Storm started strong in game 1. The defense kept the Falcons off the board in the top of the first, and the bats came alive in the bottom. Jeff led off with a single. Duran flew out and Craig got some help from some sloppy defense. Joey, Bob, and Al all singled. Then Brad came up and smacked a three run home run over the fence. Yes, you read that right. Brad hit his first home run since.... Well, statleaders is down and nobody can actually remember when Brad last hit a home run.
The second was more of the same as Storm held the Falcons to two runs, and then batted through the lineup for six runs with Craig knocking in half of them with a three run blast.
The script flipped in the third. Joey was perched under a fly ball in short left, until he realized he wasn’t under it, and the ball bounced off his glove. The Falcons took advantage this rare miscue and scored six. Storm couldn’t manage any, and all of a sudden it was 11-8 and a tight game.
Storm blanked the Falcons in the fourth, and then had a very strange inning offensively. With runners on first and second, Al hit a hard ground ball. He sauntered to first and stopped until the throw went home, at which point he went to second. Bob, being as aggressive as ever, rounded third, and when he saw the ball bounce away from the catcher, ran home. He took the pitcher and third baseman with him and beat the throw to the plate. At this moment, Al decided he could sneak into third, since there wasn’t anyone covering. One of the many Falcons surrounding home plate saw this, and threw the ball to the short stop who was now attempting to cover third. But the ball got away from them and went to the outfield. Al then sauntered home. This play was so confusing to our scorekeeper that she circled 1B, 2B, 3B, and HR and then eventually wrote a large question mark beside the whole thing. After the dust settled, Storm got five more hits and three more runs for a mercy inning.
The fifth and sixth inning were fairly uneventful and Storm went into the final frame leading 20-8. In the seventh, however, Storm decided to get generous. After six innings of solid baseball, Storm decided to bobble a few. This led to the Falcons putting up nine runs. They only pulled to within three, so it was never THAT close, but it was close enough to invoke the annoying rule that the home team has to bat if they aren’t winning by seven. It makes you think the league should remove runs for and run differential from time breaking procedures to avoid this type of situation.
Notable Boxscores:
Craig - 5 for 5, HR, triple, 5 RBI, 5 runs
Joey - 4 for 5, 3 runs, 2 RBI
Al 4 for 5, 7 RBI, 3 runs, single turned inside the park home run via three base error
Brad - 3 for 5, HR, 3 RBI
Jeff - 4 for 5, 2 runs, RBI
Kevin 3 for 4, 2 doubles, 2 RBI, run
Dave - 4 for 4
Cycle Watch: Craig missed the double
In other news….
Storm Award Vote - In which Brad votes for himself and STILL wins most sportsmanlike player
Storm award voting is much like AGT or an American election. In the MVP race, Duran’s heart wrenching story of recovering from a heart attack and then leading the team in eight different offensive categories pulled at the heartstrings of his teammates, and he won the MVP award.
There were calls for a recount after Brad won the MSP award, and then jokingly mentioned how he had voted for himself, or rather his nom de plume, but it called into question the integrity of the vote.
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