The rain finally went away long enough for the Damn Yankees and the Cubs to play a game last night at Watervliet High School.
The Cubs hadn't been on the field for 3 weeks, and it was great to get back to playing this great game again.
The field was pristine (thanks to Dennis Lane's hard work) as always. It is one of the premier playing fields in the area.

The game promised to be a close, hotly contested affair, pitting the 7-1 Yankees against the 7-0-1 Cubs.
Good pitching and solid defense were the order of the night as Darrell Duncan and Mike Girard put up zeroes through the first 3 innings.
The Yankees got on the board first with 2 runs in the top of the 4th inning. With two outs and nobody on Paul Post fought off a 0-2 pitch
for a bloop single to right and immediately stole second base. Darrell Duncan followed with a wringing single to left to give the Yanks a 1-0 lead.
Darrell then stole second and was delivered with the second run, on a Doug Edick RBI single.

With a 2-0 deficit, and facing one of the league's premier pitchers, whose signature knuckleball was dancing all over, the Cubs need to get right back
in the game before it was too late. The Cubbies showed their mettle by not only getting back in the game, in the bottom of the 4th, but hung 4 runs
on the board to take a two run lead. The rally started with a leadoff double, by Ron Lochner, over the centerfielder's head (his second double of the game).
Mike Reutter hit a line drive single to left, moving Lochner to third. Jerry Rosen then singled to cut the Yankees lead in half. A fielder's choice and a single by
Andy Hoyle and the bases were loaded with one out. Duncan induced a pop out to short for the second out of the inning. Ron McCarthy then hit a
bomb over the center fielder's head to clear the bases and put the Cub's on top 4-2.

Girard buoyed by the rally, went out and hung goose eggs on the scoreboard in the 5th and 6th innings allowing just one runner in each inning.
It would all come down to the 7th inning (no surprise). Darrel Duncan led off with a single, and tried to steal, but Jerry Rosen cut him down with a perfect
throw to second. It was Jerry's third runner thrown out trying to steal in the game. In a one run game, that was huge! With one out in the 7th, Doug Edick
worked a walk. Rich Royka lifted the spirits and hopes of the Yankees faithful with a screaming line drive double to left center, scoring Edick with the Yankees 3rd run.
With the tying run in scoring position and just one out, the crowd was jumping (cow bells and all). Girard took a deep breath and got the second out on
a pop out to second and the final out on a strike out (his 6th of the game), and the Cubs walked away with a hard fought 4-3 victory.

Rich Royka, Darrell Duncan, and Paul Post all had two hits each for the Yankees (6 of the teams' 8 hits). Ron Lochner had two doubles for the Cubs.
Darrell Duncan pitched 7 strong innings for the Yanks, giving up just 7 hits, walking 5 and striking out 3. Mike Girard got the complete game victory for the Cubs,
giving up 3 runs on 8 hits, while walking 2 and striking out 6.

The Cubs hold on to first place in the standings with the win, moving to 8-0-1 on the season. The Yanks drop to 3rd place, with the loss, now at 7-2.
The next 4 weeks will decide the seedings with lots of make up games on tap. The Cubs will play two games each of the next 3 weeks, with the Americans
up next on August 4th at the C-Diamond in Schenectady.






-- Edited by mgirard11 on Thursday 29th of July 2021 04:46:01 PM