The weather was iffy, but the baseball wasn't Sunday afternoon at the Satellite Field. John Atwell and the Royals hooked up against Jim Ansel and the Golden Marlins, and a tight game that wasn't decided until the last pitch, was the result.
Mr. Ansel retired the first six batters that he faced and John Atwell retired the first 3 he faced against the Fish. Not until the bottom of the second, with one out did the first batters reach base, when Mike Girard and Billy Smith reached on consecutive singles. After a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, Dan Hernandez grounded out to second allowing Girard to score the games first run.
Dave Hartman led off the top of the third, with a single, but was erased on a 4-6-3 double play. With two outs, Mal Hinman doubled down the left field line, but was stranded, when Jim Ansel induced a grounder to end the inning and maintain the 1-0 lead.
After Atwell retired the Fish in order again in the bottom of the third, the Royals rallied in the top of the 4th. Matt Kelly scored the equalizer after leading off with a single. The Royals used a walk and a Marlins error in the rally. Jim Ansel then struck out 2 Royals with runners on 2nd and 3rd. After Ansel went to 3-0 on Mark Finelly, he had to come out of the game due to shoulder soreness. Mike Girard came on in relief and finished the walk to Finelly, before getting the last out on a pop out to second, with the bases loaded, keeping the game tied at 1.
The Marlins would take the lead in the bottom of the 4th on consecutive singles by Tim Brown, Shawn Maney, and Ron Lochner (RBI) and a RBI ground out by Billie Smith.
The game would remain 3-1 until the top of the sixth inning, when the Royals would use a pop fly single, a hard hit grounder off the Marlins 3rd baseman, a slow-roller infield hit, along with two Marlins throwing errors to take a 4-3 lead. That lead would stand until the 7th.
The bottom of the 7th was where this game was going to be decided. Ron Lochner led off with a solid single. Mike Girard drove a ball to the right center field gap, that looked for sure like it would plate Lochner with the tying run, but the ball rolled down the hill, and was correctly called a ground rule double, placing runners at 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. John Atwell induced Billy Smith to ground out to second to a drawn in infield holding the runner at 3rd. John Reel was then intentionally walked to load the bases and set up the double play possibility. Mr. Atwell got a hard ground ball to short, and the Royals turned the 4-6-3 double play to end the game. . . a great opening day game for both squads!
It is a shame that we won't face these Royals again this year, because they are a great bunch of guys, and we always seem to play tight games. Good luck to the Royals on the rest of their year.
