~Greater Johnstown Youth League~

~First Tied Game In The Minors~

The Nationals and Phillies went head to head on June 10 again after playing each other the night before on June 9. The Nationals were first up to bat with Antwan coming up to the plate. Antwan struggled with the first three pitches but when that fourth one was loaded into the pitching machine he was ready. He swung the bat and launched it out into the field. The first base coach was telling him to turn and go for second base. By then the Phillies had the ball in a glove and threw it in as Antwan was going for third base. The ball was thrown to third base where the player dropped the ball and the third base coach sent Antwan home to score a IN THE PARK HOMERUN! Next up to bat was Hunter who on the second pitch got onto the base. Next was Dayten who also hit on the second pitch and also go onto the base. Now the Nationals had one on first and second base. Khaliq was up to bat and hit the ball bringing in a run to bring the score to 2-0. Next April came up to bat and hit it right up between first and second base. As this play was happening Khaliq took off from first base but was hit by the ball ending with him being out and Dayten scoring a run. Next up was Lola who ended up striking out. Kaysen was the next up to and hit the ball but the play ended with a GO1-3 thus bringing the first half of the inning to a close with the score now 3-0 Nationals.

The Phillies came up to bat in the bottom of the 1st and it was one hit right after another starting with Khayman then onto Paisley, Jaxon, Aaron, & Blaise all hitting the ball to either the outfield or up the baselines. With this happening it was bringing in each of the other players except for one run. Now the score is 4-0 and Boadin is up to bat but ended up striking out. This was the Phillies first out of the bottom of the inning. Now Dom came up to bat and hit one right up the 3 baseline sending the Nationals into a bit of a frenzy to get the ball. When that happened it brought in the 5th scoring run of the inning thus ending the inning and the score was now 5-3 Phillies. The Phillies fought back against the Naitonals to make sure they ended the inning on top.

The start of the second inning was almost like the first half of the first inning for the Nationals with the exception of there being two GO1-3. The Nationals scored 4 runs by the end of the first half of the second inning and now the score was 7-5 Nationals.

The second half of the inning saw the Phillies take the plate with Yaya and Izzy striking out. Timmy stepped up to the plate and hit one to the outfield and making it the second base. Khayman was up next to bat and swung and hit the ball. Khayman did make it to first base and was ready to go when Paisley came up to bat. She hit the ball but sadly it was a GO4-3 which was the third out of the inning. The score stay the same since the Phillies didn't score any runs. At the end of the second inning the score was still 7-5 Nationals.

Now we are in the third inning with the Nationals up to bat. Lola was up to bat but struck out giving the Nationals their first out. The next three batters came up to the plate and hit the ball with all getting on the bases with runners scoring. The 5th batter Rita came up next to bat but struck out giving the Nationals their second out. The next 3 batters came up to the plate, Antwan and hunter got on base and now it was the 8th batter was up. Dayten hit the third ball after missing the first two, with this happening Dayten brought in two more runners bringing an end to the first half of the third inning since any teams can only score five runs an inning. The score was now 12-5 Nationals.

The bottom of the third inning saw the Phillies getting their bats going again. Jaxon was up to bat first followed by Aaron, Blaise and Boadin. The first three batters got on base and it was up to Boadin to bring at least one or more runners in. He hit the ball and got one runner in and still keeping the bases loaded. Dom was up next to bat and ended up with a FO-3 and Boadin getting tagged out before reaching third resulting in a double play. Up next was Yaya who after two pitches hit the third one and got on base. Next was Izzy who also on the third pitch hit the ball and got on base. Now the Phillies had two runners on base with one of first and another on second base. Timmy was up next to bat and on the second pitch hit the ball and advancing the other runners while getting on base himself. Now we are at the top of the order for the Phillies with Khayman hitting the first pitch. This brought in two more runners and getting Timmy to second base but it was the five run rule that stopped the Phillies from scoring more. The score now is 12-10 Nationals.

The start of the fourth inning was a not so good first half for the Nationals. Khaliq was up to bat and on the third pitch, he got onto first base. The next three batters, April, Lola, and Kaysen all struck out and not advancing the runner on first base. This gave the Nationals a quick three outs with no runs scored. The score was still 12-10 Nationals.

The second half of the fourth inning started out with Paisley getting out after hitting the ball. The play was a GO1-3 giving the Phillies their first out of the fourth inning. Jaxon was up next to bat and hit one right up the middle and getting on base. Aaron and Blaise were the next two batters to come up and they also hit the ball and brought Jaxon in for a running score. Boadin was up next to bat but ended up striking out giving the Phillies their second out. Dom was the 6th batter to come up to the plate. On the third pitch he hit the ball advancing Aaron to third base and Blaise to second base. With Aaron being in scoring position, it was Yaya that was up to bat now. Taking his time, waiting, and then swinging, he ended up striking out and getting the third out for the Phillies. The Phillies only scored one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. The score is now 12-11 Nationals.

Now we are starting the fifth inning of the game but it didn't start out the greatest for the Nationals but it sure did change after both Elliot and Ramir struck out. Rita was up to bat now and hit the second pitch getting onto second base. Antwan, Hunter, and Dayten were the next three batters up. Antwan hit the ball on the third pitch getting onto the base with rita getting onto third base. Hunter was up next and hit the first pitch bringing in Rita and getting Antwan on second. Dayten was up to bat next and after two pitches, he hit the ball on the third pitch. This brought in Antwan and Hunter. Khaliq was the next up to bat and hit a beautiful pitch which brought in Datyen for a scoring run. Khaliq was now on first base waiting for April to hit the ball. April hit the second pitch but during this play the ball hit Khaliq in the foot resulting in the third out. The Nationals scored four runs bringing their run total to 16. The score was now 16-11 Nationals.

The bottom of the fifth inning was where it started to become a nail bitter for both teams. Izzy and Timmy were the first two batters up and both ended up with a GO1-3 giving the Phillies two outs. Now this is where it starts to get into a nail bitter. The Phillies were at the top of their order now and the first three batters ( Khayman, Paisley, & Jaxon ) hit the ball, got on base, sent the Nationals into a frenzy trying to get the ball to the correct basemen, and during this, the Phillies scored runs and was still in scoring position. Aaron was up with Blaise following behind. Aaron brought in a couple runs while Blaise brought in one runner. Next up was Boadin who after four pitches, hit the fifth pitch, getting on first base and bringing a runner which was the fourth runner to score in the inning. Next up was Dom and this is where coaches and parents couldn't watch because everyone knew that Dom was going to hit the ball into the outfield. We were all right and Dom hit the ball right into left field. This got Boadin on second base but ended up bringing in the fifth and final runner ( Blaise ) to end the game. The end result was a TIE! This was the very first tie of the season in the Minors League and was one of the best games played by both the Nationals and Phillies. This game was also the highest scoring game of the Minors League season with the final score being 16-16!!!!!!!!

Both teams played their heart and souls out the night before as well on June 9 with that game ending the night with a score of 9-8 Phillies. The Nationals and Phillies came into the game on June 10 with a mindset to win. Technially both teams did win but some may not agree while others will say agree that both teams won. A total of 32 runs were scored and even the umpires were impressed along with a lot of the parents and coaches of other teams. With this win, the Phillies remained in first place while the Nationals remained in third place.