The Marlins tournament run came to an end in the first round of the playoffs. We finished the round robin as the second seed which set us up for a rematch of last year's semifinal game vs. the Carolina Rockies.
Ralph Caputo was on the hill and did a fantastic job, keeping the tired Marlin defense in the game. The final score was 12-5, but that does not reflect on how well Ralph pitched. He gave up nine runs, eight of them unearned.
The Rockies scored an unearned run in the top of the first, but the Marlins bounced right back to take the lead with three consecutive hits from TJ Scorsone, Mike Girard and Kevin Jackson. The Marlins extended the lead to 5-1, but the Rockies chipped away to tie the score 5-5 at the end of 5. Nobody scored in the 6th. In the 7th, the wheels came off. The Rockies scored six times which took the wind out of our sails. The Rockies added one more run in the 8th to seal the deal.
Earlier in the day, the Marlins defeated a team from St. Louis 11-3. Once again, we got a great pitching peformance - this time from Jim Konstantakis. Jim went the full nine innings. He had a shutout going into the 7th inning when St. Louis scored a couple of meaningless runs. Mike Girard led the offensive attack with four hits, including two doubles.
We had two bad innings in five games. Unforunately, they all count. Once again, this year we had great pitching. We gave up 40 runs, but (doing this from memory), I think 21 were unearned and another six scored when games were already put away. We were tied or ahead in every inning except for the two bad innings mentioned above.
I don't have the book with me but th hitting stars of the tournament were Joe Careccia, Mike Girard and Kevin Jackson. All three batted in the .500 range. I think Mike had five doubles during the tournament.
Overall, it was good tournament. To win this thing, you need to play near perfect baseball, which we didn't do this year.
Congrats everyone on a great tourney....You dont win every year that is for sure but we got back to the playoffs and i know you were looking for extra players late into October so its a testament to your resove to fight your way into theplayoffs where anything can happen....Would have loved to se a repeat but it looks like Albany held its own again...TP%
As always, we gave a good showing in Florida. The death of the team's chances were that we did not have enough depth. We went south with 11 players. We got some help from Wayne, Billy, and Jimmy K, but the losses from the roster from last year's squad were to much to overcome. There were no teams in that tournament that were as good as the team we beat in the finals last year, so it is a disappointment that we did not repeat, but there is always hope for next year. Let's put together a deeper team next year and go back for the trophy and the rings!
GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOU GUYS HAD A GOOD TIME, TOO BAD THAT YOU DIDN'T GO ALL THE WAY, BUT LIKE YOU SAID, THERE IS ALWAYS NEXT YEAR! LETS MAKE A GREAT TEAM AND KICK SOME A$$
