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2023 Roswell Invaders Season Recap - Defending Champions Collapse and Miss the Playoffs for the First Time
The 2023 Roswell Invaders entered the season in a position few Pecos League teams ever experience. They were defending champions after winning the 2022 Pecos League Championship, giving the franchise its fourth league title and reinforcing its position as one of the most successful organizations in Pecos League history.
Roswell returned in 2023 expecting to contend again, and for almost the entire month of June the Invaders looked exactly like a championship team. Roswell started the season 18-3 and sat in first place in the Mountain Division through June 24.
Then everything changed. From June 25 through the end of the season, the Invaders went only 11-20. They struggled badly against the teams they needed to beat most, finishing 2-9 against Tucson and 4-7 against Garden City. By the time the season ended, Roswell had fallen completely out of the playoff field.
For the first time in the history of the Roswell Invaders, there would be no postseason baseball. The defending Pecos League champions finished 29-23 and went home. It was one of the strangest seasons in franchise history - a team that looked dominant for the first month and then watched its championship defense unravel over the final five weeks.
Expectations were understandably high entering 2023. The previous summer, Roswell had finished only fourth in the Mountain Division during the regular season but became a completely different team in the playoffs. The Invaders defeated Garden City in the opening round, advanced through the Mountain Division playoffs and eventually won the Pecos League Championship.
It was Roswell's fourth league title, joining championships from 2011, 2013 and 2015. That made the Invaders the most decorated franchise in Pecos League history at the time.
Manager Lance Myers returned for another season after leading Roswell to the championship. Myers had been with Roswell since 2021 as a player-manager and had already taken the Invaders to consecutive Pecos League Championship Series appearances. In 2021, Roswell reached the championship series before losing to Tucson. In 2022, the Invaders finished the job and won the title.
The natural expectation was that Roswell would contend again in 2023.
Roswell entered 2023 with what the organization described as one of the most favorable schedules in team history. The Invaders were scheduled for 54 games, including 35 at Joe Bauman Stadium and only 19 on the road. That represented the most home games and fewest travel miles the team had experienced.
The Mountain Division consisted of eight teams: Roswell, Alpine, Austin, Blackwell, Garden City, Santa Fe, Trinidad and Tucson. Only four of those eight teams would qualify for the playoffs.
That playoff format would eventually become extremely important. There would be no sixth-place safety net like Roswell would receive one year later in 2024. In 2023, the Invaders had to finish among the top half of the division.
For most of June, that appeared to be no problem whatsoever.
Roswell Opens Like a Champion
The Invaders opened their title defense on May 31 at Joe Bauman Stadium against the Alpine Cowboys and won 7-5. It was the beginning of an extraordinary first month.
Roswell quickly established itself at the top of the Mountain Division and began piling up victories. There were dominating performances, including a 21-0 victory over Austin followed the next night by a 22-2 win over the Weirdos. Roswell also defeated Tucson 9-6, 11-9 and 11-6 during the early portion of the schedule.
By June 24, the Invaders were 18-3. They were in first place and had won more than 85 percent of their games. Everything suggested the defending champions were headed back to the postseason.
June 25 became the dividing line of Roswell's season. Before June 25, the Invaders were 18-3. From June 25 through the end of the regular season, they went 11-20.
The Invaders went from playing .857 baseball to playing .355 baseball. That wasn't a minor slump. It was a complete reversal.
Roswell had built what appeared to be more than enough of a cushion to reach the playoffs, but then that cushion disappeared. Losses began accumulating against the other Mountain Division contenders, particularly Tucson and Garden City.
Roswell's official franchise history ultimately identified those matchups as critical to the collapse. The Invaders finished only 2-9 against Tucson and 4-7 against Garden City. Those were the teams Roswell needed to beat to maintain its playoff position. Instead, those games helped push the defending champions out of the postseason.
Seth Schroeder Has an Outstanding Season
The collapse wasn't caused by a lack of individual offensive performances. Seth Schroeder put together one of the best offensive seasons on the roster.
Schroeder played 50 games and collected 97 hits in 213 at-bats. He scored 69 runs, hit 17 doubles, three triples and two home runs while driving in 44. He drew 32 walks and stole 23 bases. His 97 hits easily led Roswell.
