Persistent Beta
The only constant is change.
2012, Game 14: Ironpigs @ Little Canada Blue Jays – finishing in style
Jul 18th
Playoff standings are set – we were in first place last Friday, so we’re the #1 seed – but we still have a game left to play. And as it turns out, this one matters too.
We’re tied with the Maplewood Express, our long-term rivals, but since we beat them, we win the tiebreaker. But both of us have one game to play, and they’re facing the Oakdale Knights, who are 1-11. We figure they’re going to win. We, on the other hand, are up against the Little Canada Blue Jays, coached by Mike Murphy. They’re 11-2, in 3rd place. If we lose and the Express win, they’ll be in first place and we’ll be in third (since we’d be 12-2, tied with the Jays, who would have beaten us). Standings math is fun!
We’d prefer for that not to happen; there could be a trophy in it for us, and that would be a nice capper for a great season.
We have 11 guys tonight, and the Jays, who normally have 16, only have 9. This could be a good sign, or a bad one, depending on which 9 guys they have. Their coaches tell us they have 4 of their 6 pitchers, which could be trouble.
I didn’t get a shot of the scorebook, so I’m going from memory. Bear with me.
We’re visiting, so we start off at the plate. We score 3 runs, sending 8 batters to the plate. Alex starts and gives up a hit but keeps the Jays off the board.
In the second, our #9 batter, Sean, strikes out, then Joey walks, Justin gets a hit and the top of our order is up with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd. One pitch later, they’re on 2nd and 3rd, and two pitches after that, we’ve scored a run. We score 6 more, finishing with a monster 3-run homer to left by Sam. 7 runs is the limit, so we take the field. Alex pitches another scoreless inning.
The Jays keep us off the board in the 3rd inning, and manage to get another runner aboard in the bottom of the inning, but Alex gets the last two batters on strikeouts to end the inning with the runner stranded at third.
We add two more runs in the 4th. Marco comes in to pitch and retires the side 1-2-3.
In the 5th, we get a couple of runners aboard but can’t get them across the plate. The Jays finally break through, getting a run across the plate on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the inning.
We add two more in the 6th. Marco stays in to pitch, and puts another zero on the board for the Jays.
We go down scoreless in the 7th. Luke comes in to close, and gets two quick outs before giving up a couple of sharp singles, a walk and a double to score 3 runs. He finally takes matters into his own hands, getting a strikeout to end the game.
A fitting end to a heck of a season. And we took matters into our own hands – we’re in control of our destiny.
Final score: Ironpigs 14, Blue Jays 4.
Season record: 13-1. First place.
2012, Game 13: Roseville Orioles @ Ironpigs – the last one that counts
Jul 18th
This is the third game this week, and we’re playing short-handed. With three guys on vacation, we have just 9 guys. Except tonight, we’re missing Aaron, so we’re playing with 8.
This is legal; MAA rules allow us to play a game with 8 – we can even start with just 7 guys on the field, as long as we get up to 8 guys before the end of the game. Since we have 8 already, we’re good. So are the Orioles, who muster up 9 guys in time for the game to start.
We were originally supposed to play the Os back at the beginning of the season, but postponed the game due to a band concert. Their season has been pretty much the opposite of ours – another team of younger guys, they’re having problems putting together hitting and pitching in the same game, resulting in a 1-9 record.
So we’re facing a team that we should be able to beat, but we’re playing short-handed, and this one matters – the standings as of Friday (tomorrow as we play this game) will determine playoff seeding. We’re in first place ahead of the Express, but a loss would put us behind them in percentage. We don’t want that.
So we send Alex to the mound in the first. He walks the first batter, then gets a strikeout before giving up a single. We manage to hold the runners, and Alex gets another strikeout, and then a popup to short. In the bottom of the inning, we also send 5 guys to the plate, but some aggressive baserunning gets us two runs and a 2-0 lead.
Alex settles down in the second, retiring the Os 1-2-3 with a grounder to short (6-3) and two strikeouts. We bat around, sending 8 guys to the plate and scoring 4 runs.
The third inning sees the Os score a run on a two-out, nobody-on ball to the left field corner – with only 8 guys, we have a left-center fielder and a right-center fielder, and a well-hit ball that rolls all the way to the fence is a home run. It would have been a triple even with three fielders – it was a well-hit ball. Alex gives up a walk and a single before getting a ball to first base that Lucas handles for the third out. We come back big in the bottom of the inning. Sam hits a leadoff triple, Elijah follows up with a double, then Justin gets a triple. Luke walks, Alex gets a single, Marco hits a triple, Lucas walks, Anthony strikes out and Sam gets his second hit of the inning, a single, to plate the 7th run and end the inning.
