COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. — The West Michigan Whitecaps are scoring runs at an incredible pace this season.
Since 2005, West Michigan has not finished higher than third in the Midwest League in runs scored, entering play on Tuesday, the 'Caps were leading the league in that department.
"We got a lot of really good hitters on this team," Whitecaps shortstop Trei Cruz said. "We can hit, credit to CJ Wamsley our hitting coach who does a lot of work with us every single day getting our approaches right, getting our mind right and obviously our swing right and honestly everyone has been able to stick to their plan and be really disciplined and a lot of good team at bats."
At 441 runs scored through the first 81 games, West Michigan is on pace to score 762 runs. 693 in 2009 is the best total in the last 17 seasons.
"Being able to do damage like CJ, our hitting coach says, be the kind of hitter that the situation calls for," Whitecaps catcher Josh Crouch said. "If we get a guy on second base, the next guy has got to get him over and the next guy after that has got to get him in. I think we've been doing a really good job overall, one through nine, of doing that."
One reason they have been able to score so many runs in the ability to take a walk.
Four West Michigan players are in the top 15 in total walks drawn this season and all have a walk rate of 15% or higher, which is excellent.
Cruz leads the team with 58 free passes.
"That is part of my game is getting on base and stealing bags and giving my teammates opportunities to get RBIs and score me in," Cruz said. "That is something important to me and I want to continue to do that during my career."
The Whitecaps beat visiting Wisconsin 1-0 on a Jake Holton RBI single in the bottom of the ninth inning Tuesday in the first of a six game series at LMCU ballpark.
