Williamsport Crosscutters manager Kenny Thomas high fives a Cutters player after a 4-3 win over Trenton at Bowman Field during the second half season. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Somewhere in Williamsport, in the middle of the night where most people have gone to sleep, Kenny Thomas is thinking.

Maybe it’s about who to start.

Perhaps it’s who to take out of the bullpen first.

It could even be where to set the order.

But rest assured, when most of the community has gone to sleep or is maybe in the middle of an overnight shift, Thomas will be laying in his bed thinking.

The insomnia-coded phenomenon is a result of a problem that has continued to persist within the Williamsport Crosscutters in the second half season. Losers of three straight going into Sunday, Williamsport continues to suffer departures, whether that be from unforeseen injuries to players leaving for law school.

But why is it that Thomas, a formerly retired college coach with nearly 1,300 managerial wins. Despite being second in the Draft league. Despite having one of the best rotations and offenses in the Draft League on paper. Despite keeping pace with managers half his age and players a third of his age, stays awake?

For the South Carolina native approaching 70 years of age, there is simply no other way to go about it.

“Everybody tries to tell me it is ok… but that is not what’s in me,” admitted Williamsport’s manager Saturday night. “It’s not ok, you know? I lay awake all night trying to figure out what we are going to do tomorrow. How we are going to figure this out. I’m calling all day long trying to get another player, and it’s not in me to say ‘it’s all ok.'”

The situation Williamsport currently faces has only added to Thomas’s frustration.

In the second half season, the MLB Draft League in association with Prep Baseball Report, assigns players to teams, with a queue available in the case that players get cut or leave the team to injury.

And whether it be from injuries or performance the Cutters have dived into the queue way more than they would have liked, and still find themselves shorthanded.

Due to an injury to starting first baseman Safea Villaruz-Mauai, parlayed with utility infielder Michael Zarillo leaving to go to law school at the University of North Carolina, the Crosscutters are left with 13 non-pitchers on the roster.

Of the 13 healthy options, four are infielders and four our outfielders. With none of the other infielders coming with experience at first base, outfielder Max Mandler has dropped down to play the cold corner, leaving Williamsport with three options in the outfield.

The pitching staff presents further issues, with as little as three available relievers on any given night depending on the workload the night before. Suffering injuries are starter Tyler Valdez, who has since been removed from the roster, and Jax Howard, a stable presence in the bullpen.

In Saturday’s loss, Williamsport had to get six innings out of Brad Rudis, a converted starter who spent 82 out of his 87 appearances out of the bullpen. Sam Swygert, Jared Ure and Holland Townes rounded out the performance.

As a result, Sunday’s game will see AJ Campbell on the hill, and five reliever options who hadn’t pitched the day before. Of the five arms only Blair Davis, who joined the team from a flight out west on Saturday, has more than a day of rest.

But that is life as a manager in the MLB Draft League when the second half comes, staying up until the early hours of morning attempting to solve an unsolvable puzzle.

“We got over 2,000 people here tonight, that is a great thing,” echoed Thomas on Saturday. “But for me, we lost, and that is not a great thing. That’s just who I am. I’m a competitive guy. I’ve won my whole life, and I win by trying to figure things out. I’m having a hard time trying to figure this bunch out, but maybe tomorrow we’ll play better. But we know for sure we will have two extra players, and we know for sure we won’t have but 11 pitchers on the roster. That’s kind of tough.”