The Yard Goats Make the Playoffs -- Nate Shearer

This piece is the writing of Nate Shearer, and will be changed to properly give him credit when technical issues are resolved.

For the first time since the New Britain Rock Cats made the minor league baseball playoffs back in 2016 the Hartford Yard Goats are making their first ever appearance as part of the
Colorado Rockies. The team was led by top 100 prospect Zac Veen and top 20 pitcher
Chase Dollander. Other key standouts being Ryan Ritter who hit the homerun to give the
Yard goats the win over the Harrisburg Senators to win the first half the regular season clinching them a spot in the playoffs.

On Sunday September 8th, the Hartford Yard Goats finished their home regular season with a loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate Altoona Curves. The Hartford Yard Goats split the series against the curves with a 3-3 record during the homestand. The Yard Goats started their final home season game off slow as rehabbing starting pitcher Antonio Senzetela gave up 4 early with no help from his defense. Following the early lead the Curves were able to cruise a win. Yard Goats third baseman Antonio Senzatela allowed 5 runs on 5 hits in three and two thirds innings of work, while only giving up a single walk and homerun he was also able to strike out 5. It is needless to say the Yard Goats will not be looking to Senzatela to start games in this upcoming postseason appearance. Although the Yard Goats did lose the final home season gamed of the regular season they didn’t go down without a fight, the final score was 9-5 with their best offensive inning being in the 8th inning where the Yard
Goats were able to put up 2 runs.

The Yard Goats did finish the season on a positive note winning 6 of their last 12 games including 3 in a row against the Akron RubberDucks. The Yard Goats also finished the regular season hot putting up 13 runs in 3 games. Safe to say the bats were on fire.

Looking ahead into the playo<s the Yardgoats start their first ever playoff game tonight night against the New York Yankee affiliate the Somerset Patriots.

The Yard Goats finished the regular season with a record of 76-60