The Cubs were faced with a fully sponsored team (St. Louis Patriots), in game 5 of the round robin, with the playoffs only one day away.

The hard part of managing in these tournaments is deciding how much of your pitching assets to use in the round robin, to get a better seeding,
and how much to save for the playoffs. Cubs' manager, Jim McQuade has done a great job deciding those matters in this tournament so far, and
today was no exception. He chose Ralph Caputo for the start, and Ralph gave three strong innings. Jon Martin made McQuade look like a genius by
Filling out the scorecard for the next 5 innings for the Cubs, while nursing a very sore hip. Brilliant performance! Mike Girard cleaned up in the 9th
and the remaining pieces of the pitching staff are all still intact with the first two games of the playoffs due tomorrow.

The Cubs offense got off to another flying start. They scored 5 times in the first inning to establish some respect from their sponsored opponents.
Jerry Rosen reached, with one out, on an error by the St. Louis shortstop. Mike Girard walked on 4 pitches and Andy Hoyle singled to load the bases.
Jim Hicks walked to force in the second run. Bob Bolt duplicated that result and the score was 3-0. Darrell Duncan followed with a 2 RBI single, and
the score was 5-0 before the Patriots could catch their collective breath.

After the Patriots put a singleton on the board, in the bottom of the 1st, The Cubs expanded their lead to 8-1 in the top of the 3rd. Rosen, Girard, and Hoyle all singled
to load the bases with one out. Jim Hicks was then hit by a pitch to push across the first run in the inning. Bob Bolt hit a sacrifice fly for the second run, and Darrell
Duncan singled to plate the final run in the inning.

The home team Patriots bounced right back with 5 runs of their own, in the bottom half of the inning, to pull to within 8-6. That score held up until the 5th, when
the Cubs struck for 6 more runs. Jack Griffin walked with one out. Rosen then grounded out to second, moving Griffin to second base on the play. Griffin then stole third,
and Girard brought him home with a single to right. Hoyle followed with a single that moved Girard to second. Jim Hicks then produced a 2 RBI double, and the Cubs led 11-6.
Bob Bolt and Darrell Duncan followed with RBI doubles, and the Cubs were up 13-6. The final run in the inning came on a Ron Massaroni RBI single. Cubs 14- St. Louis 6.

The Patriots put up 3 more runs in the bottom of the 5th, to make it 14-9. The Cubs would add one more run in the top of the 7th on a Girard walk; a Hoyle single; a Hicks sacrifice bunt;
and a Bolt RBI ground out. The Patriots were only able to score one more run, in the bottom of the 9th, and the Cubs finished the round robin at 5-0 with a 15-10 win over the
St. Louis Patriots.

The playoff brackets are out, and the Cubs landed as the number two overall team in the AAA Masters division. Their opponent will be the 7th seeded St. Louis A's.
The game will be at 10:00 am, at the Jet Blue Complex. The winner will face the winner of the 3 seed vs the 6 seed game at 1:45 pm. Rain is expected all day on Friday, so the
semi-finals and finals will be on Saturday at 10:00 am and 1:45 pm.

. . . and the real tournament starts!!!

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Wednesday 3rd of November 2021 11:00:52 PM

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Wednesday 3rd of November 2021 11:05:57 PM