Tigers: 8 Errors in 13-9 Loss

Matthew’s Tigers lost their game at Shaw Park Wednesday night 13-9. Of the twenty players on both teams, Matthew was one of five who hit the ball every time they batted. He socked two hard grounders to the shortstop.

Matthew drove in a run with his first-inning grounder. The shortstop tossed to second to force the runner, but Matthew beat out the throw to first. When the first-baseman then threw home, Matthew scampered to second.

Both times he went up to the plate looking to hit the ball. In the first inning he hit the first pitch. In the third inning he took the first pitch high, then hit the second pitch thrown to him.

Matthew says he’s enjoying playing second base, where he played two innings. He also played right field two innings.

MT PARAN.…4…0…4…1……9

SHAW PRK…6…0…7…0…..13

The first four Tigers to bat in the first inning scored. Harrison’s bases-loaded single knocked home Brandt and Nate. Tanner scored on the shortstop’s error, then Matthew’s fielder’s choice knocked in Harrison.

Shaw Park answered with six two-out runs, all unearned. The Tigers committed four errors in the inning, throwing the ball around two much. Alex hit one batter and walked another, and both scored. Little Randal pitched a scoreless second inning. He struck out two batters looking, then jumping high to field a chopper, and threw the batter out at first. Playing second later in the game, Randal threw a batter out at first.

In the third the Tigers scored four more, to retake the lead. Nate again reached on an error, and scored on Tanner’s single to right. As Harrison stepped into the box the crowd grew quiet. Speaking softly from the dugout, I said “Big hole in right-center. Have some fun!” Later he said he heard me. Harrison smoked a low, deep line drive that rolled to the fence, for a RBI triple. he later scored on Randal’s infield dribbler. Randal advanced his way around the basepaths, scoring on passed balls and wild pitches.

Tanner pitched well, but the Tiger’s inability to make plays led to another big inning for Shaw Park. Four more Tiger errors led to seven more Shaw Park runs. Facing eight batters, Tanner was able to record only one out (by lefty shortstop Brandt). Brandt then came in and recorded two quick outs: a strikeout and a runner picked off first (his second in three games). Before the game ended, Brandt retired two more batters.

Saturday morning at 9 am the Tigers play their Mt. Paran rivals, the Nationals. Will may skip his 3 pm game and go up to Camp Highland (sorry, Kevin!).