In my experience, the Mt. Paran games against Hobgood Park teams have never turned out well. We lose, get rained out, or someone gets hit by a line drive. But even when the Warriors didn’t have their best game at the plate, last night they hung tough in a nail-biting seven inning pitching duel, to earn a 3 – 3 tie.
David pitched great, allowing one unearned run in his 3 innings. He struck out 3 and walked only one, and alertly covered first when the game’s leadoff hitter grounded one to Clay in the hole. David threw 28 strikes and only 10 balls.
The meat of the Hobgood order had hit the ball hard in the first inning, and was just the team to be thrown off by a pitcher like John Fulton. JF pitched 4 innings, only needing 41 pitches, including 30 strikes. He struck out three, and the only walks were two intentional passes. Both runs he allowed were unearned, and the only 2 hits he allowed never left the infield. One “hit” was a bunt that JF just missed throwing out at first. John Fulton also caught an infield popup.
The Warriors made key defensive plays throughout the game. In the first inning catcher Will gunned down a base-stealer at 3rd-base, then Michael threw out a batter at first from his second-base position to kill a rally. In between, Thomas almost made a leaping catch in right field.
Andrew’s big game began in the 2nd when he threw out a base-stealer at third. Jake applied the tag, and later ended the inning by throwing out a batter at first. Will caught a pop to end the third and threw out a runner from short in the 4th…with Josiah making a nice play to tag out the runner after being drawn off the bag.
Christian had a leadoff walk and reached third, but received a rude welcome at home plate, getting tagged in the face. Curtis had a single to right in the third. Corey, Russell, and Clay caught quiet innings. Nick’s hit a high pop that was uncatchable. Will also had an infield hit and two stolen bases.
As the sun set and innings ended, we kept waiting for the game to be called due to the increasing darkness. This made each inning more suspenseful. In the fifth Joey made a tough catch in right, and Michael caught a high pop at third. Will’s triple and Clay’s double plated one run in the bottom of the inning.
The suspense grew in the bottom of the 6th inning. Andrew led off with a line drive single just out of the shortstop’s reach. Jake pinch ran and quickly stole second and third, getting a great jump both times. Josiah walked, and then Christian came through big with an RBI grounder. Thomas was hit with a pitch. Josiah got a huge jump and stole third, which I thought was big. He drew a throw from the catcher, and scored the apparent winning run when the ball sailed into the outfield. But the game continued.
The Hobgood leadoff hitter reached base and quickly advanced to third. Then he raced home when a pitch bounded away from Andrew. But Andrew quickly recovered, and dived headfirst back to the plate to tag out the runner…a great play. One out.
The cleanup hitter reached, and then the next hitter hit an easy grounder to Will at short. Will fielded the ball and prepared to throw to Christian at first…but the umpire was right in the way, and the batter reached….runners on second and third. As John Fulton worked the count full on the next hitter, we decided to walk the batter intentionally and draw the infield in to get the runner at the plate. More suspense. The next batter struck out, but all three runners advanced on a dropped third strike. Tie game, two out.
The next batter had hit the ball hard both times, so he was intentionally walked to load back the bases, the next batter grounded one to short. Will bobbled the ball, but recovered in time to dive headfirst into second base, just ahead of the runner, ending the inning.
JF tried unsuccessfully to bunt his way on, then Michael doubled to right. Russell squared and laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt. But the pitcher fielded and looked to third. The third-baseman had also charged the bunt, and the shortstop didn’t cover. Russell raced to first with a rare sacrifice hit. Michael tried valiantly to score on a passed ball, but Hobgood executed the toss perfectly, and in the darkness the Warriors had to settle for an exciting tie.
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