
The "Nomadic" IronPIgs 2015 season starts next Sunday with a road game in Exeter against the Seacoast Braves, who finished fourth last year with an 8-5 record, while the 'Pigs finished last with 1-12 record in their inaugural season in the New Hampshire Baseball League.
The 2015 IronPigs are still searching for a home field, but have added alot of new faces. There was alot of turnover this year with the 50+ IronPigs moving to the New England Legends Division (50+) to join the 50+ Manchester Eagles. The IronPigs did welcome several younger Eagles into the fold; many of whom played for the 2014 Fall Ball Championship team.
The club is also under new management as Fall Ball Coach Aaron Wovkanech takes over the helm full-time after Fred Royer elected to move up the 50's Legends Division. Royer will still play part-time as an emergency player.
As far as the roster, the Pigs got alot younger and added alot of new talent. The players coming over from Manchester Eagles are OF/P Euclides Pichardo, 3B/OF Manuel Castro and catcher John Rigal, who replaces former catcher Ken Lumb, who moved up to the 50+ Legends Division. Pichardo and Rigal played on the Fall Ball Championshp team.
The left-over IronPIgs include: 1B/P Rick Berry, P/OF Pete Soens (captain), IF Frank Trinidad (captain), IF/C Carlos Colon and utility player/pitcher Aaron Wovkanech (manager). OF/P's Derek Levine and John Lano will be back on a part-time basis and SS Paul LeCain may miss the year due to prior commitments.
From outside the Eagles additions and IronPigs' "leftovers", the 'Pigs added infielder Jan Gonsalves and pitcher/infielder Wade Ungaro, who both sat out last season for not meeting the age requirement in 2014.
Steve Charron comes over from the Granite State Tigers (GSBL/Fall Ball to man the corner positions in the infield and Julian "Colombia" Villarreal was brought in to shore up the short stop/middle of order hitter that was previously occupied by LeCain.
Other additions include 2B/OF John Kaley, IF Randy Dickens and OF Jim Atkinson, who comes over from the recently defunct-Merrimack Giants. The 'Pigs also have a few other players in "contract talks".
The IronPIgs 2015 draft picks include C/P Jesus Figueroa and catcher Brett Flanders.