Opening Night Interview: Jesus Azuaje

It’s finally here…the Opening Night of the 75th season of Clinton Baseball At Riverview Stadium/Alliant Energy Field.  The LumberKings open their West Division Title defense against some familiar foes wearing different uniforms.  They didn’t face the Burlington Bees in last year’s playoffs, but they did take on Bees’ manager Aaron Niekula, his staff and several returning players from last year’s Kane County club in the West Division Championship Series.

Interim manager Jesus Azuaje wasn’t on the Clinton staff last year, but he’s a familiar face all the same.  Azuaje was the hitting coach here in 2009 under manager Scott Steinmann.  As I’ve mentioned, he’ll be leading the team while manager Eddie Menchaca waits for his second child to be born in Phoenix.  For the first two weeks, we’ll be in Azuaje’s capable hands.

My first pregame interview of the year naturally is with the skipper.  Jesus and I talk about his interim role, the 12 returning players from last year’s squad including Matt Cerione, Mickey Wiswall and Tim Morris, exciting new prospects like Marcus Littlewood and Ramon Morla, tonight’s Opening Night start for right-hander Forrest Snow and more.

The new WordPress setup for MLBlogs won’t let me host MP3′s yet, but hopefully this works… 

Listen Here:  Azuaje Interview 4.7.11

Tonight’s Game Notes:  4.7.11 kingsnotes

Lineups:

Burlington (0-0):  Tyreace House/CF, Nino Leyja/2B, Douglas Landaeta/LF, Tony Thompson/3B, A.J. Kirby-Jones/1B, Jose Rivero/DH, Yordy Cabrera/SS, Royce Consigli/RF, John Nester/C, Seth Frankoff/RHP

LumberKings (0-0):  Matt Cerione/CF, Ramon Morla/3B, Mickey Wiswall/LF, Stefen Romero/DH, Tim Morris/1B, Steven Baron/C, Julio Morban/RF, Marcus Littlewood/SS, Anthony Phillips/2B, Forrest Snow/RHP

First pitch is at 6:30, listen online at 1390kcln.com!

-DL