2021 Roswell Invaders Season Recap - An Unexpected Playoff Berth Turns Into a Run to the Pecos League Championship Series

The 2021 Roswell Invaders came extraordinarily close to winning a championship in a postseason they weren't originally supposed to be part of. That is what makes the 2021 season one of the strangest chapters in Roswell franchise history.

When the regular playoff field was determined, the Invaders had not qualified and their season was supposed to be over. But 2021 was still being played under the unusual circumstances created by the COVID era, and events hundreds of miles away in California dramatically altered Roswell's season. The Bakersfield Train Robbers experienced a COVID outbreak that affected the Pecos League playoff structure, and as a result the league expanded the Mountain Division playoff field to five teams. Roswell became the fifth team and suddenly had another life. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

Under first-year player-manager Lance Myers, the Invaders took full advantage of that opportunity. Roswell eliminated the Alpine Cowboys and then the Garden City Wind, and suddenly a team that hadn't originally qualified for the postseason was playing the Tucson Saguaros for the Pecos League Championship.

The championship series went the full five games. Roswell came painfully close, but in the end Tucson survived and repeated as Pecos League champion. For Roswell, it was a heartbreaking ending to an improbable run and the beginning of what would become the Lance Myers era.

View the complete Roswell Invaders franchise history.

Baseball Returns to Roswell After the COVID Season

The 2021 season represented a return to something closer to normal for the Pecos League. The previous year had been unlike anything in league history. Because of COVID restrictions in 2020, the Pecos League had been unable to play its traditional schedule in its regular cities with fans. Instead, the entire shortened 2020 season was played in Houston, Texas.

Tucson dominated that unusual season, finishing 26-4 and winning the championship, while Roswell went 10-19. In 2021, the Invaders returned to Joe Bauman Stadium and began rebuilding their traditional summer operation.

The team was scheduled for 62 games, including 27 home games and 35 road games. The road-heavy schedule included 15 scheduled games at Tucson and significant travel throughout the Mountain Division.

There was also a new manager. Lance Myers took control of the Invaders as a player-manager.

View Roswell's original 2021 schedule announcement.

Lance Myers Takes Over in Roswell

Myers arrived in Roswell after establishing himself as one of the recognizable players in the Pecos League. He had previously played for the Alpine Cowboys from 2017 through 2019 and had been part of Alpine's 2019 Pecos League Championship team. In 2020, Myers played for the Salina Stockade during the league's Houston-based season.

For 2021, he moved into management while continuing to play every day. It was his first season managing Roswell, and he would ultimately finish the regular season with a 30-26 managerial record.

Myers was also one of Roswell's best offensive players. He played 53 games and hit .373 with 76 hits in 204 at-bats. He scored 59 runs, drove in 59 and drew 42 walks. His .488 on-base percentage made him an important piece of the Roswell lineup throughout the summer.

View Lance Myers' Pecos League managerial record.

Bret Leiferman Powers the Offense

Bret Leiferman put together the biggest offensive season on the 2021 Invaders. Leiferman played 53 games and hit .417, collecting 90 hits in 216 at-bats, including 17 doubles, three triples and 12 home runs.

He drove in a team-high 68 runs and scored 59. His .690 slugging percentage and 1.166 OPS made him the centerpiece of a Roswell offense capable of scoring with anyone in the Mountain Division.

View the complete 2021 Roswell Invaders statistics.

Jakob Schuler Provides More Power

Jakob Schuler was equally dangerous when he was in the lineup. Schuler hit .422 in 36 games, collecting 54 hits in 128 at-bats and 12 home runs, tying Leiferman for the team lead despite playing 17 fewer games.

Schuler drove in 40 runs and posted an extraordinary .543 on-base percentage and .758 slugging percentage. His 1.301 OPS was one of the strongest marks on the roster.

Robert Morosetti and Cole Chambers Add Depth

Robert Morosetti played 51 games and hit .365, collecting 69 hits, scoring 41 runs and driving in 48. Cole Chambers played 50 games and hit .330 with 60 hits, 12 doubles, three triples and six home runs while driving in 42.

Roswell also received enormous speed from the bottom and middle portions of the lineup. Colton Adams stole 31 bases and scored a team-high 70 runs. Austin Thurman stole 36 bases and scored 54 runs.

The Invaders could hit for power, reach base and run. That combination made the lineup dangerous throughout the season.

View Roswell's complete 2021 hitting statistics.