Manager Lance Myers remained an important part of the Roswell lineup while also managing the club. Myers played 44 games and produced 52 hits in 151 at-bats. He scored 42 runs, hit nine doubles, one triple and one home run while driving in 36.
Perhaps most characteristic of Myers' game, he drew 39 walks and was hit by 10 pitches. Myers had long been one of the Pecos League's best players at reaching base, and that continued during his final season in Roswell.
Colton Adams played all 50 games and became one of Roswell's most unusual offensive threats. Adams hit nine home runs and scored 65 runs, but his most remarkable number was 65 walks.
In only 175 at-bats, Adams drew 65 bases on balls and was also hit by 11 pitches. That ability to reach base helped keep the Roswell offense moving throughout the season.
Dillan Smith played 49 games and collected 59 hits. Smith hit eight doubles, two triples and seven home runs while driving in 45 runs. He also stole 15 bases.
The production extended well beyond Roswell's biggest names. Tom Shirai produced 49 hits in 41 games, scored 41 runs and stole 21 bases. Jaden Burns collected 51 hits and drove in 35. Rodney Tennie produced 31 hits and 23 RBIs in only 26 games, while Micah Walker scored 42 runs, hit 10 doubles and drove in 30.
The Invaders had enough offense to win games throughout the season. The problem was that as the summer progressed, Roswell couldn't consistently pair that offense with enough pitching and run prevention to keep pace with the other playoff contenders.
Humberto Vela became the workhorse of the Roswell pitching staff. Vela made 11 appearances and 10 starts, finishing 7-2 with a 5.48 ERA. He threw a team-high 67.1 innings, completed two games and struck out 51 hitters. His seven victories led the Invaders.
Vela also contributed offensively when given the opportunity, collecting eight hits in 31 at-bats.
Ian Concevitch also gave Roswell quality innings. He finished 5-1 with a 4.90 ERA in eight appearances. Concevitch threw 29.1 innings, completed two games and struck out 35 hitters.
Jonathan Fleckenstein appeared in a team-high 19 games and recorded eight saves. He threw 42.2 innings, struck out 34 hitters and provided Myers with one of the club's primary late-inning options.
His 7.59 ERA reflected some of the inconsistency that affected the staff overall, but eight saves were a significant contribution to Roswell's 29 victories.
Behind the leading pitchers, however, Roswell had trouble finding consistent innings. Alvery De Los Santos finished 1-3 with an 8.12 ERA. Alex Bolton went 2-1 with a 9.06 ERA. Anthony Moore went 3-5 with a 7.77 ERA. Rene Ramirez went 3-5 with a 10.90 ERA, while McKinley Scott finished 0-3 with a 12.00 ERA.
Those numbers made it more difficult for Roswell to stop losing streaks once the season began moving in the wrong direction. A championship team can survive a few bad games. Roswell began having bad stretches.
The Defending Champions Lose Control of the Race
The most stunning part of the 2023 season was how quickly Roswell went from controlling its own destiny to fighting for survival. At 18-3, the Invaders appeared certain to reach the postseason. They needed only to play reasonably well for the rest of the summer.
Instead, the losses kept coming. The teams immediately around Roswell in the standings began gaining ground. Tucson became an especially difficult matchup. Garden City became another.
The Invaders' 2-9 record against Tucson and 4-7 record against Garden City proved devastating in a division in which only four teams qualified. Those weren't meaningless losses against distant opponents. Every one of those games directly affected the Mountain Division playoff race.
The Final Weekend
Roswell still had an opportunity late in the season. The Invaders went to Tucson for their final games needing victories and help in the standings.
On July 29, Roswell lost a painful 2-1 game to the Saguaros. The following day produced another one-run loss as Tucson defeated Roswell 2-1 again. The final game lasted more than four hours and ended with Tucson scoring the winning run in the bottom of the ninth.
Roswell finished the season 29-23. A winning record. Twenty-nine victories. And no playoff berth.
The result was historic for all the wrong reasons. Since the Invaders began play, Roswell had always found a way into the Pecos League postseason. Some teams had been dominant regular-season clubs. Others had barely qualified and then become dangerous in the playoffs.
