Storm wins Xtremely close game!

Storm got off to an Xtremely good start yesterday with a 17 run first inning. The inning started with a selfish solo homerun by Bob that would have repercussions for a player with fewer home-runs and more base runners, but we’ll get back to that later. Storm then ran through the batting order with every player but Brian recording a hit in the first inning. As a matter of fact, if Brian had not been in the lineup, who knows if that inning would ever have ended since he accounted for two of the three outs. By the end of the inning all but three batters had batted twice!

Unfortunately, Storm bats cooled off significantly after that. After a 17 run first, Storm struggled to get hits through the next four innings while Xtreme chipped away at the lead until in the top of the sixth they went ahead 21-20. After starting the game with a 14 run lead, it would have been Xtremely disappointing if Storm had allowed Xtreme to come back to win. Fortunately, Storm was able to score three in the bottom of the sixth to take a 23-21 lead. The top of the seventh had the bottom three batters for Xtreme come to the plate. After recording the first two outs, Xtreme’s last batter singled to bring the top of the order up. A pop fly into shallow centre was tracked down by Joey, and Storm held on to an Xtremely close game.

Game Highlights: Mike, Dave, and Kevin all hit their first home run of the season!

Not So Highlights: Jeff hit his first home run of the season. Oh wait, no, it didn’t count. Then Jeff hit his second, no wait first, no wait, that one didn’t count either. The second home run/out was really more Dave’s fault for so selfishly slugging a solo home run earlier that inning. As a matter of fact, there were two solo home runs in the game that erased Jeff’s two run and three run homers. As well as the lost home runs and 5 RBI, Jeff also lost 125 points on the batting average since the home runs are recorded as outs. But don’t worry, he’s not bitter or anything! in a league with a home run rule, baseball is like comedy: timing is everything.

Added Note: After the second futile home run, Bob nicknamed Jeff  "Boom Boom Jeff".

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Xtreme	3	0	0	3	2	13	0	21
Storm	17	0	0	0	3	3	x	23

Storm elevates over Direct

As the evening descended into the night, the temperature descended below zero. Storm jumped out to a 6 run lead in the top of the first, but gave back five of those runs in the bottom of the first. Direct took the lead in the 2nd, and then in third Storm jumped back to a one run lead. In the fourth and fifth, Direct mysteriously thought every batter was Joey (it actually was Joey at least once), and started dropping every ball that was hit. That allowed Storm to jump way up and never look back.

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Direct	5	3	3	0	6	x	x	17
Storm	6	0	6	7	8	x	x	27

Storm winds blow Falcons to the ground

The sky was dark and the wind was cold and crisp as flurries fluttered to the ground. The players were huddled in hoodies and jackets and it was a fight just to keep the blood flowing to the fingers. The only thing that wasn’t cold on this night, was the Storm bats. After a slow start (3 runs in the first two innings combined) the bats started to heat up. Storm scored seven in the third, 10 in the fourth and then in the fifth, the Storm scored 17 runs on 18 hits on way to a 37-10 victory. Some game highlights included Kenny hitting the ball and Joey hitting an absolutely meaningless monster home run JUST BECAUSE HE COULD!

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Falcons	0	0	0	3	7	x	x	10
Storm	3	0	7	10	17	x	x	37

Storm, Bradley Slugfest

Last year was a great year for Storm, but there was one team that seemed to have our number. Last season we lost more games to Bradley than to the rest of the league combined; therefore, it was nice to start the season series against them with a win. It was definitely a slugfest, with the balls flying off the bats, but Storm came out on top 23-13. Joey’s two home runs were a definitely great moments, but the absolute highlight of the night had to be Kenny’s 2nd at bat. Kenny was swinging for the fences; unfortunately, he didn’t make contact with the ball. Nor did the ball make contact with the mat. Kenny struck out on three consecutive swings, on pitches that would have been balls. Oh my God they struck out Kenny! On another note, Greg has been christened with a new nickname: Handsome!

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Bradley	4	4	0	2	1	2	0	13
Storm	5	2	0	6	5	5	0	23

Storm Blows Over Coulas

And this is how the season starts: not with a whimper, but a BANG!

I’m not sure if it was the new bats, the new balls, the three practices, or just the quality of the team, but Storm bats looked to be in mid-season form. Led by a grand slam by Bob in the fourth inning, the team got many timely hits, mixed some power in with a lot of singles, and batted through the order two and a half times scoring 12 runs in an inning that didn’t end up counting as time expired. Great start to the season!

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Coulas	0	2	4	3	1	x	x	10
Storm	2	1	3	5	3	x	x	14