The Pitching Staff Was a Different Story

The offense helped Roswell win 30 games, but the pitching staff frequently made those victories difficult. The Invaders finished the regular season with a team ERA around 7.94.

Carter Coats supplied the most innings, throwing 63 innings over 11 starts and finishing 4-5 with a 7.57 ERA. Josh Smith went 3-3 while striking out 64 hitters in 54 innings. Ashton Holdridge finished 2-4 with a 10.02 ERA, while Easton Barnes went 4-4 with a 9.58 ERA.

There were also some strong individual performances. Ian Concevitch went 4-1 while striking out 46 hitters in 43.1 innings. Jonathan Fleckenstein went 3-1 with a 3.92 ERA in 15 appearances and struck out 43 hitters in 36.2 innings.

Anthony Moore joined Roswell late and was excellent in limited regular-season action, allowing only one earned run over 11 innings for a 0.81 ERA. Troy Whitty did not allow an earned run in five appearances and recorded three saves.

But overall, Roswell had to score a lot of runs to win consistently.

View the complete 2021 Roswell pitching statistics.

A Brutal Mountain South Race

Roswell competed in the Mountain South with Tucson, Alpine and Santa Fe. Tucson finished 32-23, Alpine went 30-25, Roswell finished 30-26 and Santa Fe finished 27-28.

Under the original playoff structure, Roswell's third-place finish in the Mountain South wasn't enough. The Invaders had won 30 games and finished above .500, but they had not qualified for the postseason.

The season appeared finished.

View the official 2021 Pecos League standings and playoff records.

Then Bakersfield's COVID Outbreak Changed Everything

The Pacific Division had been dealing with a much different baseball environment because of the continuing impact of COVID restrictions in California. The Bakersfield Train Robbers had been dominant when they were able to play, finishing 33-5.

But Bakersfield experienced a COVID outbreak at the worst possible time. The outbreak affected the Pecos League postseason structure, and the league ultimately added another playoff position in the Mountain Division.

Instead of Roswell's season ending after the regular season, five Mountain Division teams would now participate in the postseason. Roswell was the fifth.

The official Invaders franchise history is direct about what happened: Roswell initially did not qualify for the playoffs, but Bakersfield's COVID outbreak resulted in an additional Mountain Division playoff spot and the Invaders received it.

Roswell had been eliminated. Now the Invaders had another chance.

Read the official Roswell Invaders history of the 2021 season.

The Fifth Seed Gets Another Life

A playoff berth created by extraordinary circumstances could easily have become little more than a footnote. Roswell could have entered the playoffs as the final team, lost its first series and gone home.

Instead, Myers and the Invaders completely changed the story of their season. The fifth seed began winning.

The players understood that everything from that point forward was essentially bonus baseball. Roswell had nothing to lose, and that made the Invaders dangerous.

First Round - Roswell Eliminates Alpine

The Invaders' first opponent was extremely familiar. The Alpine Cowboys had finished ahead of Roswell in the Mountain South standings and had also given the Invaders problems throughout the regular season.

Alpine had defeated Roswell 14-7 and 4-2 in early June. Later that month, Alpine beat Roswell 20-10 and 17-7. The Cowboys appeared to have every reason to believe they could eliminate the fifth-seeded Invaders.

But the postseason became a different season. Roswell defeated Alpine and advanced. The team that had not originally made the playoffs had now eliminated one of the teams that had.

View Roswell's official account of the 2021 playoff run.

Next Up - Garden City

Roswell's next opponent was the Garden City Wind. Garden City had finished 33-22 in the Mountain North and had been one of the stronger teams in the division.

Again, Roswell entered as the unlikely team. Again, it didn't matter.

The Invaders defeated Garden City and advanced. Two playoff opponents were gone, and Roswell was now Mountain Division Champion.

Think about where the Invaders had been only days earlier. Their season had supposedly ended without a playoff berth. Now they had eliminated Alpine and Garden City and were preparing to play for the championship of the entire Pecos League.

The Most Unlikely Pecos League Finalist

Roswell's path to the championship series was completely unconventional. The Invaders hadn't won their division during the regular season and hadn't even originally qualified for the playoffs. They entered only because the postseason format was altered after Bakersfield's COVID outbreak.

But once the door opened, Roswell kept walking through it. Alpine couldn't stop them. Garden City couldn't stop them.

Only one team remained.

The Tucson Saguaros.

