Tuesday, September 25, 2018

One, Two, 13-11

Fall Ball started today, and the new Dead Ball Creaker era was on.

In a tight seesaw battle, Team One overcame Two's late lead to prevail 13-11.

Team One only scored in three innings, four in the first, five in the fourth and four in the ninth. But by holding Team Two to seven innings to zero or one run, it became enough.

We jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first. Three straight two out RBI hits, by Bill Warren (a Creaker newcomer who was added to our roster last night - well HELLO BILL!), Skip Spragens, and Art Oller. Skip's was the highlight, a two run triple.

Team Two crept back to 5-4 after three, and then we sent eight hitters up without making an out in the top of the fourth. Consecutive hits by James 'Chewy' Little, Charlie Pastor, Warren, Spragens, Oller, Frank Coppa, Bob Shipway, and Ed Fieszli produced five runs. Bill's was the biggest, a booming two run double in the gap.

Two answered in the fifth, catching us at 10-10, and then adding single runs in each of the next two innings while holding us to nada. After a scoreless eighth we came up in the ninth needing two to tie, three to get the lead or hopefully more. Paul Lisi started the rally with his third hit, and then with one out, Pastor singled, Warren walked and Spragens got his second huge hit of the day, this time a two run double to tie it. With the lead runs on second and third Oller did what he needed to do, get a fly ball deep enough to get at least one in. But the normally reliable center fielder dropped it and that enabled us to get insurance run RBI hits from Coppa and Shipway.

Soragens led the way with the 'mini' cycle (single double and triple) good for four RBIs. Joining him with three hits were Lisi, Pastor, and Warren.

On defense Chewy made several good plays at SS including a grounder, step on second and throw to first at a key time (right after our five run  fourth when they tried to answer). Pitcher Chip Sharpe got one backward K. Coppa made a nice catch on a popup behind the plate, always a challenge. And Warren made a good play o a foul pop up at 1B.

Overall we played good defense and had timely hitting, a good formula for a win in the new low compression ball age. and a great way to go into a bye week, 1-0!

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