After putting up football scores in our first meeting, the Dodgers and Giants had their bats and track shoes primed for game two. And with consecutive singles by Trinchillo, Lane, Alston and Bradley to plate two runs in the top of the 1st and Kegan and Maguire hitting base knocks to start the Giants' half of the inning, it looked like another high-scoring affair. But, sooner than you can say "make sure the line drives get through", the defenses showed up! Doug Reisinger ripped a bullet towards center field but Marc Trinchillo snared it and flipped to Staulters covering 2B for a double play. Phillips followed with the Giants third single of the inning but a groundout to SS ended the threat.`
Giants hurler Rick Caruso settled in and shut the Dodgers down in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. The Giants put together a two-out rally in the 2nd. Arduini reached on an E6 and Mike Aiello doubled. Tony Nardacci hit a rope to center scoring Arduini. Again the Dodgers defense stepped up as a relay from Tesoreiro to Alston to Ball nailed Aiello at home. 2 - 1 Dodgers. The Giants took the lead in the bottom of the 3rd as singles by Smaka, Maguire, Phillips and Clary pushed two runs across.
The Dodgers got some production from the bottom of their line-up as Weber and Ball singled to start the 5th. After an F8 and a FC, Cortese was plunked to load the bases. Staulters reached on an FC that scored Weber to tie the game at 3 apiece. The Dodgers were riding the left arm of Jimmy T who had relieved clean-cut John Weber and had pitched scoreless innings in the 4th and 5th. The heart of the Dodgers order then scored two big runs in the top of the 6th with a lead-off single by Lane then two-out hits by Gougler, Tesoreiro and Weber gave the boys in blue a 5 - 3 margin.
The giants cut that lead in half as Reisinger led off the bottomof the 6th with a single and two stolen bases. Reisinger scored on a Caruso groundout before a force out ended the inning. The Dodgers tried to respond in the top of the 7th but got a little reckless on the base paths. Cortese hit a two-grounder to 3B but an errant throw got past Arduini and ricocheted down the fence line in right field. The idiot 3B coach ignored the "don't make the 3rd out at 3B' cliche and waved Cortese on. A tiring Cortese got a face full of infield dirt and tagged out at 3B. Fortunately, Jimmy T pitched an 1-2-3 bottom of the 7th to seal the victory for the Dodgers 5 - 4.
Both squads were invited up the hill to Steve Lounello's for a couple of cold ones and some good baseball conversation. Great way to cap off a well-played game.
