Storm hold on to defeat Triple Play

Storm headed into the second game of a very important doubleheader. Brad settled into his role as starter and blanked Triple Play in the first inning. Triple Play was hitting the ball hard, but there was some solid defense behind him and he was throwing strikes so the scoresheet had very little lead on it in the opening frame.  Storm didn’t do much better as they only put up one run. The scoresheet pencil was still relatively sharp at the end of the first.

Brad kept rolling in the second giving up only one. The bottom half of Storm’s lineup got the ball rolling for the second game in a row. Five consecutive hits led to three runs and Storm was up 4-1. Brad gave up 2 runs in the third as Triple Play seemed to be adding an extra run each inning they hit off him. Duran took out a few tree branches and maybe a bird’s nest to open up Storm’s half of the third. Storm scored 3 more and took a 7-3 lead.

Storm changed pitchers in the fourth, but it didn’t help as Triple Play exploded for five runs including two home runs and taking an 8-7 lead. Storm didn’t panic as the bottom of the order came through again and Storm scored five runs to retake the lead 12-8.

Jeff settled in after a rocky first inning giving up only one run in each of the fifth and sixth innings. Storm was also blanked in the fifth, but was able to score three more runs to add onto the lead as Rene hit a perfectly placed double and was cashed in by Sam.

A five run lead is not safe in slo-pitch, especially against the league’s second highest scoring team. Triple Play’s bottom of the order came through for them as Kevin and Ian led off with hits setting the table for the top of the order. After Bill also got a hit Storm was looking a little shaky. Two quick outs helped Storm breathe a little, but Triple Play kept rolling and got the tying run to third base before Tony made an excellent play at second to end the game.

With the two wins in the big doubleheader, Storm looks like it has settled itself into third place for the playoffs. Storm could still catch Triple Play for second, but it would need to win out AND for Triple Play to lose two of their last three games. Storm has a game and a half lead over the Falcons, who could also still catch Storm for third place, but Storm would have to lose two of its last three games for them to have a chance. Storm controls its own destiny for third and needs to go get the job done down the stretch .

Final Score: Storm 15 - Triple Play 14