plays, pick-offs, or outs while caught stealing. They do include things like a double play in the second inning yesterday, in which Yuniesky Betancourt was caught off first after a fly ball by Jonathan Lucroy. They also include Nyjer Morgan’s mistake in the fifth, when he was thrown out while trying to take third base on a low pitch that Giants’ catcher Chris Stewart couldn’t grab right away. Manager Ron Roenicke said it was not the smartest play in the world – but in general, the Brewers’ skipper says he likes how aggressive his team has been on the bases. As for the high number of outs, Roenicke says it’s quote, “acceptable for what we’re trying to do.” His former team, the Angels of Anaheim, lead the American League with 46 outs on the bases. And Roenicke promised the same type of aggressive base-running when he took the Milwaukee job this past winter. It’s nearly a complete reversal of former manager Ken Macha’s philosophy. He used to ban aggressive base-running after a runner got thrown out. Macha often played what’s known as “station-to-station” baseball. Roenicke says some teams are successful at it but quote, “I don’t think that’s the way to go about things.” The Brewers are off today. They’ll host the Chicago Cubs tomorrow night.

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Teams in the Class-“A” Midwest League will close out their inter-divisional contests this evening. The Wisconsin Timber Rattlers will play at Great Lakes one last time, after the Loons beat them 5-1 in Michigan yesterday. The Beloit Snappers will wrap up their series at Lansing, after a 6-4 Snapper loss on Sunday. The league is off tomorrow – and the teams will then resume facing opponents in their own divisions on Wednesday. Beloit is tied with Clinton for third place in the West. Both are 14-15 for the second half, three games in back of first-place Kane County. The Timber Rattlers are 12-and-17, five games off the pace. Dayton leads the East by two games over Lansing. Kane County plays at South Bend tonight. Clinton is at West Michigan. Dayton hosts Burlington. Fort Wayne entertains Quad Cities. Lake County is at home against Cedar Rapids. And Peoria plays at Bowling Green.

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University of Wisconsin athlete Deanna Latham is bringing home a bronze medal from the Pan Am Junior track-and-field meet at Miramar, Florida. Latham, who will be a sophomore this fall, closed out the heptathlon yesterday by finishing third. She had a career-high of 52-hundred-77 points. Tamara Souza of Brazil won the event with 54-hundred-77 points. Also at the meet, UW freshman Alex Thompson placed sixth in the men’s discus.

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Four University of Wisconsin women’s hockey players will try out for Canada’s Under-22 national development team. Brittany Haverstock, Saige Pacholok, and Stefanie McKeough are among 12 defensemen invited – and the Badgers’ Carolyne Prevost is one of 24 forwards taking part. The try-out camp will take place August seventh-through-16th in Rockland, Ontario. A final Canadian squad will then be chosen to compete in the MLP Cup next January in Germany. Three of the Badgers – Haverstock, Prevost, and McKeough – won gold medals for their home country in last year’s MLP tournament in Switzerland.

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