Not only did the Highlanders and Reds beat the rain by some minor miracle, but upon completion of the first game, all parties (both managers, players, umpires, and commish) agreed to take advantage of the window of opportunity to sneak another game before mother nature came back a calling, as she always does... So as it was impromptu, I'd like to first thank both Joe Carrecia and Bob ?(sorry I don;t know his last name) for staying and doing game 2 under the lights at "The Bob," as they certainly did not have to do so...

The first game was a barn burner with the Highlanders taking it 5-4 after the Reds mounted a 7th inning rally only to fall just short with the tying run at 2nd... I pitched the first 6 and then gave way to our ace Jeremy Barnes with a 5-3 lead. Well, he promptly came on to throw 8 straight balls to the 10 and 11 hitters and about give me a danged-gum heart attack trying to watch it all from the dugout... As the top of the order came up they only managed to plate one on a sharp single that cut the lead to 5-4, but a pop-up, a controversial bang-bang ground-out, and another pop-up by their 2-3-4 hitters ended the threat as my heart slowly resided back into place... Thrilling I tell ya, just thrilling baseball!!!

So then after shaking hands and as everyone was starting to tarp the field up, Jim mentioned how I had called him earlier in the day and wandered about going ahead and cancelling due to the forecast (damn weathermen are wrong again). So I half-hardheartedly joked back we should just stay and play another one while we have the opportunity. Well, that's all it took as Jim's competitive fire kicked in and he went to the parking lot to ask Gentleman Joe and Bob-who-I-don't-know-his-last-name if they'd be willing to do so. We of course asked all of our guys and they all were up for it, so Jim called Tommy and off the tarps came and back onto the field we went!

After a quick check of the website, Game 2 featured the Reds being visitors in this match-up in the rubber game of the season series... Jeremy Barnes started game 2 after his gut-wrenching save of game 1 and the reds scored 3 in the top of 1, including a 2-run bomb over the LF fence by clean-up hitter Derek Engeln. Derek also had an RBI single in his next AB to plate the 4th reds run in the 3rd...

Meanwhile, the Highlanders had chipped away by scoring 1 in the second and 2 in the 3rd to cut it to 4-3... Jeremy's arm was hurting so in super-stud Gary Bosko came to pitch the 4th and 5th which were rather uneventful innings...

Until the Highlanders got their turn in the bottom of 5 that is! Because then it was time to pump up the volume!
Jim brought his ace J-Rod (Jason Rodriguez) into the game to try and close it out and make it official as mother nature started to make her presence felt by letting the raindrops began to trickle down, but the only lightning around on this night was that of the Highlander bats striking solid wood!

Following the lead off guy popping out, the top of the Highlander order and Bill Hamel began a string of 5 or 6 absolute ropes, with a nice little squeeze bunt thrown in the middle for good measure... It was highlighted by a 2 run triple Shaymus Schweitzer hit on a scorching liner to CF that the diving CF missed and it rolled to all the way to the fence... Considering we had not scored more than 6 runs in a game all year, uh yeah, I'd say a 6-run inning in which we batted around made me kinda happy!

So then with a 9-4 lead in the top of 6 and rain starting to finally fall more heavily with each passing minute, Gary promptly hits a batter, we make an error on a routine pop-up, he walks a guy, and then they get a hit ~ and so then all of sudden it's 9-5 with the bases loaded and still no outs!
And so, what to do?
After a conference at the mound with trusted confidante's, we decided I should come back in and pitch since I was throwing a lot of strikes with my junk in the first game... I got a nice grounder to Gary at SS (yeah, we just flip-flopped) and he stepped on the bag at 2nd but slipped on it's wetness and threw it over 1B and 2 runs scored to make it 9-7 with a runner now on 2nd...
The Reds couldn't muster anything more though as I got a routine pop up to LF and a gentle grounder to 3B to end the threat...

So then as the rain continued to steadily fall with ever-increasing intensity, we batted in the bottom of 6 and promptly picked up where we left off against J-Rod in the 5th... A walk, a hit batter, another single, a gapper by Gentleman Jack Griffin and 3 more runs had been plated to make it 12-7 with him at 2nd and still no outs. Since it was also 10:17 and getting wetter by the second, along with no possible chance to change the outcome before the 10:30 curfew which everyone was made aware of and agreed to before the start of game 2, Joe and Bob rightfully called the game before we all got drenched even more and no possibility of the outcome changing...

And yep, there ya have it ~ simple as that...
A good day for Highlander baseball!



PS ~ and btw, The Lexter told me he approves this message as well!

PS #2 ~~~ Not sure how I forgot the webgems of the night, so here they are. Especially since we all know it matters not who's on the hill if your gloves behind you aren't making the plays...

#4) Shaymus Schwietzer with several outstanding scoops at first base, along with several hard hit ground balls his way, especially a diving stop in the hole towards second that he then got up and raced to first to beat the runner by a half-step...
#3) Double play around the horn ground ball to Gary Bosko at third, JP Howard on the beautiful turn and gun to Shaymus at first... (JP's starting to hit too!)
#2) Bret Sentiwany with a superb, possibly game saving play on a weak pop-up/grounder over the pitchers head towards second that he had to charge and get to first just ahead of the runner as the tying run was on base...

AND #1) Was one Mr Rob "The Thespian" Courier himself with CONSECUTIVE gun-outs of runners attempting to steal second base in a 1-run ballgame... Whole picture mighta changed if those guys were successful in their attempts to steal ~ but they weren't thanks to Rob! And Gary holding them close from the mound too as that certainly played some part in it too of course...


Ok, PS #3 ~~~ The hitting stars!

#5) Dan Tarullo had a couple nicely hit balls, including one over the CF's head that bounced to the fence for a stand up 2B...
#4) I already edited the above to reflect Shaymus's scorching line drive triple, but he also had another hit and good night at the plate...
#3) "Gentleman" Jack Griffin had at least 3 hits in the twinbill, including a couple smoked liners...
#2) Mike "Gunslinger" Heath had a multiple hit game and at least 2 RBI's, a SB, and 2 runs scored...
#1) "Scary" Gary Bosko was hitting peas all night long... He had multiple hits in both games, ALL smoked line drives, including one off the bottom of the CF fence...

And then as I was thinking back in my baseball career to even little league, I'm pretty confident in saying this is the first time I have ever gotten a Win AND a Save in the same day... Of course, pretty hard to do so when you're generally standing at SS and not on the bump, but I gotta say ~ sure is fun to be out there on the hill when guys are making plays behind ya as that's clearly where the games are won and lost, the D baby, it's all about the D...










-- Edited by Marcus Aurelius on Tuesday 2nd of July 2013 12:28:48 PM

-- Edited by Marcus Aurelius on Wednesday 3rd of July 2013 08:02:38 AM