Bombs Away! Crow Power Ousts the Devil, 27-25

The Diablos must have felt pretty good about themselves after their first two at bats. In the first the Crows gifted them at least six outs, and the visitors gave themselves the Curse of the First, taking advantage and scoring five. In the second, after Charlie Pastor got us on the board with his first home run in our half of the first, they slammed line drive after line drive and plated another five. 10-2 is a good start.

But the Crows kept hammering back, and the power onslaught overcame the lead and then helped stave off their comebacks, and we ultimately won 27-25.

We hit six bombs - I looked it up, and in the short time I have been a Crow, we had never hit more than four in a game.

The team has a never say die attitude. The individual stats are impressive, but everyone contributed greatly. Charlie had two HRs and three doubles, and drove in eight runs altogether. Brian Black was 6-6, scored five runs, hit one of the four-baggers, and drove in five - not bad for a leadoff hitter. Aram Boyd made the most of his two hits, adding a three run and a two run job for five RBIs in just two of his at bats. Somehow his bomb to left center in the fourth seemed like the statement shot of the game. It only gave us a 15-14 lead at the time, but in fact it was the game winning RBI as they never came all the way back after that. Dave Balfour rounded out the power with a two run shot the next inning.

Everyone had at least two hits, Clay LeChe and Lamont Thompson each counting a triple among their hits. Howard Reeves led the rest of the crew with four hits, also including a triple. He also came in to put out the fire on the mound in the third, pitching the last seven innings and 'only' allowing 15 runs, which is pretty good on a Danville sun field.

The Diablos did help us out with their own sloppy fielding but we actually had some pretty good defense. Charlie hopped off the mound in the first to nail the speedy Mark Pitzlin on a dribbler in the first. Center fielders Brian and Dave made a couple of big catches in the tough sun in the third and eighth respectively, and right fielder Barry Walter in the sixth. Don Devencenzi had a nice stop on a shot at third before he moved to second base. Tom Wagenseller and Aram talked about a 6-5-3 double play in the fourth - and then the Diablo hitter obliged by hitting the ball in the 5-6 hole just as they drew it up. Aram later turned a rover step on second and fire to first double play. He also gets the comic relief award. On a ball way over his head he leaped higher than anyone could believe, just got a glove on it enough to go gather the ball, and then heave it onto field four way over LT's head, even though the runner had already passed first base.

It was a close game in doubt until Clay fielded the ground ball and took it to second base to get the last out. This was the defining game that we are right in the middle of the pack. But if we can minimize the errors and hit like we did yesterday, we can beat anyone in this league (and have shown it). Starting next week against the Wolfpack.