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Post Info TOPIC: A Tale of Two Games.


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A Tale of Two Games.


Monday night at the B-Diamond, the Twins and Cubs got together for a single elimination quarterfinal game.

The Twins came out on fire. In the top of the first, the first 3 twins batters reached on singles. The result was 1 run in and
runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Wayne Nicholson dropped a sacrifice bunt to move those runners into scoring position.
The next 3 Twins batters all singled and the score was 4-0, with runners at 2nd and 3rd, with still just one out. The thought crept in,
should the Cubs change pitchers? However the manager was the starting pitcher, and there was no way he was quitting on his team.
He got the next hitter on a pop out to the mound, and followed that up with a strike out for the final out, "escaping" with just a 4-0 deficit.
It could have gotten much worse.

Stefan Koustakis started for the Twins and kept the Cubs offense quiet through the first two innings. Hard hit balls that were turned
into outs by some nice plays by the Twins defense helped Koustakis preserve the 4-0 lead.

Girard knew that to give his team a chance at the comeback, he had to completely shut down the Twins offense.
That wasn't going to be easy, as the Twins had produced 6 hits their first time through the order. The 3rd inning started
with two errors sandwiched around a line drive out to center. Girard added to the freebies by walking Madsen to load the bases with one out.
Again, Girard escaped the jam by getting a pop out to the catcher and getting a strike out for the final out.

The Cubs finally got the offense into gear in the bottom half of the 3rd. After one out, Dan Hernandez and Ron Massaroni singled. Paul Miles reach on an error
that plated a run and left runners at the corners, with one out. Paul immediately stole second, and with the open base, Girard was walked on 4 pitches.
Ron Lochner singled to score two more, and the Cubs were within 1 at 4-3. Mike Reutter walked to reload the bases. Koustakis got a big out getting the next hitter
to pop out to the catcher for the second out. Andy Hoyle was hit by a pitch to tie the game, and that brought up Ron McCarthy with a chance to give the Cubs
their first lead. Boy did Ron ever jump on that chance. He drove the ball very deep over the center fielder's head clearing the bases for a 7-4 Cubs' lead.
Wow! The Twins blinked, and what looked like a comfortable lead was now a 3-run deficit. Ron scored on a wild pitch to make it 8-4. The Cubs would plate a 9th run
in the inning before they were done.

Girard worked around a one out single by Jeff Whitehead in the 4th, and got the Cubs right back up to the plate. The Cubs used singles by Girard, Reutter, and McCarthy,
along with a couple of Twin's miscues to balloon the lead to 12-4. That was pretty much the ball game. Girard would give up just one run the rest of the way, and the Cubs
punched their ticket to the semi-finals with a 12-5 win.

The Cubs offense was led by Ron McCarthy, who had 2 hits and 4 RBI's. Dan Hernandez, Mike Reutter, and Ron Lochner added two hits each.
The Twins had 4 players that all collected two hits each: Charlie "Hey that's my car" Freer, Jeff Whitehead, Terry McCarthy, and Lee Madsen, all really good hitters.

Congrats to the Twins on a great season. They did very well with a short roster. A lot of their key players spent a good portion of the year on the disabled list.

The Cubs move on to the semi-finals, where they will match up against the Whiz Kids. The Whiz Kids are the defending champions and regular season champs this year,
with a record of 16-1. It is a big challenge with only 11 eligible players, one of whom is playing with a badly injured ankle. The Cubs love big challenges and will be ready to go
on Wednesday night at the C-Diamond in Schenectady's Central Park. Game time is 5:00 pm.

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 13th of September 2022 08:51:38 AM

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 13th of September 2022 09:00:15 AM

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Michael J. Girard
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