The 2021 and 2022 teams were perfect examples. Roswell didn't dominate either regular season, but once the Invaders entered the postseason they became extraordinarily difficult to eliminate. In 2021, they reached the Pecos League Championship Series. In 2022, they won it.
The 2023 team never received that opportunity. The season ended with the Invaders outside the playoff field for the first time in franchise history.
That fact was particularly difficult to accept because Roswell had started 18-3. This wasn't a team that had been eliminated by a terrible beginning. The Invaders had been in first place. They had a commanding record. Then they gave it away.
2022 vs. 2023 - From Champions to Home for the Playoffs
2022 Regular Season: 27-22 2022 Result: Pecos League Champions
That comparison demonstrates the strange nature of independent baseball postseason races. Roswell actually won two more regular-season games in 2023 than it had in 2022.
But in 2022, the Invaders qualified and then became champions. In 2023, they never got into the tournament.
The difference wasn't simply the number of wins. It was when those wins occurred and who Roswell beat. In 2023, too many of the late-season losses came against the teams competing directly with the Invaders for playoff positions.
The End of the Lance Myers Era in Roswell
The conclusion of the 2023 season also marked the end of an important era for the franchise. Lance Myers would not return as manager of the Roswell Invaders in 2024.
Myers had spent three seasons as Roswell's player-manager from 2021 through 2023. His tenure included two Pecos League Championship Series appearances and the 2022 championship. The Pecos League credited Myers with an 86-71 record during his three seasons in Roswell.
But Myers' history in the league had begun elsewhere. Before Roswell, he had played for the Alpine Cowboys from 2017 through 2019 and had been part of Alpine's 2019 Pecos League Championship team.
After the 2023 season, Myers returned to Alpine. The Cowboys hired him as assistant manager under Sean Persky, reuniting Myers with former Alpine teammates Persky and pitching coach Alejandro Amezquita on the Cowboys' coaching staff.
Roswell also publicly thanked Myers for his three seasons leading the Invaders and recognized his role in the 2022 championship. His time in Roswell had ended with disappointment in 2023, but his overall tenure had included some of the franchise's biggest postseason moments.
Garrett Totty Takes Over for 2024
With Myers returning to Alpine, Roswell decided the organization needed a new direction. On October 17, 2023, the Invaders announced Garrett Totty as the club's manager for the 2024 season.
Totty came to Roswell after managing the Garden City Wind for three seasons. Garden City had qualified for the playoffs in all three seasons under Totty, going 20-16 in 2021, 36-10 in 2022 and 30-20 in 2023. Totty also had history with the Invaders, having previously played in the Pecos League before moving into managing.
Roswell was not simply making a managerial change. The Invaders were preparing for a significant rebuild. The championship core was changing, Myers was gone and the club had just experienced the first playoff miss in franchise history.
A team that had started the previous season 18-3 had somehow finished outside the postseason entirely. Totty would be responsible for building the next version of the Roswell Invaders.
The 2023 season ultimately became much more important than its 29-23 record suggests. It represented the end of one Roswell era and the beginning of another.
The Invaders entered the year as defending Pecos League champions. They started 18-3, led the Mountain Division through June 24 and appeared to be headed toward another postseason run.
Then the entire season slipped away. Roswell went 11-20 down the stretch. The Invaders went 2-9 against Tucson and 4-7 against Garden City. They finished 29-23, and for the first time in team history the Roswell Invaders did not qualify for the Pecos League playoffs.
There were excellent individual performances. Seth Schroeder collected 97 hits and scored 69 runs. Robert Morosetti drove in 57. Colton Adams drew 65 walks and hit nine home runs. Humberto Vela went 7-2, while Edgar Martinez posted a 2.73 ERA and struck out 45 hitters in only 23 innings.
But individual statistics couldn't change the final result. The defending champions were home when the playoffs began.
Lance Myers returned to Alpine. Garrett Totty arrived to take over the Invaders. Roswell entered the winter knowing that simply bringing back the same formula wouldn't be enough.
The Invaders were headed for a total rebuild in 2024.
The 2023 season had started as a championship defense. It ended as the first warning that one of the Pecos League's most successful franchises was entering a very different period in its history.
