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2017 Team Recap: Rolling Prairie's Emery's Army
2017 marked the return of one of ORWBL's most famous franchises in Emery's Army. After a 1 year hiatus, the Army decided to come out of retirement and get back out on the field.
The time off may have impacted the slow start as the Army started the season with 6 consecutive losses. A noticeable change in management was the decision to name Jake Lawrence as the Manager. Eric Johnson had been the skipper in all previous 7 seasons that the Army had competed in.
Lawrence led the team to an 11-19 record as the Army failed to have a winning season for only the 3rd time in the franchise's 8 year history.
Lawrence certainly did what he could at the plate as he put together an All Star caliber season along with Ryan Murphy. While we will never know the stats they compiled for the entire season, Lawrence and Murphy definitely had elite seasons at the plate.
The lack of depth proved to be costly for the Army as they started to run out of guys towards the end of the season. The highlight of the season came in the Wild Card Round in which EA captured their first playoff victory since 2015 with a win over the Taco Punchers.
EA's first season back in the league ended in the NLDS as they were swept by the Granger Panthers 2-0.
Manager Jake Lawrence announced at the end of the season that Emery's Army would be back in 2018 which leaves EA fans with plenty of hope.
With Maple City ending their World Series drought in August, Emery's Army is now all alone as the longest tenured ORWBL team without a World Series Championship to their name. EA heads into the offseason likely looking to find some more depth in hopes of pursuing their 1st ORWBL Championship.