Marco comes in to pitch a scoreless 4th, giving up a harmless walk while getting three strikeouts. We score 4 more runs in the bottom of the inning, although we’ve shut down the running game; the guys are not even advancing on passed balls, only on hits.
The 5th doesn’t go any better for the Os; they get a runner aboard with a walk, but he’s erased with a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. We score another 5 runs in the bottom of the inning. Sam leads off for the third time in this game, and gets his third extra-base hit (a double), and the inning ends with Anthony almost stretching a dropped third strike into a home run. The catcher overthrew first, so Craig and I were yelling at Anthony to keep going, and the Orioles finally managed to get the ball in the same place as the baserunner when he reached home plate.
This was the play I’d been trying to get on Wednesday night; a play at the plate resulting in an out. I know it’s odd to be sending your own guys into plays and hoping they’ll make outs, but we were leading by 20 runs at this point. I wanted the Os to have something to be excited about, and getting the runner at the plate is exciting. On Wednesday night, I sent a runner from third on a ball into short left field, expecting the throw to the plate and an out. Instead, the left fielder hung onto the ball, and I looked like a jerk for running up the score. Not tonight, though – the Orioles made the play for the third out.
Luke came in to pitch the sixth inning. Strikeout, strikeout, triple to left, strikeout. Since there was no time to play another inning, there was no point in us batting again, so the ump called the game.
Final score: Ironpigs 22, Orioles 1
Season record: 12-1, still in first place – and no way for anyone to displace us. Second best record is the Express at 11-1, and we beat them. Third best is the Twins, who beat us, but they’re 9-1.
First seed, here we come. We have one game left, and then it’s tournament time.
2012, Game 12: Little Canada Dodgers @ Ironpigs – Outnumbered but not outmatched
Jul 14th
After a week off, we have three games this week, all with just 9 guys – the normal Monday and Wednesday games, and a makeup game from earlier in the season on Thursday.
For the Wednesday game, we faced the Little Canada Dodgers. They’re fielding 15 guys, which is really tough on the coaches. MAA rules say that all players must play at least half of the innings in the game, and everyone bats. In turn, that means that everyone is getting less time in the field and fewer at-bats, and that means that they’re not building the skills they need to be successful. The Dodgers also have a lot of 6th graders, which means they’re physically smaller and have a year less baseball experience. All in all, it’s not surprising that they’re 3-8. I expect them to to better next year – we certainly improved since last year.
We still can’t count on winning, though. We need to stay in this game and play our best. Since Alex, Marco and Luke pitched on Monday and we have another game Thursday, Craig decides to go with Lucas and Aaron tonight – they could use the innings, and we can always bring in the big guns if we need to.
First inning: The Dodgers score one on a pair of singles and an error. We come back with 5, sending 9 guys to the plate.
Second inning: Lucas shuts down the Dodgers, 1-3, K, 5-3. We’re back at the top of our lineup (since we only have 9 guys), and send 8 to the plate, scoring 3.
Third inning: Lucas gives up a harmless walk while getting three outs. Justin, our #9 batter, leads off with a single and scores, and finishes the inning 9 batters later with a single that scores the 7th run of the inning.
Fourth inning: Aaron comes in and mows down the Dodgers: K, 1U, 4U. Back at the top of our lineup for the 4th time, we add another 3 runs.
Fifth inning: The Dodgers start their second trip through their 15-man lineup. Aaron gets an out, then we make an error and he gives up a single to score a run, then a walk that puts another runner aboard. A strikeout, another single that scores the second run of the inning and then a 4U play to finish the inning – and the game, because it’s 8:10 and there’s no point in us batting any more.
I would be remiss if I left out the highlight play of the game, which involved me. I coach 3rd base, which is known as the “hot corner” because batters who pull the ball are usually hitting it very hard. This means that a number of hard-hit balls come my way. Usually, they’re in fair territory, where I am not standing. Sometimes they are in foul territory, and sometimes they are hit right at me. Marco in particular, because he swings very hard, tends to pull the ball, and on Wednesday night, he hit a screaming line drive foul, directly at me.
Right at groin level.
I don’t wear a glove, so I can’t catch the ball. And I’m not sure that I could have – it was hit very very hard. I didn’t have time to get out of the way, just enough time to start to react by jumping backwards. The ball hit me square on, and everyone stared, expecting me to fall down and pass out.
