Joes Winning Streak Ends at Four

One thing is for sure - win or lose the Joes always give great effort and find a way to stay in the game until the end. This 5-2 loss was simply a matter of not getting the big hit when we had runners on base. We were also the victims of baseball luck as several hard hit balls found TP mitts. Jacob lined out to 2B in the 5th with a runner on and Nick hit a ball as far as you can in the 6th but it also was caught. However, a 5-2 game is a good battle and overall a well played game.

Our pitching was fantastic. Peter gave it all he had and threw our longest outing of the year - going 3 1/3 innings - only surrendering 5 runs. Matthew pitched 1 1/3 innings of no run ball and Jacob closed it out with a perfect 1/3 inning.

Given the low-scoring game, there was lots of action on the field. In fact, we had two of our finest defensive plays to date. With a runner on 3B, a ball was hit back to Peter at his pitcher's spot. He quickly fired to a waiting Jacob who was waiting at home to receive the throw and nail the runner trying to score. Later in the game a TP batter hit a would-be single to RF. However, a heads-up Kai charged the ball, scooped it, and fired to the G Man who raced over to cover 1B. Great heads up play by Kai and the G Man! Matthew fielded a grounder from 3B and also several from the pitcher's mound. The G Man nabbed two pop-ups from 2B, and Peter also fielded several "come-backers" when we was on the mound.

As mentioned, runs were hard to come by. Nick scored both runs - one on a thrilling run down between 3B and home! Nick (2) and Matthew (2) pounded out hits.

As we told the team after the game, if we only give up 5 runs we will win almost all the time. We just had a game when the bats stayed silent and that is baseball. With a third of the season done, we are alone in 3rd place in the division.