Game one of the Highlanders vs. Silver Marlins ended with the Marlins executing on the simple fundamental play of hitting the cutoff man.
The seventh inning started with the Marlins leading 8-4. The first two batters worked walks to start a rally, and after an RBI single and two outs, the situation was men on first and third, two outs, and the score of 8-5.
The next batter hits a hard ground ball that some how avoided the glove of "Mr. Automatic" Randy Craft at short and goes on into left center field, scoring the 6th run. Instead of hanging his head or kicking dirt over missing the grounder, Randy turned and sprinted into position to be a cutoff man for the throw to third. When it was apparent that Tom Maney's throw to third was not going to be in time to keep the tying run off of third, Randy cut the perfect throw off and spun and threw to second to nail the batter who was trying to put the go ahead run at second. Rally over! Game over!
A simple act like hitting the cutoff man was the key play in the game. In fact, Tom Maney, Skip Treece, and Paul Miles didn't miss a cutoff man all night. In a game as tight as this one, all of the simple fundamental plays could have been the difference. Thanks to all those Little League coaches who teach the youngsters how to play the game the right way!