Career Homer Number Five

Will hit his 5th career home run Tuesday night in a close 7 – 6 loss to the Hornets at Roswell Area Park. Though the fences were relatively short, the home run was pulled deep down the left field line, and sailed far over the fence. Afterwards Will said after he hit it he paused to watch the ball, then flipped his bat.

Nick led off the top the first for the Wildcats with a walk, then Audie lined the ball over the 285 foot left field fence for a home run. Will followed with a hard hit single through the hole into left field. A balk put him on second, then he took third a Vince’s sacrifice fly to right field, where he was stranded.

In the third Will took two straight balls, then an inside pitch called for a strike. I thought that strike looked like a good pitch for Will to pull. The next pitch also came inside, and Will launched it deep, undoubltably a home run, hit far beyond Audie’s homer. He tried to keep the smile off his face as he rounded the bases.

The homer gave the Wildcats a short-lived 4 – 3 lead. The Hornets tied the score in the bottom of the inning, then Sandy Plains scored once in each of the next two innings to lead 6 – 4. Will played shortstop the entire game, throwing out a runner at first, tagging out a base-stealer, and doubling off a runner at second on a fly to right.

With Nick pitching the bottom of the 5th, the Hornets loaded the bases with an error, a sacrifice bunt hit, and a hit-by-pitch. With nobody out, Will was brought in to face the heart of the Roswell order. Leading by two runs, the coach brought the infield in. Will’s first pitch was a beautiful curve ball for a called strike. The batter swung at the next two low pitches, barely fouling off the third pitch to stay alive. Will wasted a couple of pitches high. I noticed first-baseman Nick was not only playing on the grass, but also too far off the line. Sure enough, the right-handed batter grounded the ball close enough to the line to elude Nick’s mitt, and two runs scored. Another run scored when a pitch deflected off the catcher’s mitt and rolled to the backstop.

After that Will took control, striking out the number three, four, and five batters in the order, ending the Roswell rally. Earlier in the game those batters had hit three balls to the fence.