Here's a quick summary how the Hilldales did in the first two weeks or so of my NNL Replay, in similar format as for the Chicago Giants and the Lincoln Giants.
Hilldale Daisies
How the season went so far
With a two game sweep of their ECL rivals, the Grays, the Hilldales move up to an 8-6 record and tie the lead in the ECL with the Lincoln Giants.
It was quite a bit of a comeback to get there. They started the season 0-3, being swept by the Lincoln Giants in the first three game series of the season. A 2-1 series win vs Kansas City and a two game series split against the Grays brought them to 3-5, but taking three out of four against the Chicago Giants balanced the season opening sweep, and the two game sweep of the Grays brought them above .500 for the first time this season.
In total, the season series vs the ECL co-leads from Chicago stands at 3-4, and the intra-league series against the Grays at 3-1. Against the NNL, they are up 2-1 against the Monarchs, but have yet to play any other inter-league games.
Individual performances
Strong hitting results make up for mediocre pitching so far.
Seven players have played in all 14 games so far (Bingo de Moss is the only odd man out with 13 games played). Biz Mackey leads the pack with .414/.453/.621, two homers and 12 RBI. Wells has hit .373/.449/.610 with 3 homers and 12 RBIs, and Pete Hill and Cristobal Torriente (with a rather disappointing .220/..281/.322) are the only regulars with a batting average below .300.
With a team ERA of 5.05 the Hilldales are kind of middle of the road for this environment. Their starting rotation has ten complete games so far, with Rube Currie (1-0, one save) finishing the rest. Number three starter Eggie Hensley (2-0) has the best ERA with 2.42 over 26 innings so far, followed by Slim Jones (2-1) with an ERA of 3.27 over 16 innings (three starts).
Fielding looks great so far, with only 7 errors in 14 games and five everyday players (Mackey, Black, Pennington, Hill and Torriente) with spotless records so far.
What's next
The Hilldales will next catch up on inter-league with games against St. Louis and back-to-back home and away series against Chicago, with two games against their league rivals from New York in between. We will see whether they can keep up with the Lincoln Giants who are also facing several series against NNL opponents.
Trading / acquisition needs
No major gaps so far - there is a stable 8 man starting lineup, a stable 5 man rotation and a reliever. As long as none of these starters get seriously injured, the Hilldales could just go on playing (similar to the Lincoln Giants).
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