--------------------| PADRES TIMELINE |--------------------
2007
The inaugural season. The name "Proctor Padres" was chosen in honor of Proctor's 1980s-era amateur team. The Spooner Cardinals spoiled Opening Day at Terry Egerdahl Memorial Field with a pair of wins on May 5. The club's first victory came on the next date as the Padres defeated the Superior Lakers by a score of 8-7 on May 13. The Padres' first Upper 13 League win was also against the Superior Lakers, when Paul Michelizzi's walk-off home run capped a five-run seventh-inning rally to give Proctor a 6-4 edge in the second game of a doubleheader on June 10. The Padres went on to win three more league games, defeating the Oulu Blue Jays 7-1 on June 16, Ashland C&S Design 4-0 on July 29, and the Port Wing Boilers 11-1 on Aug. 4. Steve Halvorson batted .328 and late-season addition Nick Koubsky recorded three wins and a 1.32 ERA in six pitching appearances to lead the club. Koubsky allowed just one earned run in three complete game victories.
2008
The Padres finished the regular season with a 7-4 league record and tied with the Bayside Vipers for third place in the Upper 13 League. Proctor handed eventual league champion Oulu its only league loss of the season on July 4, with a 4-2 victory behind the stellar pitching and clutch hitting of Kyle Hall. The Padres made their first appearance in the WBA Playoffs when they faced the Brill Millers at Haugen, Wis., on Aug. 9. Proctor scored five first-inning runs which included a grand slam by Bob Baxton and held a lead into the seventh inning, but eventually lost by an 8-5 score. Nick Koubsky led the team with a .275 batting average. Anthony Bush recorded three wins and a 2.90 ERA and Hall had two wins and a 1.64 ERA.
2009
Proctor lost five starters from the 2008 campaign, all of which were also pitchers. Despite having three starters with batting averages above .300 (James Ostrander .348, Corey Pavlich .308, Dan Solarz .302), the Padres struggled to score runs, averaging 3.03 runs per game. The lone win of the season came on July 19 at Port Wing, when Anthony Bush pitched a complete game seven-hitter for a 5-2 victory. Bush set single-season team pitching records for games, games started, innings pitched and strikeouts. Dan Solarz led the club with a .302 batting average.
2010
The Padres began a new era as they moved from Proctor's Terry Egerdahl Memorial Field to Bulldog Park at the University of Minnesota Duluth. The Padres finished third in the Upper 13 League West Division behind Superior and Oulu, and tied the club record for wins in a season (nine). The season was highlighted by a six-game winning streak from July 7-July 18, which included four league games. Noah Hobbs led the club with a .294 batting average, and Mike Gerard broke the club's single-season record with a .463 on-base percentage. Pitcher Anthony Bush set new club single-season records with 13 games started, 88.1 innings pitched, 58 strikeouts, and 1.73 walks per nine innings pitched. Bush and rookie Kevin Schubert led the club with three wins each. Bob Baxton had a club-leading 2.78 ERA.
2011
To reflect the club's 2010 move to UMD's Bulldog Park, the Proctor Padres became the Duluth Padres in 2011. The Padres placed sixth out of eight teams in the Upper 13 League, with a 5-9 league record. The 2011 edition set a new club record of 12 wins, and was 12-19 overall. The team won its first four games of the season, including the first win against the Ashland Merchants in club history, but a six-game losing streak to conclude the season dashed any hopes for the club's first winning season. Bob Eastman set a new single-season club record for hits, with 30, and pitcher Chris Vendela set new single-season club records for wins (4) and strikeouts (86). Matt Chruscielski led the team in batting (.303) and slugging (.408). Keith Gunderson, the club's Rookie of the Year Award winner, had a team-leading 2.90 ERA.
2012
In the club's most successful season to date, the Padres qualified for the WBA Playoffs by finishing in third place in the Upper 13 League. The Padres were 8-6 in league play, a club record for league wins in a season. The 2012 squad tied the club record of 12 wins (set in 2011), and had the best W-L percentage in club history, at .444. A loss to the Whittlesey Reds by a score of 12-8 in the first round of the WBA Playoffs at Rib Lake on Aug. 11 concluded the season. While Matt Chruscielski set a new club record with a .418 slugging percentage, it was the "year of the pitcher" for the Padres. Pitchers Anthony Bush and Jesse Olson shared both team MVP and Cy Young Award honors. Both had five wins, breaking the previous club record of four. Bush had a 2.36 ERA and Olson's was 2.51. Olson, the club's rookie of the year, set new single-season club records for pitching appearances (15) and complete games (6). Bush surpassed 20 career wins, 500 career innings pitched, and 300 career strikeouts in 2012. Corey Pavlich became the first player to reach 100 career games played as a member of the Padres.
