The Albany Cubs headed into Doubleheader Day wanting to exact revenge on two teams that got the better of us last year. All started well, as The Cubs faced the Banana Sharks in game one and got off to a 7-1 lead after the first inning against the Banana Sharks starter: Jim Bonaparte. Yes, that is the same Jim Bonaparte that played with the 55+ Cubs back in Albany. Don't ask me why he was pitching for the opponent (it is a sore subject with me).
PJ Martone stayed hot and doubled with one out to get things going on the right foot. Mike Girard singled and Dave Mitchell drove in both with a double. Darrell Duncan and Ron Massaroni followed with singles. Gene Hallenbeck doubled and Paul Miles then singled. Ron McCarthy walked and Jim McQuade reached on an error and Paul Graziano was hit by a pitch. The end result was a 7-1 lead, but lots of baseball was still left to be played.
The rest of that game did not go as well for the Cubs. Jim settled in and his defense played better for him after some ragged play in the first. He kept the Cubs from adding any runs. Cubs were getting on but Bones made the pitches that he needed to when it mattered most. 8 Cubs were stranded on base during those 5 innings. In the meantime, Bob Bolt was limiting the Banana Sharks to just their first inning run through the first 4 innings. The Banana Sharks got back in the game in the 5th inning scoring 6 times, to tie the score at 7.
The 6th inning saw the Banana Sharks added 6 more runs off of 3 Cubs' relievers and added one more in the 7th to take a 14-7 lead. The Cubs reeling from the two horrible innings dusted themselves off and got 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th. Mitchell got a one out single and one out later Jerry Rosen worked a walk. Jim Bonaparte then balked both runners into scoring position. Hallenbeck then scorched a double to plate both runners. Again, Bonaparte escaped further damage by getting a ground out, keeping his team in front by a score of 14-9 with just one inning to go (due to the time limit).
Any glimmer of hope for a comeback for the Cubs were extinguished when the Sharks got 3 in the top of the last inning to push their lead to 8 (17-9). The Cubs got one in the bottom of the 8th, to make the final score 17-10.
The Cubs defense played a big part in the loss by committing 5 errors in the game. That never works against good teams like this. The next order of business was to forget this awful loss quickly as possible as they had a second game against a team the was even better.
