Thursday night's matchup found the Joes playing their first game in 10 days. Any fear that their focus had drifted was soon put to rest as they came out smoking for a 1-2-3 first inning in the field followed by a solid 2 run 1st inning. However, the scrappy Rubberair Door team would not go away and took a 2 run lead heading into the bottom of the 2nd. The Joes did not panic but put up two runs of their own to even the score. The score stayed that way until the Joes seemingly put the game away with a 4 run 4th. But those scrappy Door boys found the will to tie the game in the top of the 5th with 4 runs! Poised as usual, the Joes rallied for a 9-8 walk off win as Hans led off the 5th with a single and took second with great base running. That brought Adam to the plate who laced a solid single to right field scoring Hans with the winning run! Did anyone see the "hop" at home plate? What an ending to a great game!
The offense was sold all night as the Joes posted 9 runs - Matthew (2), Henry (2), Peter (2), Hans, Mason, and Mark all scored. Matthew (triple, double) and Henry both pounded out two hits each and Peter, Garrett, Hans, and Adam all had hits. Taco, Mark, and Mason all drew walks to get on base. If there was one thing that won the game on this night it was base running. That has been a major focus of our practices and the Joes showed they have been learning as they scored several runs on simply superior and aggressive base running.
On the mound, Adam posted a 1-2-3 1st inning. Peter came in and bailed us out of a jam in the 2nd and then went on to post 2 more great innings - allowing NO runs. Those were huge innings that allowed the Joes to get back in the game. Garrett deserved better as he made every pitch he needed to but ran into bad luck in the 5th.
Defensively, Garrett won our "dirty jersey" award as he made a nice put out from 2nd that found him scooping the ball and beating the runner to 1B as he tumbled into foul territory. An all out, heads up play that wins games! He also got dirty on a pop up and made a great catch. Henry somehow snagged a ball that looked to get by him to make on an out that ended a potential rally in the 3rd, and Jon Jon made a game saving play in the 5th. With the game on the line he fielded a single from his RF spot and threw a missile to Henry at 1b to get an out - that is good, smart baseball and that is what wins games!
My special thanks to the Manfredis who supplied our new very cool scoreboard. With a game like this one, we needed it.
You may have also noticed that we got one of our players back from the DL. Mason is 100% and was able to play in this game and he wasted no time by plating a run in our 4-run 4th. Welcome back Mason.
And I am sure you noticed that Taco was proudly wearing the coveted blue wrist band. Taco's focus, energy, respect, competitiveness, and drive to get better shine through every game and practice. No one has ever deserved this award more - GREAT JOB TACO!
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