Storm double up Hanet

 Dark storm clouds hovered in the air and lightning lit up the night sky as Hanet and Storm took the field Wednesday night. The lightning was bright and Brad was wondering how much metal was in his body. The thunder wasn’t only in the night sky, though, as Storm’s bats lit up the first inning. After Mills led off with a single Duran launched a two run home run, and then Bob launched a two run home run a couple of batters later. Storm was out of long balls five batters into the game. The next five batters singled and Storm took a quick 6-0 lead. 

Joey struggled with his command a little in the first inning, walking three, but he escaped relatively unscathed after a strange two out infield fly call that confused everyone on the field causing Tony and Brian to give up on the ball. Hanet’s batter also didn’t run and Storm was able to get the out at first. This was the first of a few questionable calls from the umpire. 

Mills hit a triple and manufactured a run as Storm added two to their total in the top of the second. Mills was actually called out twice on the play as he ended up in a rundown between third and home trying to help Duran get a single. Mills was chased down the line and then called out when he crossed the commitment line for reasons that cannot be explained. He was then called out a second time when the ball was thrown home. The catcher dropped the ball, and the umpire changed his call to safe. It’s not often a player gets called out twice and still ends up safe.  Hanet matched Storm’s second inning output, and the game was still relatively tight at 8-3. Storm’s diminishing returns continued in the 3rd as they scored only once. Hanet smelled blood and was able to put up four runs in the top of the third as Storm’s outfield struggled to catch a couple of balls. 9-7 after three. It was starting to look like another nail biter that would come down to the last inning.

Strm started to play some small in the fourth as two sacrifice flies helped Storm score three and pull ahead 12-7. Rene shut down Hanet in the bottom of the 4th and Storm took a 12-7 lead into the 5th. 

The thunder and lightning in the sky started moving farther away, but Storm was just starting to find the thunder in their bats. A series of singles helped Storm score six and break the game open 18-7. In the bottom of the fifth, Lars finally dug his batting box hole deep enough to feel comfortable. Apparently number 8 on the Storm kept filling it in. After finally finding his footing, Lars launched a three run home run bringing the score to 18-10.

In the top of the sixth the Storm clouds that had been threatening opened up and Storm rained down 12 runs on Hanet. Lars’s home run had given Storm one to play with, and after Duran, Joey, and Rene passed up the opportunity, Bob launched his second of the game. 

With the score 30-10, Storm decided to try a new pitcher in the bottom of the sixth. Brad apparently used his time on the IL recovering from a neck injury learning how to pitch from some online slo-pitch guru. His warm-ups didn’t look great, but he started dropping strikes when it mattered. He may have needed to do a little “two step” to get the ball there, but he was able to throw strikes. Unfortunately for Brad, Storm made a couple of other defensive switches. Mills moved in to play third base. Lance made a valiant effort to get to a ball in right centre, but it was just out of reach hitting off the top of his glove. The real problem came with runners on second and third. There was a ground ball to Mills who fielded it cleanly. He then looked at second and third as he jogged towards first base daring the runner who initially didn’t run to go. After getting halfway to first, he threw the ball low, pounding it into the ground by first base. Brian couldn’t scoop it, and what should have been an easy out was not. Mills actually probably could have run the ball to first and beaten the runner. He had run almost all the way to catcher after catching a ball in shallow right field with a runner on third earlier.  Hanet then started targeting Mills at third and were able to score enough runs to cut the lead in half. On a ground ball that Joey fielded going to his left he decided to be a little like Mills and ran partway to third before realising that it would be a whole lot easier to just throw the ball to second. Storm eventually managed to get out of it. Brad’s first inning was a whole lot better than it looks on paper. There might be a new pitcher in Storm’s future. 

Storm put together a pretty solid game and avoided the late inning stress of the previous games by putting together a solid offensive effort and a (mostly) solid defensive game.

Final Score: Storm 30 - Hanet 15