For the Angels organization, winning the right way is what matters. They emphasize the little things that breed winners, and the attitude has trickled its way down from the top.
Coach Kotchman reinforced the idea after last week’s series-opening win against division rival Ogden.
“It has to do with players taking their ground balls and their infield work seriously,” Kotchman said. “Then when game time comes, it just happens naturally and you know what to do. That is handed down from the top of the organization all the way down. ‘Do what it takes to win.’”
It showed after the Owlz’ 23-1 win over Casper in the second game of the year, when Taylor Lindsey (4-for-5, 4 RBI) chose to focus on the team over his own performance.
“It’s all about winning,” Lindsey said. “If I do well then hopefully it’s helping the team, but that’s the goal is just to win.”
Ditto for right-fielder Ryan Jones after reaching first on an error that would have ended the bottom of the ninth tied at 2-2, but instead brought home Jarrod Parks for the game-winning run.
“All I can say is I hit the ball and it seemed like it would never get there,” Jones said. “Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. As long as we win, it’s all good.”
It worked, with the Owlz winning six of their first seven while putting up some impressive numbers. They don’t just do it with established talent.
After their 3-2 win over the Raptors, Ryan Jones said, “We come from all kinds of spectrums. We come from free agents all the way out to first-rounders. We all mesh well. You can’t win [with] a team that doesn’t mesh.”
In that game, the winning combination in the bottom of the ninth included Taylor Lindsey (first round), Kaleb Cowart (first round), Francis Larson (22nd round), Jarrod Parks (24th round), and Ryan Jones (free agent).
Throw in an injured Frazier Hall (16th round), and this jumbled mix of top prospects and pleasant surprises makes for an exciting young team that has put together an explosive start to this season. The Owlz boast three of the league’s top overall batters in Parks, Cowart, and Hall, and Cowart led the league in hits (20 in 11 games) going into Friday’s match against Ogden.
The Owlz pitching staff has been a patchwork of team effort. There have been stellar performances, including PJ Jang’s one-hit shutout through six innings and Logan Odom’s one-hit shutout through five innings.
Left-hander Aaron Meade had 14 strikeouts through his first 12 innings pitched. Junior Carlin’s brief appearance drew high praise from Kotchman.
“What he is great at is that changeup,” Kotchman said. “He was throwing in the upper 80’s, lower 90’s, but he can throw that changeup at any time and in any count. Our other pitchers should ask him how to throw it it’s that good.”
The icing on the cake has been the outstanding play by both the infield and outfield. Whenever pitchers have gotten in a jam, Orem has found a way to turn a double play, snag a ranging infield ball to take away a hit, or make a diving catch in the alley to rob the batter of an extra base hit.
“Those aren’t easy plays,” Kotchman said. “They’re not great plays, but they are plays that need to be made, and those are outs and outs are hard to get.”
The result has rewarded fans in Orem for their strong attendance to start the year. 6,000-plus filled the 5,000 seat stadium on opening day and they have averaged over 3,000 since, good enough for third in the league.