I am the luckiest guy on earth because it hit me:
- an inch above the area that would have sent me to the emergency room
- on four layers of fabric (shirt, undershirt, pants, underwear) and a plastic belt buckle
- when I was moving backward
It hit me below the belly, above the groin, and while it smarted a bit, it did not hurt. I don’t bruise much at all – I haven’t had one in years – so it didn’t even leave a mark. I do have a bit of a bone bruise on the top of my pelvis in the front, but no ill effects. Everyone was staring at me, so I gave thumbs-up, picked up the ball and threw it to the pitcher.
Final score: Ironpigs 18, Dodgers 3
Season record: 11-1, still in first place
2012, Game 11: Ironpigs @ Roseville Nationals – A tale of two hits.
Jul 11th
After losing our first game of the season, we needed to get back into a hitting frame of mind. We’ve been doing a lot of swinging and missing at the plate, which has been hurting us.
We had a long time to think about that. Craig calls the 4th of July week the All-Star Break, because we don’t have any games. We did have two practices, but we needed to get back in the saddle.
For our first game back, we faced the Roseville Nationals. They’re another team of 6th graders, with a 1-7 record. Their lone win came against the Roseville Knights, who are also 1-8. It’s tempting to regard these games as predictable easy wins, but that’s dangerous. On any given day, any team can beat any other team, and overconfidence can get us into real trouble.
As the visitors, we hit first. Luke grounded into a 6-3 play, Alex hit a double, stole third and scored on a single by Marco, Lucas walked, Anthony struck out and Aaron hit into another 6-3 play. In the bottom of the first, we sent Alex to the mound. He gave up a walk to the leadoff batter, who stole second, stole third and scored on a passed ball. Alex gave up a hit, then got the second out on a strikeout, and the third by picking the runner off 3rd base.
After one inning, we’re tied 1-1. This could be interesting.
In the second, we sent 9 men to the plate and scored 7 runs to trigger the 7-run rule, ending the inning with only one out. Alex gave up another walk that came around and scored a run in the bottom of the inning to make it 8-2.
In the third, we sent 11 guys to the plate, mixing singles and walks, including Justin’s first hit of the year, and scored 6 runs. In the bottom of the inning, Alex settled down and got his first 1-2-3 inning, striking out all three batters.
We’re now leading 14-2, and it’s time for us to shut down our running game. MAA is an instructional league, and part of what we’re teaching is good sportsmanship. That means not running up the score when the game is already lopsided. We tell the guys to stop stealing, but that they can advance on passed balls. It doesn’t help much.
In the fourth, we sent 12 guys to the plate, scoring 7 runs. We got three walks, had three batters reach on fielding errors and got back-to-back triples from Luke P. and Alex. The inning ended with the Nationals having managed just 2 outs. Marco pitched the bottom of the inning and got two quick strikeouts, then gave up a single and a walk before getting the third out on a great catch of a foul fly by Sam in left field.
In the fifth inning, the Nationals finally got us off the field without a run scoring. In the bottom of the inning, they manage to get a run on a pair of walks and some aggressive baserunning.
The top of the sixth was another seven-run debacle – five walks, an error and a single. In the bottom of the inning, Luke P. comes in to pitch and faces just three batters – strikeout, roller to first, strikeout.
We scored 28 runs because we hit the 7-run limit three times, and we gave up just two hits, four walks and no errors.
We’re back.
Final score: 28-3 Ironpigs.
Season record: 10-1. We’re still in first place.
2012, Game 10: Oakdale Twins @ Ironpigs – Pressure Cooker
Jul 10th
Winning streaks are harder than they seem. We’re 9 games into the season, and while we’ve had a couple of close calls, we haven’t lost a game yet. At some point, winning starts to seem inevitable. When that happens, you get in trouble.
For game 10, we faced the Oakdale Twins. Sporting a 7-1 record, they’re in 3rd place. They got shut out in the first game of the season, but since then, they’ve only scored as few as 8 runs once. They don’t give up many runs, either. At game time, it was a sweltering 92 degrees, with no clouds and no wind. I brought a cooler full of ice and water, and Christina threw in a couple of dozen hand towels, so we could cool off.
