We sufffered through the toughest round robin round ever, but survived and had 4 "playoff pitchers" set up nicely for 3 playoff games. That was the plan. The monkey wrench in that plan was the stacked and fully sponsored, top seeded, Suncoast Suns that stood in our way.
The Cubs had first shot, being visitors, and it was critical to the plan that we jumped their starter right away, before they could react with one of their aces or top relievers. Well, this part of the plan worked to perfection. Scott Ross led the game off with a single and Jack Griffen followed with a single, Mike Girard loaded the bases with a bloop single to left, and the bases were loaded with nobody out. Ron Lochner brought home the first run, with a sacrifice fly to right. Dave Mitchell followed with a hard hit ball that the 3rd baseman misplayed, and the Cubs were up 2-0. Jerry Rosen then worked a walk, to re-load the bases with one out. That is when the Suncoast manager saw that he could not try to get his starter through a rocky start and pulled out his hook, and removed his starter. The reliever was a pitcher that had a great slider that he located low in the strike zone at will. He came in to face Dean Little in a huge moment for his team. He got Dean in the hole right away, with that slider, for a 0-2 count. Dean battled back to 3-2, then hit the ball hard, but right at the Suncoast shortstop for a 6-4-3 double play, and the rally was over, with the Cubs owning a 2-0 lead.
The Cubs rolled out "big game" Ron Massaroni with a somewhat healed middle finger on his pitching hand (stitches). That seemed like a great idea, but the Suncoast Suns jumped Ron in the first inning for 5 singles and two hit batsman and a 5-2 lead. Ron lasted into the 3rd, when he gave up two more runs on 3 more hits. On came Darrell Duncan, in relief, and he was amazing. He gave up just one run on 3 hits over his 6 innings. He gave the Cubs bats a chance to get back in the game, but the Suncoast reliever gave up just one run (in the 6th inning). Mike Girard hit a one-out double to left center, moved to third on a Ron Lochner single, and scored on a Dave Mitchell sacrifice fly.
The final score of 8-3 was not indicative of the scare that the 8-seeded Cubs gave the top seed. Only being out hit 10-8 by this juggernqaut was an exceptional performance, one to be proud of for sure, but you don't advance in this tourney on moral victories, and the tourney ended too soon for this group, that was hungry to get back to the title game. Love playing with every one of these guys, and can't wait until next year's tournament. Have a very happy and healthy off-season guys!
Proud of you guys. tough tourney; that happens. Suncoast's been in this tourney doing well from way back. I like how you preserved the pitching and had it lined up. And I'd put my money on Mazz any day. Geez pitching with stitches in your hand! And Mr. Lochner getting right back in the saddle!
These tourneys are seldom steam-rolled thru. takes some stars to align and special things to happen at the right time. But number one you gotta have the right people and you did. Its work just to form a team, get the money, and keep in shape . and Remember these suncoast guys were taking off from their league and going back to it. I can guess they also had several ringers collected thru the years from other leagues. Our baseball leagues pretty much ended in mid August or mid September for you guys. and Every one of you is from this league. (Cept x cdmsbl'er Mr. Little) We start slow down there as we gear up into this high quality ball, in heat and humidity. Takes seem time to get back into meaningful at bats. I know in my heart that if every team was made up from just their local league as the tourney was designed to be , Albany wouldn't notice the slow start . Like I say proud of you guys. Albany baseball, played right, played hard , with guts and class.
Awesome effort guys. Gutsy efforts by Mazz and Loch. Nice work by Darrell; expected nothing less. We'll retool and come back with avengeance next year. We have put Albany on the MSBL National map in the past several years. No one will ever take us for granted anymore. I challenge any league using just their league players to square up against us. Next year will be our year!
jk
-- Edited by sfgiants on Sunday 10th of November 2019 12:13:31 AM
