Storm Storms Back!!

Captain Underpants found his kryptonite in his achilles heel, and could be seen limping around between games. Shortly before the second game began, he pulled himself from the lineup as a late scratch. This meant that batting practice Thomas would have to pitch the whole game with no relief in sight. Batting Practice lived up to his nickname in the first inning. After giving up a single, double, and walk, the cleanup hitter for the Expos cleaned up and knocked a grand slam. They had scored four runs in four batters. They would go on to mercy Storm scoring six. For context, Storm only gave up six runs in the entire game against Surge. Storm managed to cut the lead in half as Duran launched a two run home run and Craig launched a solo shot. 

Storm fared better defensively in the second only giving up two runs. However, the offence fared worse and was blanked, meaning the deficit was growing. The Expos got four more in the third to extend their lead to 12-3. Things were looking very bleak for Storm. Rene hit a triple scoring two and then scored on a single by Joey, and Storm now had half the production of the Expos trailing 12-6.

But the Expos weren’t done yet. They added another four runs in the top of the fourth to extend their lead to 16-6. At this point, people wondered if Storm had enough thunder in their bats to come back. After stringing together a bunch of singles, Sam decided to do the Pilkey thing and blasted a three run home run. This meant Storm had mercied the Expos and pulled to 16-12.

There wasn’t a pitching change, because there was nobody else to pitch, but the rally seemed to have sparked something in Jeff, or the Expos had just exhausted all of their offence in the first four innings, because after seemingly being able to hit at will (poor Will always being targeted like that), the Expos were unable to muster much offence. They would be shut out for the next two innings. Storm, however, would also be shut out in the 5th, but in the 6th they took the lead scoring five runs aided by Jeff’s two run triple, and Mills’s double. 

The Expos wouldn’t go down quietly, though. In the top of the seventh, their leadoff batter hit a triple. It seemed like a guarantee that the tying run would come in to score. The next batter hit a pop fly to centre. Craig charged in and made a nice catch and got himself into position to throw home, but the runner stayed realizing Craig has a cannon. The next batter hit a ground ball to Joey who fielded it cleanly, checked the runner and threw to first. With two outs, it looked like Storm just might hold on to win. The next batter also hit a ground ball to Joey, but this one skipped away. The Expos scored the tying run and forced Storm to play the bottom of the inning. Sort of. A quick glance at the tie breaking rules shows that the first tie breaker that would have applied was fewest runs against, which meant Storm would have finished first even if the game had ended in a tie, but it’s better to win it out right, and that’s what Storm did. The Expos found themselves between a number of rocks and miscellaneous hard places as Storm was at the top of the order with four consecutive home run hitters and only needing one run to win.  Rene led off with a double. Joey got out. The Expos then decided to walk both Duran and Craig, moving the tying run to 3rd base.  Ken then came up calm under pressure and smacked the ball to the outfield. Everyone advanced. Storm won!

Storm had trailed 12-3 and 16-6, but came back to win 18-17. Will the come from behind win be the experience the team needs to push them all the way to the championship game? Will Captain Underpants be available to pitch? There are many questions to answer, and only time will tell. Storm faces off against Hanet in the quarter final at 10AM Sunday!

Storm    18   -   Expo's 17

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Expo’s	6	2	4	4	0	0	1	17
Storm	3	0	3	6	0	5	1	18