We’re the home team, so we take the field. Alex is pitching, and the second pitch he throws sails high and slams the ump in the chest. The ump’s wearing a chest protector, but even with padding, getting hit by a fastball at 60mph is painful. The ump decides to take a few steps back and call the game from near the backstop. As we discover over the next few innings, this is disastrous for our pitchers. Alex in particular relies on being able to throw fastballs low for strikes, and throwing his curveball inside and having it break into the strike zone. With the ump 15 feet behind the plate, he can’t see the strike zone, so he’s judging the pitches based on where they are about halfway to the plate. At one point, a pitch thrown by one of the Twins pitchers bounces in the dirt two feet in front of the plate, but the ump calls it a strike.
It’s maddening, but we can’t do much about it. One of the aspects of playing at this level is that players and coaches are subject to a code of conduct – we need to behave like good sportsmen, and that means not criticizing the umpire. Even when he’s calling strikes on balls in the dirt.
Alex walked the first batter, then struck out the next two, and managed to strike out three Twins in the first, but then gave up two runs on three straight singles before getting another strikeout. We got three back in the bottom of the inning on singles, stealing and passed balls, but that was pretty much it.
With any kind of breaking ball getting called a ball, our guys need to throw straight fastballs over the plate. And as mentioned, the Twins can hit. Their coach told me mid-game that this was the best they’d hit all year. I think part of that may have been that they were getting a steady diet of fastballs over the plate. They scored two in the first, two more in the second, two more in the third, three in the fourth, three in the fifth and four in the sixth. Ouch. We managed just seven strikeouts, our lowest total of the year.
The biggest problem, though, was that we just didn’t hit. We got one more run in the fourth, but that was it. We struck out 12 times – a season high – and got just two walks.
Final score: 16-4 Twins.
Season record: 9-1. The streak is over. But we’re still in first place.
Ow, my spine!
Jul 9th
More baseball soon, I promise. I have two games to blog, but I didn’t have photos of the scorebook. Lame excuse, you say? Hey, it’s my blog. Suck it up.
At any rate, an update on my own health. I’m finally dealing with my neck and back problems, and I had a consultation with a nurse practitioner, who recommended an MRI, since it had been 18 months since the previous one. I got that done last week, and this morning had the followup discussion with Mark, the nurse practitioner. The upshot is that I have problems in two areas. C4-5 is the original herniation, which is still there and flattening my spinal cord. Yay. This is probably the source of my recurring pain on the left side. The new thing is that I have “severe disc degeneration” at C5-6. This is affecting my right side more than the left, and starting to cause shooting pains in my right arm. Yay.
The narrowing is really obvious on the MRI. In a normal spine (and in the parts of mine that are normal) there is a buffer of cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord, about the same thickness as the cord itself. In the C4-5 and C5-6 areas of my own spine, though, this buffer goes down to nothing, and the bones of my spine are actually squishing the spinal cord. This is what’s causing the pain.
In the long term, this pressure will increase, as I get older and my spine continues to deteriorate, and it will (eventually, hopefully not soon) cause pain, numbness, tingling, and increase my risk of spinal cord injury in the case of say a traffic accident. My sister Deborah went through something very like this, and Michael struggled with arthritic changes in his lower back – and, of course, Mom has had back problems since forever. I guess I just need to fit in.
Right now, this is treatable (we hope) with steroid injections. In the long term, I’m probably going to need surgery to relieve the pressure. For now, that’s in the future, but I am planning on getting an MRI every two years to monitor the progress.
Some part of me thinks I should be freaked out by this. But I’m not.
I guess I don’t have enough energy left to worry about this. It’s not cancer; what do I have to bitch about?
Edition wars
Jul 7th
The Dungeon Bastard captures my position perfectly: http://youtu.be/yRZ1CYYIsCg.
I spent some time today with my friend Steve. He’s moving to California for a new job, which is very cool and also very sad. We’ve been friends since grade school, and we have very similar tastes in a lot of things. I was looking through his game collection, very little of which is going to survive the move, to see if I could find memories of my brother Michael. I succeeded, which is a topic for another post.
The thing I found really interesting, though, is that he has copies of all the releases of D&D since the first hardcover releases – the original D&D books, 2nd edition, 3rd edition, 3.5 and 4th edition. We talked a bit about which ones to keep – he wants to find a gaming group in California, and would like to run a game there. He likes the Forgotten Realms setting for 2nd edition, so is thinking that might be the right one. He’s decided that he doesn’t like 4th edition, which I understand.
My suggestion was that he keep just one book – his first edition Player’s Handbook. I figure that will demonstrate his geek cred, and if he finds a group in the Bay, they’ll probably be playing Pathfinder anyway.
:)
As if waking from a long sleep…
Jul 2nd
Not about baseball.
