The Cubs and Americans met, at Bob Moore this past Friday night (big thanks to Jim Bonaparte) for the opening contest
for both teams, in the 2022 season. It was a cold and blustery night, but both teams made the most of it.

The American's rode the slick pitching of Dan Durback and solid fielding to build a 1-0 lead through 4-1/2 innings.
The Cubs had a runner on third with one out, in the first, but could not get that run home. They had bases loaded with nobody out, in the second,
when a screaming liner back at the mound was snared by Durback and turned into a double play, doubling the runner off of third.
The Cubs would strand a runner at second in the third inning, and left the bases loaded in the 4th.

In the top of the 4th, the Americans would take a 1-0 lead with a one out single by Page, a throwing error moving the lead runner to third, and a sacrifice fly to
center by Fred Muller. The excitement on the Americans was palpable, as this would be an epic upset, if they could pull it off, and they were just 9 outs from doing just that.

The bottom of the 5th inning again saw the Cubs get runners on early in the inning. Jerry Rosen doubled with one out. Mike Reutter singled him to third.
This time, the Cubs got a break when Mike Girard brought Rosen home on a bloop single to right center. A good fielding play on a hard comebacker to the mound again
had Durback on the verge of escaping another jam. This time, however, Dan Hernandez came through with an RBI single and the Cubs had the lead, 2-1.

After a 1-2-3 top of the 6th, the Cubs were back at it again, in the bottom half of the inning. John Columbe got the ball rolling with a leadoff walk and a stolen base.
Paul Miles sacrificed him to third. An error on a grounder to third by Ron Massaroni brought in Columbe. Jerry Rosen singled Massaroni to third, and stole second. Mike Reutter followed with
a ball in the gap that scored Massaroni and Rosen, but was cutoff nicely by Scott Travis, and the throw was in time to nail Reutter at second. The Cubs would put up two more hits,
in the inning, but a liner back to the pitcher was snared for the final out, with no more runs crossing the plate.

Girard was able to navigate the 7th inning, getting a 6-4-3 double play after Page led of with a single to center. After a Muller single, Girard would get the final out on a strike out,
and the Cubs had a 5-1 victory.

Ron Massaroni pitched the first 3 innings for the Cubs, giving up just two first inning singles and no runs, while walking none. Girard came on in the 4th, and gave up just the one unearned run,
surrendering just 4 singles in his 4 innings, while walking none and striking out 4.

Girard led the way for the Cubs' offense with 3 singles and 1 RBI. Jerry Rosen, Mike Reutter, Jim Bonaparte, and Dan Hernandez all had 2 hits each.
Page and Muller had two hits each to lead the way for the Americans. Dave Plew and Gibby Travis had the other hits.

If this effort can be reproduced on a regular basis by the Americans, they will win more that they lose this year, and that will be a huge improvement over last season.
They all should be very pleased with this effort.

Congrats to Mike Labarge for adding some nice pieces.







-- Edited by mgirard11 on Monday 2nd of May 2022 09:49:28 AM