ST. JOHN’S (CP) – The Caribou softball season kicked off earlier than usual on Tuesday night and Compusult wasted no time picking up where they left off last year when they won the B championship. The defending champs swept the two-game set against Deloitte/TRR to start the year off on a high note.

Free-agent acquisition Nelson Brown had a monster night at the plate in his Compusult debut, going 3-3 with a sac fly and driving in 5 runs to lead the way in Game 1 which Compusult took by a 14-10 margin. James Filler and Devon Hibbs each scored 3 runs while Ian Bridger and Mike Upshall knocked in 3 apiece in the season-opener. 

Brown took things to a higher level in Game 2 when he cracked 2 home runs and 6 RBIs in his second straight perfect game at the plate. The Top 4 of Filler, Hibbs, Randy Bouzane and Brown accounted for 12 of the team’s 18 runs, each coming home to score 3 times. Bridger also went 4-4 with a triple, Dean Younge went 2-2 with a sac fly for a solid 5-6 evening at the plate, Hibbs drove home 3 runs and Bouzane also had a pair of ribbies in an 18-7 drubbing.

HON candidates:

•            Fillier setting the defensive tone early with one of his patented full horizontal diving grabs in shallow left. Mid-season form in May….loves it!
•            Hatch, who managed to do something positive in the field to make up for the shortcomings with his bat, diving to knock down a grounder on his backhand and getting a tough force at third.
•            Randy dropping a perfectly placed beauty line drive down the third base line that rolled to the fence, allowing him to circle the sacks for an inside the park home run. He ran the bases marginally faster than Larry did during his ITPHR a couple years ago. That old bastard Father Time marches on.
•            Nelson showing exactly why we picked him up. Bottom of 3^rd, down 6-2, Mr. Brown comes up with the bases juiced and proceeds to tie the game by hitting a ball into orbit. There was a report on the news this morning from NASA, their systems picked up the ball on their radar. The shot actually landed in the trees beyond the second fence in left field, causing the birds to chirp like Kavy. Easily 350’. 

First highlight of the night of 2016: goes to the new guy – Nelson’s grand slam had the whole dugout speechless, unless you count the odd adjective like “sick”, “not sensible”, “disgusting” ….words usually reserved for describing Kavy. Welcome to the team, Nelson!!

Worst play of the day – no trouble to tell it was the first game of the year as there were a few sloppy, rusty defensive miscues, but the worst play goes to Fillier for dropping a fairly routine fly ball. No worries, Filly….you made up for it with the diving grab earlier. Honourable mention - Dean sending Bridger home from second on a base hit up the middle with no one out. Out by a mile is an understatement. Speed kills, boys….it killed my career.

Line of the night: “In order to score 4 runs in an inning last year, we needed 6 singles, 2 walks, a fielder’s choice, 3 errors….nice to have a bit of pop in the lineup” – Mike Upshall

Honourable mention: Andrew White - “man, Mike Osmond lost a LOT of weight”. Ian -  “he must have shit out Kavy”.

Stats are up on the team website, much to Hatch’s dismay: http://www.leaguelineup.com/teams_baseball.asp?url=teamcompusult&sid=142818216

Good to be back, boys!!

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