The Cubs used quality pitching, a balanced offensive attack, and excellent defense to get by the Americans
Thursday night, at the A-Diamond.

Jim Bonaparte got his first start on the mound for the Cubs and survived a first tough inning and pitched well
for the following 3 innings and picked up the win. He scattered just 4 hits over his 4 innings, while giving up 2 runs.
He walked 2 and struck out 3. His first inning was a little rocky. Americans' leadoff man Dave Page smacked a solid single to get things going.
Mark Finelli then walked on a tough call on the 3-2 pitch. John Cortese hit into a fielder's choice, putting runners on 1st and 3rd with one out.
Cortese stole second to put two runners in scoring position with just one out. Bones then got a big strike out of the American's number 4 hitter
for the second out, but Fred Muller then stroked a 2-out, 2-RBI single, and the Americans jumped out to a 2-0 lead. Bones got out of the inning by
inducing a ground out, but the damage was done.

The Cubs didn't allow that good feeling to last too long as they got 2 runs right back, in the bottom of the first. Ron Lochner, Jerry Rosen, and Sherwin So, hit
consecutive singles with one out. So's single drove in Lochner, and Mike Girard followed with a RBI ground out to tie the game at 2.

Bonaparte gave up a Rich Garbarino lead off single in the second inning, but a well turned double play and a strike out squelched any thoughts of a rally by the Americans.
The Cubs used that momentum to take the lead in the bottom of the second inning. Jim McQuade led off by reaching on an error. Alex Marin, Paul Miles, and Ron Massaroni
hit consecutive singles, with Miles' and Marin's hits driving in runs. After a strikeout, Carlos Espada reach on an error, scoring Miles, and Lochner capped the rally with a RBI single.
Suddenly the Cubs had a 6-2 lead.

The top of the 3rd was the story of the game: Eric Samarija reached on a strikeout/E2 to lead off the inning. Gibby Travis then singled him to second.
That is when lightning struck the A-Diamond. Chris Guido hit a hard hit ball to short where Carlos Espada fielded it and tagged Samarija as he passed, then quickly threw to So covering second,
who in turn fired a strong throw to Girard at first, completing a 6-4-3 TRIPLE PLAY! A truly rare occurrence on any diamond, at any level of play. It was a thrill to be a part of.

The bottom of the 3rd saw the Cubs plate 2 more runs on hits by Girard, Marin, and Miles. The Cubs added 5 runs in the bottom of the 4th on hits by Lochner (his 3rd of the night),
Rosen (2nd hit), and So (2nd hit). Now the score was 13-2, after 4 complete innings. Girard then came on to pitch a 1-2-3 top of the 5th, and it was on to the cooler session.

The Cubs moved to 5-0 with the win. The Americans dropped to 1-4 with the loss. Next up for the Cubs is the Prates next Thursday night at Watervliet High School. Next
up for the Americans is a game vs the Dodgers next Tuesday at the B-Diamond.

-- Edited by mgirard11 on Friday 31st of May 2024 09:27:32 AM