A’s Storm back, but Storm stands strong

 The A’s gave Storm a little more than they bargained for in game 2 of the playoffs. Storm started strong, scoring five in the first. Mills made a great play in the second inning throwing a runner out at second from the outfield and setting the tone. Storm continued strong scoring three more in the second as Rene hit yet another triple. 

The third inning showed both teams putting up large goose eggs. The A’s got some luck and took advantage of it. Feeling great about his earlier throw to second Mills charged hard on a ground ball in the outfield, but missed it. It went for a triple and put the A’s on the board. They would score three to make it an 8-3 score. 

Storm responded in the bottom of the 4th with a max 6 doubling up the A’s output and putting themselves what would appear to be firmly in the lead. 15-3 seemed safe. However, Storm bats lost their thunder, and the A’s bats found some because the A’s scored four in the top of the sixth with a massive home run. Storm still took a 14-7 lead into the final frame, but things started to get uncomfortable rather quickly as the A’s strung together a few hits and then hit a massive three run home run to bring them to within three. That was followed by a double, but Storm would record the final out to hold onto a 14-11 win. 

Storm will need to figure out how to score after the fourth if they are going to be successful on Sunday.

Storm Starts Playoff’s Strong

Storm started the playoffs with a bang. While Coulas was able to score three in the top of the first, Storm responded with five. Storm showed patience at the plate with Coulas’s pitcher (who was pitching only his third game of the year). Rene led off with a triple and Storm rolled through almost the entire batting order (they were shocked they had such a long batting order!).

The second went even better than the first as Coulas was held to a single run and Storm scored the max six. Sam walked off the inning with a grand slam. Storm managed to match their production again in the third by scoring another max 6. Rene hit his second triple of the game. 

Storm scored five more in the fourth to take a commanding 22-4 lead. The game looked like it was going to be quite long as the first four innings took over an hour and there is no time limit in the playoffs. Storm had maxed out two of the innings and almost maxed out the other two, but it also seemed like they were maxed out as they only managed six more runs in the final two innings. Still, it was more than enough as they won 28-5.

Storm Finish strong with 30th Win of the Season!

A lineup change worked out well as Rene led off the game with a single (instead of a solo home run). Joey tripled and Duran hit a home run, but at least there was a runner on  this time. The Expos scored two and Storm held a one run lead at the end of the first. 

Joey knocked a three run home run in the second capping off a five run inning. Storm scored a max six in the fourth with a barrage of singles and doubles. It looked like Storm was going to pull away, but the Expos would not go silent into that dark night scoring six of their own, keeping the score relatively close at 15-11. 

Storm scored five in the top of the fifth, again seemingly putting the game away, but the Expos raged against the dying of the late, scoring five of their own and keeping pace with Storm. Storm managed to go up 23-16, but the Expos kept fighting until the final out, scoring three more, but it was too little too late. 

Storm finished off the season with two wins scoring over 20 runs in each game after struggling to score runs through much of the final stretch of the season. Hopefully they can continue to hit well and play solid defence through the playoff weekend.

Storm    23   -   Expo's 19

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Expo’s	2	1	2	6	5	0	3	19
Storm	3	5	1	6	5	2	1	23

Storm Clinch First Place

Storm and Greenthumb played a war of attrition on Monday night. Storm managed to cobble together a lineup of 10 players, but that included Zombie Bob who switched positions after one play because it required too much movement and hurt too much. The defence was also shuffled a little with some infield regulars roaming the outfield. 

Greenthumb had their lineup supplemented by two players from The Crew who had a vested interest in the outcome of the game as they needed Storm to lose to clinch first place themselves. Greenthumb started off well, scoring three in the top of the first. Storm thundered back in the bottom half of the inning. Duran launched a leadoff home run for the third straight game, which led to serious discussion over lineup construction. Storm would continue to strike lightning, scoring the max six without recording an out in the inning.

Greenthumb would get one in the second, but Joey made an incredible catch with a Go Go Gadget arm that extended to end the inning. He used his Go Go Gadget arm in the bottom half of the inning to get his own player out on a foul ball while catching for Greenthumb. Storm still scored four capped off by a triple from Rene. 

Storm’s bats contained more thunder throughout the night and they were able to muster more runs than they had in each of the previous three games en route to a 21-10 victory, and more importantly, clinching first place.

Storm    21  -   Greenthumb 10

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Greenthumb	3	1	2	1	2	1	0	10
Storm	6	4	0	4	7	0	x	21

One down, one to go!

 The Expos started strong with three runs in the top of the first, and all Storm could respond with was a Han Solo from Duran, who has stated he shouldn’t bat leadoff. Chewbacca agrees. Storm fared better in the second, blanking the Expos and then finally acting like themselves and scoring five runs on a sequence of singles. The 6-3 lead looked good, but Storm forgot how to hit in the third and fourth innings, putting up big fat goose eggs. Thankfully, the defence played like Donald Trump’s proposed wall, and didn’t let anything sneak through in those same innings. 

Storm scored a pair in the bottom of the fifth, but they didn’t even have time to breathe, because the Expos also remembered that hitting is more fun, and their bottom of the order started off a six run inning punctuated by a grand slam that allowed them to take a one run lead.

With the game and potentially first place on the line, Storm was able to manage six consecutive singles and four runs to take a three run lead. More solid defence in the bottom of the inning allowed Storm to hold on. There will be a rematch Monday night.

Storm    12   -   Expo's 9

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Expo’s	3	0	0	0	0	6	0	9
Storm	1	5	0	2	0	4	x	12

Storm’s batting drought continues against Isotopes

It looked like Storm’s offensive struggles were coming to an end against the Isotopes, as Duran launched a solo home run far into the night sky in the first at bat of the night. Storm added two more to score three, which was a more productive inning than most of their innings in the first game. The Isotopes kept it close with two of their own, but Storm held on to their lead.

The drought started to return in the second as Storm only mustered one run. The Isotopes had a nuclear explosion scoring six and taking the lead. Storm would not be deterred. They rallied and scored the max six powered by a series of singles as they nearly batted through the order. 

It looked as if Storm had finally figured things out. They kept the Isotopes to only one run in the third and blanked them in the fourth to carry an 11-9 lead into the fifth. The fifth inning has been an inning that has been good to Storm most of the season, but on September 5 it was a very bad inning. The Isotopes trailed 12-9 when they came to the plate, and while they didn’t score 9 like the Falcons had, they hit the ball well enough to force a pitching change and to take the lead 14-12.

Storm’s hitting drought continued and Storm was only able to score one run in the final two frames. Joey came to the plate as the tying run in the seventh inning, but because Duran had hit two solo home runs, Joey had to keep it in the park, which he did making the score 14-13, but that was as close as Storm would come.

Storm clearly likes suspense. First place had seemingly been wrapped up for a while, but with four losses in the last six games, including being swept in two separate doubleheaders, Storm now needs to win at least two of the last three games to clinch first place. 

Storm    13  -   Isotopes 14

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Isotopes	2	6	1	0	5	0	x	14
Storm	3	1	6	1	1	0	1	13