The Cubs knew, to beat the Hummnbirds in Kingston, they needed to do two things:
1) Keep Alvarez and Williams off base.
2) Get off to a good start.
The number one task is not an easy one. Lead-off man Eddie Alvarez hit .607 and had an on base percentage of .652. Number two hitter, Brian Williams, hit .500 with a OB% of .574.
Cubs starter, Tom Sheperdson, did a spectacular job of this all night! Eddie Alvarez was 0 for 3 with two K's and Brian Williams was 0 for 2, reaching base just once on a HBP. The one time Brian did reach first base, he stole second and scored when Mr. Sheperdson tried to pick him off of second and threw wildly into center field.
In fact, Tom was very sharp with all of the Hummnbirds, as he gave up just two runs in 6 innings, while giving up just 3 hits, 3 walks, 1 HBP, while striking out 3.
The number two task was also not going to be easy, as John Latorre had already beaten the Cubs twice during the regular season, giving up just one run in the first 4 innings of the two games combined. The Cubs would turn those results around on this night. In the top of the first, with one out, the Cubs got consecutive singles from Randy Craft, Mike Girard, and Andy Hoyle to load the bases with just one out. Mr. Latorre then got Ron Lochner to bounce into a fielders choice getting the out at home. The inning was not yet over, as Dave Mitchell strode to the plate and promptly stroked a 2 RBI single.
The Cubs would build on that lead in the top of the 4th inning, when Mike Girard led off the inning with a long double to the fence in left center. Andy Hoyle was walked and Ron Lochner was hit by a pitch, to load the bases with nobody out. Dave Mitchell plated the third run on a fielders choice and Steve Lounello plated the Cubs' 4th run on a long sacrafice fly to right center.
The Hummnbirds got the run described above from Brian Williams, in the bottom of the 4th to close the gap to 4-1.
They would close the gap to 4-2, in the bottom of the 6th, on a lead off walk by Donald Culjak and a two out RBI double by Jed Sagazie.
The Cubs would get a very important insurance run, in the top of the 7th inning. Andy Hoyle led off with a towering double over the head of Brian Williams in center field. The Cubs would get some solid baseball from Ron Lochner, as he worked the count until he got an outside pitch to try to hit to right to move advance the runner. He grounded out to second, which moved Hoyle to third with just one out. Dave Mitchell followed with his fourth RBI of the night on a sacrafice fly, making the score 5-2.
With a 3 run lead going into the bottom of the seventh, Cubs' manager, Jim McQuade, gave the ball to Steve Lounello. Steve was almost perfect, as he struck out all 3 batters he faced, on just 10 pitches to record the save.
Game over. Cubs take game one.
There were some defensive gems turrned in by both sides in this one. Eric Loughren made a spectacular running catch in the second inning, to rob Jonny Martin of a what looked like a sure double in the right center field gap. Randy Craft turned in a very important play in the sixth, with a runner in scoring position and two outs, when he went in the hole towards third and back handed a grounder, labeled for a RBI single, and threw a strike to first to end the inning and take the wind out of the home team's sails. If you want to see really good old school baseball, come to Dutchman on Thursday night for game two of this series!