Petey Stevens led the game off with a double but got doubled off second on a fly ball to left... He wound up 2 for 4 and Dom Libassi was 2 for 3 to lead the Padres hitting brigade... In the bottom of the first, the first 3 Highlander batters walked and clean-up hitter Josh Mickalonis (new young stud and stand-up comic) hit a sacrifice fly to plate the first run before Gentleman Jack Griffin continued his hot hitting and scorched an opposite field double to plate another...
Jack lined another single later in the game and scored a run to lead the Highlander offense as he was 2 for 3 with 2 RBI's and a run scored... Already one of the best players in the league and the truest gentleman I know, turning 50 has shown to be kind to him on a plethora of levels, including the baseball field ~ and it continued in this one as he leads the new young studs we were fortunate to acquire in the off-season (Ty Craigslist, they aren't laughing around the league now!)...
Jeremy Flaum (another new young stud) was the story of the game though as he pitched a CG beauty for us, delivering a beautiful performance in which he only walked 2 guys and had 7 assists and 2 put outs all while pitching. I've never seen a game with so many come-backers...
The play of the game was in the 5th inning and the Highlanders up 6-4. With 2 outs and a runner on second, Tommy Smith lofted a fly ball into CF just out of reach from a diving Bill Hamel (returning stud). As it rolled past him the RF, Jeremy Barnes (another new young stud who pitched us to our W last week), backed him up and threw a perfect strike into 2nd. As I was making the tag on bang-bang play, one Mr Hurricane himself, Rob Currier, kindly made note to the home plate umpire that the runner had not crossed plate before I put the tag down... As the umpire concurred, the score remained 6-4 us, and well, that's all she wrote... Jeremy Flaum (yeah, 2 new young 34/35 year old stud pitchers both named Jeremy on the team, one righty, one lefty) then closed out the show by getting 6 of the last 7 Padre hitters rather routinely after an infield single and an error had guys on 1st and 2nd with no outs in the 6th... Much less nerve racking to pitch with a 2 run lead versus a 1 run lead and again, he did an outstanding job indeed...
Mike Heath (another new young stud) had a roped line drive single and also reached on an error and once again this was a total team effort as the new look, MUCH younger Highlanders start to gel... Shaymus "the Stud" Schwietzer also played another outstanding game at 1B, though had his 3 game hitting streak snapped... Johnny Corrigan also had a nice hit and uh yeah, though obviously not part of the general youth movement on the team, definitely a big part of the mesh and mixing in us older guys with the young bucks... Wonder how long they'll let me stick around ~ especially with my bad quad/leg... Sheesh...
But yeah, bottom line is that this is such a fun, FUN-NY (I know, fun and funny usually go together) group of guys to play with, that winning games is actually secondary and a by-product of other "things" which we have not had on the team in past years... And I am lucky to be a small part of the transition...
It was a very close game and pretty tightly played. The game was back-and-forth with lead changes through the fourth inning and the final three frames went scoreless. A lot of fun to be a part of (especially fun since we were fortunate enough to be on the winning side).