I returned to work last week, after taking most of June off to be with my brother as much as I could in his final days, and then dealing with matters after his death on the 10th. There are, not surprisingly, a lot of things to do when someone close to you dies. Mom, Christina, Jen and I had to arrange a memorial, get Michael cremated, and start dealing with all of the stuff that collects over a life. And, of course, there’s the emotional side of things – grieving for a brother who was a friend, and realizing, ever and again in the little moments, that I can’t ask him what this is for, or where this thing came from, or any of the other things.
I’m also doing other things that I haven’t done in weeks. Last Thursday, June 28th, for example, I booted my iMac into Windows for the first time since April 21st. Since Windows is where a lot of my games are, this means I haven’t been playing much – I have Diablo III and City of Heroes on the Mac side, but my single-player games are mostly Windows.
It feels like I’ve been sleeping, in a way. Which is terribly inaccurate, since one of the signature themes of the last couple of months has been that I’ve had a hard time sleeping. In addition to the stress of Mike’s health (or lack of it, more properly) and then the memorial arrangements and estate stuff, I’e also been having back problems again, which have been giving me headaches and making it hard to find a comfortable sleeping position.
Which is not the sort of thing you spend a lot of time complaining about when your brother is dying. I didn’t feel – still don’t – that I have much of a right to complain. Mike didn’t, and he was in much more pain than I ever was.
I know that doesn’t mean that my pain is invalid or not worth dealing with, which is why I’m dealing with it now that I have time.
Wish me luck.
2012, Game 9: Ironpigs at Oakdale Red Sox – Gut check
Jun 25th
We’re riding a winning streak, and feeling good about it. But that doesn’t mean we can take it easy – on any given day, any team can beat you. They just have to play a little bit better that day.
For our 9th game, we faced the Oakdale Red Sox. With a 5-2-1 record, they’re a decent team. Their starting pitcher was a lefty with good stuff, but we managed to piece together two singles, two walks, a bunch of stolen bases and four passed balls to score 4 runs while he was striking out 3 batters. The Sox got one back in the bottom of the first, thanks to an error.
We added 4 more runs in the second on a double, a single and two errors, as the Red Sox starter again got all three of his outs on strikeouts. We’re up 8-1, and it’s feeling like another cruise to victory. And then we started making errors in the field, and there are runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. A double scores two, a passed ball scores another, another double scores one more, before we finally get off the field, having given up 4 runs because we gave the Red Sox 6 outs.
Coming off the field, Craig called the guys together and told them they needed to play better. “Get your heads in the game, guys! You’re better than that! You need to play this game, right here, or we’re going to get beat! Marco had to get six outs in that inning, guys. We need to do better!”
They listened. We scored two more runs in the top of the third, and Marco had a one-two-three inning, with a strikeout and two solid fielding plays – a grounder to Alex at first base and a popup fielded cleanly by Steven at third base. We added another three runs in the fourth inning, and Alex came in to pitch. I think he threw 10 pitches – strike, strike, strike (out), strike, strike, ball, strike (out), strike, strike, strike (out, inning over).
In the 5th, we put another three runs on the board, and Alex faced just three batters in the bottom of the inning.
The 6th inning started with Sam reaching on an error, Elijah hitting a single to score Sam, and Steven hitting a monster home run that rolled all the way to the pitching mound on the next field over. Three more runs for us, and then the Sox threatened again, with a one-out single that put a runner aboard, who stole 2nd and then 3rd. Luke, pitching as usual in the closer spot, struck out the Sox #4 and #5 batters to end the inning without a run scoring, and finished the inning just in time for us to start the 7th (can’t start a new inning after 8:15, and we finished the 6th at 8:10 – just in the nick of time).
We scored one more in the 7th, despite the Sox getting their second double play of the game on a pop fly – Alex was stealing second, and got a huge lead off the pitcher, so he was rounding second by the time Marco hit the ball, and was not able to put the brakes on and get back to first in time to avoid the double play. Luke struck out the side in the bottom of the 7th to end the game.
We started off taking it easy, and it got us in trouble. We learned, took the game seriously, and ended up with our highest-scoring game of the year.
Ironpigs pitchers got 14 strikeouts, Red Sox pitchers got 11 – both respectable numbers. The difference was in fielding – we gave up 3 errors, they made 7. And we had one passed ball that scored a run, while they had at least 8. Our pitching is a huge asset, but a big part of that is our catchers. All three of them are excellent, and it’s a joy to watch them work.
Final score: Red Sox 5, Ironpigs 20.
