On a miserable day for baseball, the undefeated Yankees beat the previously undefeated Reds, 8-5 at New Scotland. The Reds opened the scoring with 2 in the first on A Sac fly by Careccia and an error. The Yankees cored 1 in the 2nd on hits by Royka and little and a sac fly by Don Dunham. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Reds got 1 back on a groundout to first by Chris Dunn, after Maz reached on an error to start the inning and Jonny Martin Doubled him to 3rd. In the 4th the Yanks added another run on another Sac Fly by Dunham, after Little singled and moved to 3rd on on a WP and PB. The Reds answered with 2 in their half of the 4th, after Joe Careccia walked and stole 2nd, then went to 3rd on a bunt base hit by Dave VanWormer. VanWormer stole second, then went to 3rd on a groundout to 2nd by Maz, which Scored Careccia. This brought up Jonny Martin, who tried to bunt on a suicide squeeze, but the ball was in the dirt, but the lightening quick VanWormer was able to score with a steal of home, as he just beat the tag from Ray Demers. The Yankees never gave up, as they scored 3 in the 5th to tie it, when the inning started on a harmless ground ball to the pitcher turned into reached on error. Maz struck out Caruso, but singles by Kalinski and Griffen, plus a squeeze by Mark Marshall plated the tying run. In the 6th, Royka led off with a walk, and when the count went 2-0 on Little, Chris Dunn relieved Maz and got the next 3 outs. The Reds missed an opportunity to score in the bottom of the inning, when Bobby Davis, who singled to start the inning and advanced to third on a stolen base, broke for home on another suicide attempt, but the idiot batter, me, missed the bunt and Davis was just out at home. This brings us to the top of the 7th, when Lex reached on an error to start the inning. After a strikeout, Kalinski walked, Griffen and Kevin Jackson singled to plate 3 more runs for the Yanks and send it to the bottm of the 7th with the Yanks leading 8-5 after coming back from a 5-2 deficit. The Reds tried to mount a comeback of their own, when after a leadoff groundout, Martin singled and Dunn doubled to put runners 1st and 3rd, with the tying run at the plate, but the next 2 batters were retired on a strikeout and groundout to end the game. Darin Ambrose picked up the win for the Yankees, with a strong performance, going the distance giving up 5 runs, 4 earned, while scattering 7 hits, striking out 4 and walking only 2. For the Reds, Chris Dunn took the loss, giving up 3 unearned runs in the 7th. Maz got no decision, going 5 innings giving up 5 runs, 2 earned. Hats go off to the Yanks, who never quit, coming back from a 5-2 deficit in the 5th against 2 of the top arms in the league and outhit the Reds 9-7. See you on June 30 for the rematch.
Awesome write-up Dave... Man you guys are good, and we know you were missing a couple guys (Carrecia catching was the clue ~ though he did a darn fine job), so you'll be even better next time... Definitely got our schedule marked for you and the Giants too as even though it was miserable day and neither of us really played our best baseball, it was still a hard fought, good game... Especially since hearts and minds were with Mark Dabney and his family as it certainly puts this senior men's baseball thing we do into a little better perspective for sure... Thanks for a good game Dave and we'll be looking forward to seeing you guys again on June 30th for sure... Maybe even after that too if things shape up right, you never know???
Nice of you, Mark, to mention Mark Dabney. Many of the Reds are from Rensselaer, too, and know Mark well. Your statement along with Girard's and everyone else's really show the heart of this orgnaization. Thnx. jk
