Jays Play Hard, Beat Baltimore in Bottom of Sixth
After their less than inspired play, the Jays’ only goal for their weekend tilt against Baltimore was to play hard from the first pitch to the last pitch and see what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. And play hard they did! The Jays came from behind to tie or take the lead three separate times to prevail 6-5 and improve to 4-1 on the year.
As the home team, Colin took the ball to the hill. Although he hit the first batter with the first pitch (and coach Mike thinks he did it on purpose to, if I may quote Nuke LaLouche from Bull DUrham, "announce [his] presence with authoirty..."). Colin easily handled the Baltimore hitters, striking out 3 of the five batters he faced in the inning.
In the bottom of the second, CJ and Robbie were able to get on base thanks to a walk and hit batsman, respectively, but the Jays were unable to plate any runners, and Brooks headed to the mound to pitch the top of the second. Brooks got himself into a little trouble by loading the bases on 2 walks and a hit batsman, but he soon settled down and struck out 3 of the next 4 hitters to allow only 1 run.
In the bottom of the second, the Jays were able to tie the score thanks to a crushing home run by Boki that made it all the way to the infield of Diamond 4. Although Brooks drew a walk immediately after Boki’s blast, the Jays were not able to score any more.
Baltimore scored two in their first coach pitch inning, but the Jays were not able to get much going despite consecutive singles by Oliver and Sean. At the end of 3 complete innings, Baltomore had a 3-1 lead. Baltomire scored 2 more in the top of the 4th to take a 5-1 lead, but in the bottom of the 4th, the Jays were able to tie the game at 5 thanks to back-to-back-to-back singles by Robbie, Colin and Boki before Brooks cleared the bases with a triple. Grant then scored Brooks with a fielder’s choice, and at the end of 4 innings, the score was 5-5.
Bailey came on to pitch the top of the 5th and proceeded to make quick work of the Baltimore hitters, retiring them in order (including 2 strikes outs). The Jays, however did not get much going in the bottom of the 5th and with the score tied at 5, the teams headed to the 6th and final inning. Baltimore went down in order thanks to stellar play by Mary at third. In fact, Mary was personally responsible for 5 of the 18 put outs on the day. As a result, Mary took home the Player of the Game Award. T the end of 5 and a half innings, the score was still tied 5-5.
In the bottom of the 6th, CJ put the ball in play to star things off, but an excellent play by the pitcher, brought the Jays down to their final two outs of the day. Robbie then laced a single up the middle to give the Jays a base runner. Colin followed Robbie with a “Hamlin” double to score Robbie from first and end the game 6-5 for the Jays. That was a great game, Jays regardless of the score. As I said before the game, I do not care what the score is at the end of the game as long as we all try as hard as we can for the full 6 innings. While there was still a noticeable lack of energy on the base paths at times, I think this was a huge improvement over the last game, and for that, I am very proud of all of you. We just finished the month of May with a record of 4-1. Great work!! We have 8 more games on the season, including a big match up next week against Colorado (another team that can match us at the plate and on the mound).
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