Season record: 9-0
2012, Game 8: North St. Paul Polars at Ironpigs – appropriately enough, a cold one
Jun 20th
I often say that an evening spent playing (or coaching, in my case) baseball is better than an evening of pretty much anything else. We got to test that tonight.
It had been drizzly all day, with periods of heavy rain, and at game time, it looked like we were going to get maybe two hours of cloudy-but-not-rainy before the storms moved back in after 8 PM. Our opponents were the North St. Paul Polars, the only team that NSP is fielding in MAA this year. They’re not having a great year, with a 1-4 record, and tonight, they were missing one of their two pitchers.
A side note on youth baseball at this level: pitching is huge, with catching a fairly close second. Having good pitchers makes a gigantic difference; when a pitcher is struggling to hit the strike zone, the fielders get back on their heels and misplay ordinary balls, resulting in game-killing rallies. We’re extraordinarily fortunate to have six pitchers – so many we have a hard time getting them enough work – and three catchers. I am reminded of how lucky we are every time we face a team that only has one experienced pitcher, because a pitcher can only throw 4 innings in a game, and putting guys out there who can’t get the ball over the plate is disheartening.
So, the Polars. A light rain is falling as we start the game.
We’re the home team again, and Craig has decided to give Alex the night off, since he’ll be pitching twice next week. We’re also going to try to get some work in for our pitchers that have not been seeing game time lately, so we start Lucas B. He has a bit of a rough time in the top of the 1st, giving up a run. We respond with one in the bottom of the 1st to even it up, and Lucas settles down, getting three quick outs in the top of the 2nd. We add another run in the bottom of the inning, and Lucas pitches out of a jam in the top of the 3rd, getting a strikeout on the Polars #3 hitter with runners and 2nd and 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the skies break open and we break the game open, sending 11 batters to the plate in steady cold rain, and scoring 7 runs to end the inning. The Polars pitcher – who spent most of the game at catcher, and was good there – walked 5 of our guys, 4 of whom scored, as we ran the bases in the rain. The pitcher was having a hard time finding his grip on the ball in the rain, and the catcher was not blocking the plate, meaning that balls in the dirt skipped past him and rattled around behind home plate. We scored 4 runs in a row on guys who got on base, stole second, stole third, then scored on passed balls.
Luke enters the game in the 4th and retires the Polars in short order, striking out 3. He also hit a batter, with a pitch that slipped out of his hand. It was a night for that – we had two guys hit as well, with the rain making the ball slippery.
We’re concerned about the rain, and the impending thunderstorms. We need to get in 5 innings to make this an official game – 4-1/2 if the home team (us) is leading, which we are. But we only have 3-1/2 in, and it’s dark and raining hard. We come to the plate for the bottom of the 4th, and can’t get a hit against the new Polars pitcher. Strikeout, grounder to first, walk, liner to 3rd – that’s our inning.
We need to get through the top of 5 to make it a game, and the skies have lightened a bit, the rain has (mostly) stopped, and it’s not quite so cold. Maybe we’ll get this one in. Luke powers through the inning – strikeout, walk, strikeout, strikeout. It’s an official game, but we’re not done playing yet – the weather is cooperating.
For the bottom of 5, we send the bottom of our order to the plate, and again can’t solve the Polars pitcher. Strikeout, strikeout, single on a dropped 3rd strike, strikeout.
Top of 6, with the clock ticking down – it’s almost 8 PM, and we can’t start a new inning after 8:15, which means this is probably the last inning of the game. Luke is in full-on closer mode, and gets the Polars #2, #3 and #4 hitters – 3 unassisted (with Alex displaying great range at first), strikeout, strikeout.
We get to bat again – if the Polars can get us out in less than 10 minutes, they get to bat again and can try to tie it up, with unlimited runs in the 7th inning. Sadly for the Polars, the bottom of 6 goes like this:
Sean: Out on a grounder, pitcher to first base.
Luke: Single
Alex: Home run (scoring Luke)
Marco: Reached on an error
Lucas: Single (scoring Marco)
Anthony: Out on a grounder, pitcher to first base
Sam: Single, scoring Lucas
Elijah: Single
Steven: Walk
Justin: Our on a strikeout
So we scored 5 runs to make it 14-1, and ran out the clock. It was 8:20 by the end of the inning, so we lined it up and congratulated the Polars on playing hard.
It was a cold, rainy night, and it was still better than pretty much anything else, because it was baseball.
Final score: 14-1, Ironpigs win.
Season record: 8-0
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