Both teams were great sports in this one at Burnt Hills last night. The Cubs and Padres traveled out to Burnt Hills high school to find an infield like concrete, a dangerously un-anchored second base, and no umpires. Both teams considered throwing in the towel and trying again later, hopefully in a better location; but Ralph Caputo showed up at the field and agreed to umpire the game from behind pitchers mound. That was all that both teams needed and a damn good baseball game broke out. The first inning was a little rough as the Cubs contributed two errors and a walk to the Padres three singles, in giving up 3 runs in the top of the first. The Padres returned the favor, committing 5 errors in the bottom half of the inning to hand two runs to the Cubs. From the second inning on, there was only one more error committed by each team. Fine defensive play indeed under the toughest of circumstances, as routine grounders would take outrageous hops off of the rock hard infield. The Padres would score their only other run in the top of the second, when Pete Mravila collected a two out RBI single. From that point on, The Cubs would use the solid pitching of Phil Gadomski and tremendous defense (turning double plays in the 4th and 5th innings) to keep the Padres total at 4. Padres starter, Pete Mravila, who kept the Cubs hitless through 4, was finally touched up for an earned run in the 5th. Jim McQuade, Ron Massaroni, and Bryce Cutler led off the inning with consecutive singles to load the bases with no one out. After a pop out to third, Steve Lounello came through with a RBI single. Mravila then struck out the Cubs clean-up hitter and got the 5th hitter to fly out to left, to preserve a 4-3 lead.
Phil Gadomski retired the Padres in order in the top of the sixth, then started the winning rally, in the bottom of the inning with a one out single. Courtesy runner, Shawn Maney, stole second to move the tying run into scoring position. Mravila then induced a ground out to short, for the second out, and had Ron Massaroni 0-2. Massaroni worked the count full and then stroked a clutch RBI double to right center to tie the game. Bryce Cutler immediately followed with a long double over the right fielder's head to give the Cubs a 5-4 lead. Steve Lounello came on to retire the Padres in order, in the bottom of the seventh, to record the save. Cubs win 5-4! I want to give a big shout out to Ralph Caputo for saving this game by volunteering to umpire. He did a great job and deserves to get paid for his efforts. I hope our division commissioner can find some way to get him paid for his efforts. THANKS RALPHIE! We also need to see if someone can fix the situation at second base at Burnt Hills, or we really need to move all future games scheduled there. It really is a very dangerous situation.
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 21st of June 2011 07:51:17 AM
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 21st of June 2011 07:51:42 AM
Not only is Ralph one of the best all-around ball-players this league has ever seen but also one of the nicest guys in it....he only intended to stop by the field for a quick second but instead agreed to stay and ump the entire game and saved the day for both teams.
Thanks guys for letting me be part of your game. Believe me I was having a blast out there. There wasn't a interference play, or a close play at the plate but I so wanted to yell out "Infield fly" just so I could say I did.
Great game by both teams under trying conditions.
Thanks Jimmy for the kind words, big hit with 2 strikes. The ump had you really bearing down.
We shouldn't forget to thank Sue for being so forgiving of Ralph not coming right back home. She even called him during one of the innings to heckle what she thought was a bad call.
