GIANTS LEAVE NO DOUBT WITH A DOMINANT PERFORMANCE! (Slingerlands) On a crisp Saturday Morning/Afternoon the Giants left no doubt who is the best team in the CDMSBL 45+ division. On the way to their third consecutive championship the Giants beat All-Stars 13-0 in game 1 and 8-2 in game 2! The Giants finished the season 20-2-1 and had a dominant playoff run going 6-0 and running their three year record in the postseason to 18-0!!! The Giants came out HOT........however the tone was set early in the bottom of the first when All Star leadoff hitter Frank Owens lined a single to center and was promptly thrown out attempting to steal second base which effectively halted the All Star running game! Then the Giants bats got to work......leadoff man Will Brouwer drew a walk, stole second base, advanced to third on one of Mick Novaks five hits on the day and was driven in when Joe DeMarco dumped an RBI single to right....DeMarco stole second and scored when Doug Reisinger lined a triple over the centerfielders head! Mike Harbour who was a tremendous addition to the Giants squad then singled in Reisinger. The Giants first five hitters all scored in the first and the Giants were up 5- 0 and turned things over to Paul Moore who threw an absolute gem! The Giants were not done! Brouwer again led things off with a single and stole second base, Novak lined another single and DeMarco drove both of them in with a 2 run double, Reisinger walked, Jim Hicks singled and then Jim Shook crushed a 2 run double, the Giants finished the scoring when another rookie and tremendous addition Jay Mavrides laced a 2-run double and that about sealed game 1. Moore went on to throw a complete game shut out and the Giants used the mercy rule to win 13-0! Novak led the way going three for three while DeMarco, Reisinger, Hicks, Shook and Mavrides all had 2 hits apiece!! On to game 2 where the Giants rolled Paul Moore out to continue his dominance and All Stars called on Travis Rosencranse to pitch. Rosencranse was battling all day and was exceptional, however the Giants used the same play book that worked in game one! This time DeMarco singled, stole second base and was driven in Reisinger to jump out to a 1-0 lead!!! Big Game James Shook got the second going with a walk, stole second base and later came around to score on a 2 run single by Mick Novak who was battling his own health issues! Shook was on fire all weekend totaling 5 hits stealing 4 bases and coming up big in every spot as the Giants cruised to a 8-2 victory behind another fine start from Paul Moore, Moore went 4 and a third innings in game 2 allowing two runs on the entire day which encompassed a game 1 shutout win and the victory in game 2......Jimmy Johnson came in to quiet a potential rally in the fifth and threw a solid two and two thirds innings allowing no runs on two hits and the Giants finished off a dominant season!! CONGRATS to Gene Hallenbeck and Hall of Famer Joe Burns for pulling off a double championship as earlier in the week their Whiz won the 55+ title!
On a sad note early last week the Giants found out that a genuinely wonderful man Lalo Reyes passed away suddenly! Lalo was a dear friend, teammate and one of the sweetest guys you will ever encounter....and man could he play the game...a number of Giants had the good fortune to call Lalo a teammate (in other age divisions) and some of us were fortunate to call him a friend also! We will all miss him and we send our thoughts and prayers to his wife and children!!!! {SUBMITTED BY JOE DEMARCO}
-- Edited by MrJ on Thursday 6th of October 2022 07:34:28 AM
-- Edited by MrJ on Thursday 6th of October 2022 07:41:33 AM