Roswell vs. Tucson for the Pecos League Championship

The championship matchup was fitting. Tucson had been one of the strongest franchises in the Pecos League and entered the postseason as the defending champion. The Saguaros had also finished ahead of Roswell in the Mountain South standings.

Now the division rivals would decide the championship. The best-of-five Pecos League Championship Series was played at Amphitheater High School in Tucson.

Roswell entered with nothing to lose. Tucson entered attempting to become the first back-to-back champion in Pecos League history.

The series went the distance.

Five Games for a Championship

Roswell didn't simply reach the finals and disappear. The Invaders pushed Tucson through all five games.

One of the middle games was decided by only a single run. Roswell kept answering every time it appeared Tucson might take control of the series.

The team that wasn't originally in the playoff bracket now stood one victory away from winning the entire Pecos League.

That was how close the Invaders came.

The championship ultimately went to Tucson. The Saguaros won the series three games to two, and Roswell's remarkable run was over.

View the official 2021 Pecos League playoffs and championship results.

Tucson Repeats as Champion

By defeating Roswell, Tucson completed its second consecutive championship season and became the first back-to-back champion in Pecos League history.

For Tucson, it was a historic accomplishment. For Roswell, it was heartbreaking.

The Invaders had come too far for merely reaching the championship series to feel satisfying in the moment. They had gone from being outside the playoffs to coming within one victory of winning the league.

But there was also something important being built in Roswell.

The Beginning of the Lance Myers Era

The 2021 season established Lance Myers as a successful Pecos League manager almost immediately. His first Roswell team went 30-26, while Myers himself hit .373, scored 59 runs, drove in 59 and drew 42 walks.

Once Roswell unexpectedly entered the postseason, his team became extraordinarily difficult to eliminate. The Invaders defeated Alpine, defeated Garden City and then pushed Tucson to Game 5 of the championship series.

It established something that would define the Myers-era Invaders: their regular-season position didn't necessarily matter once they got into the playoffs. Roswell could become an entirely different team in the postseason.

That lesson would become even more important one year later.

2021 Roswell Invaders - By the Numbers

Regular Season Record: 30-26
Winning Percentage: .536
Mountain South Finish: Third Place
Original Playoff Status: Did Not Qualify
Adjusted Playoff Seed: Fifth Mountain Division Playoff Team
First Round: Defeated Alpine Cowboys
Mountain Division: Defeated Garden City Wind
Pecos League Championship Series: Lost to Tucson Saguaros, 3 games to 2

Bret Leiferman: .417 AVG, 90 H, 12 HR, 68 RBI
Jakob Schuler: .422 AVG, 12 HR, 40 RBI, 1.301 OPS
Lance Myers: .373 AVG, 59 R, 59 RBI, 42 BB
Robert Morosetti: .365 AVG, 69 H, 48 RBI
Cole Chambers: .330 AVG, 12 2B, 6 HR, 42 RBI
Colton Adams: 70 R, 31 SB, 53 BB
Austin Thurman: 54 R, 36 SB

Jonathan Fleckenstein: 3-1, 3.92 ERA, 43 SO in 36.2 IP
Ian Concevitch: 4-1, 46 SO in 43.1 IP
Anthony Moore: 1-0, 0.81 ERA in 11 IP
Carter Coats: 63 IP, 60 SO

View complete 2021 Roswell Invaders statistics.

From Eliminated to One Win Away

The easiest way to understand the 2021 Roswell Invaders is to remember where their season stood when the regular schedule ended.

They were done.

Under the original postseason structure, Roswell had not made the playoffs. There would have been no Alpine series, no Garden City series and no Pecos League Championship Series.

Then Bakersfield's COVID outbreak changed the postseason landscape. The Mountain Division received a fifth playoff position, and Roswell got it.

That single change gave the Invaders an opportunity they would not waste. They beat Alpine, beat Garden City, became Mountain Division Champions and pushed Tucson through five games before finally losing the Pecos League Championship Series.

The 30-26 regular-season record therefore tells only a small part of the story. The real story was what happened after Roswell thought its season had ended.

The COVID-era playoff adjustment gave the Invaders another chance.

Lance Myers and the Invaders turned that chance into a trip to the Pecos League Finals.

They came up one victory short, but the disappointment of losing to Tucson would not disappear. Roswell would remember it. Myers would remember it.

And when the Invaders returned to the Pecos League Championship Series against Tucson in 2022, they would have an opportunity to finish what the 2021 team had started.