Storm batted through the order in the top of the 1st inning. Duran sprayed a single and Rene limped out a double to start the inning. The hits continued and Storm scored 4. With Captain Underpants elsewhere saving the world, it was up to Batting Practice to hold down the mound. The A’s were held to a giant goose egg in the first inning.
Storm’s offence kept thundering in the 2nd inning as they nearly batted through the order again, and again scored four. Three of the runs came off a monstrous Joey homer. The A’s scored two in the bottom and Storm held an 8-2 lead after two.
The third inning saw both team’s offences take a vacation as neither team was able to score a run. Storm managed one in the fourth, and the A’s found their bats, scoring three in the bottom half. Both teams scored three in the fifth.
It was the sixth where things started to get interesting. Storm went down in order. The A’s started to mash the ball. With two out Larry hit a massive pop fly. Adam said, “mine” off the bat, then changed his mind and said, “never mind, it’s out of here.” It’s unclear whether he misjudged the ball twice, or he was playing psychological warfare, as the ball hit the fence. Larry, however, had walked towards the dugout either believing the ball would be caught, or it would be a home run out. After it hit the fence, however, he turned and ran to first. The umpire called him out for abandonment. That ended the inning, quite controversially, as two runners were running and would have scored, but since the batter-runner was declared out, their runs did not count (we think, since we didn’t have a scorekeeper and were trusting the A’s to declare the correct number of runs). Either way, the A’s had taken the lead for the first time in the game.
Storm wasn’t defeated, however! They stormed back in the top of the 7th. Rene limped out his fourth double of the game. Joey hit a titanic home run and Storm scored seven, then realised time was running out and Duran and Rene took some of the worst swings you will see on a softball diamond to end the inning. Storm hurried out, but the A’s moved as if they had been frozen by Medusa’s stare. The bottom of the seventh would include some more controversy. After strike three hit the mat, the umpire said there were only two strikes. Not sure how hard it is to count to three, but this would be a very costly mistake. On the next pitch, the batter (who fully admitted there had already been three strikes) hit a line drive to left centre. Craig made a huge effort to catch the ball. He dove for it and hit the ground and screamed in pain. He stood up looking like Quasimodo. There was no way a guy like him could stay out there for the rest of the game. The missed third strike cost Storm an out. It cost Storm a player. And it cost Storm a lot of time as Craig was lying on the ground in pain. As Storm recorded a quick out, this became more important, because that would have been the second out of the inning. Instead it was the first, and Storm had no time left to finish off the A’s. Hopefully someday Storm will get a chance for revenge in a sequel to the Clash of the Titans.
Notable Boxscores:
Rene - 4 for 4, 3 doubles, 3 runs, RBI
Joey - 4 for 4, 3 runs, 4 RBI (plus a lost 3 run HR in the inning that reverted)
Check out the new Podcast of the game as reported by;
Scoops Jockovitch and or Chip Merriweather
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Boxscore |
||||||||
|
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
Total |
|
Storm |
4 |
4 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
x |
12 |
|
A’s |
0 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
x |
13 |
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