May 8th Game

Will had a good game last Tuesday night, though the Titans lost to North Cobb 14 – 11.

He played shortstop the first 4-1/2 innings, and in a rare move was moved to catcher in the middle of the inning, when the other catcher continually allowed wild pitches and passed balls. The bases were loaded with no outs, and the next three batters were retired, included an unsuccessful suicide squeeze attempt where Will tagged out the runner charging home from third.

At shortstop Will had two putouts in the first inning. On a single the batter rounded first and continued to second when the rightfielder threw home. The pitcher cut off the throw and threw to Will covering second. The batter stopped, caught between the bases, and slowly backtracked as Will ran to him holding the ball. The batter expected Will to eventually toss the ball to the first-baseman, so he did not run full speed back to the base. Instead of throwing Will simply accelerated and tagged the batter out without a throw, perfectly executing a rundown.

Will later tagged out the next runner attempting to steal second base to end the inning.
In the second a batter chopped a grounder just out of the reach of the pitcher. Will charged the ball and barely had time to throw out the batter at first.

In the first Will’s hard grounder was bobbled by the shortstop, and Will beat the throw to first. The first baseman fired across the diamond past third, allowing the runner to score and Will advanced to second. After Chris walked, Lanz popped the ball high and fair in front of first, and was out on the infield fly rule. When North Cobb let the ball bounce Will raced to third. Will scored on Bryce’s single.

Will singled up the middle in the third and stole second base, and took third on an infield hit.
When Bryce hit a grounder to third Will took off for home, and the third-baseman’s only play was at first.

At 8:05 pm the sun was setting, but a fifth inning was started. North Cobb scored a quick insurance run, but was retired with only four batters coming to the plate. Down five runs, three of the first six Titan batters scored, and Will came up as the light continued to fade. He singled up the middle on the first pitch, but the next batter grounded out to end the game.