Saturday's game against the Bombers saw a damp start, with the C-Diamond batter's boxes and the pitcher's mound quite spongy for the 10:45 am start.
Both teams handled the "off track" quite well, and a hotly contested game broke out.

The Bombers' took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, with the help of a Marlins miscue, but stranded runners at 2nd and 3rd.
The Bombers stranded two more runners, in the top of the 2nd, and had runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out in the top of the 3rd, but again Marlins starter, Mike Girard, got out of the jam without the Bombers plating a run. The Bombers would rue the lost opportunities later on.

The Fish used that momentum to plate 2 in the bottom of the 3rd and take a 2-1 lead. Tim Brown started the rally with a single and a stolen base. After a walk and a fielder's choice, Tom Maney plated the first run with a RBI single. One out later, Mike Ferraro doubled home the second run of the inning, to take the lead.

The Bombers bounced back with single runs in the 4th and 5th innings, to take a 3-2 lead, and brought on ace Darren Ambridge (in the 4th) to hold the Marlins at bay.
The Golden Marlins would rally for the tying run, in the bottom of the 6th, on a lead-off single and stolen base by Randy Craft, and a one out RBI double by Girard.

The Marlins would get through the heart of the Bombers, order in the top of the 7th, without a serious threat, and that set the stage for a historic bottom half of the inning.
Jim McQuade led off with a sharp single off of Ambridge, and was sacrificed to 2nd on a perfect bunt by Tim Brown. The Bomber ace then got a strike out to bring up Skip Treece, with two outs.
Skip promptly drilled an inside pitch down the third base line for a walk-off single! That has to be the first time a 63 year old player has gotten a walk-off hit in a 45+ division game.

The Golden Marlins wish a speedy recovery to Mike Reuter, who pulled a quad muscle attempting to steal second base in the top of the seventh inning. Get well soon, big fella!

Game two:

The Fish would take on the Yankees in their regular season finale on Sunday afternoon at New Scotland.
The Marlins got 2 in the 1st inning and 2 in the 2nd inning, to take control early in this one. Tom Maney's lead-off single and RBI singles by Mike Girard and Dave Mitchell were the story in the 1st; and singles by Bill Smith and Mike Clary preceeded a Tom Maney 2-RBI triple in the 2nd. The Marlins wouldn't score their 5th run until the top of the 6th, but got that very important insurance run, when Mike Ferraro led off with a walk, was moved to second on a groundout, and scored on Billy Smith's RBI single.

Meanwhile Jerry Solomon was pitching a gem. Jerry held the Yanks scoreless through the first six innings, scattering 5 singles and 1 walk, while striking out 6.
The slumbering Yankee bats woke up in the 7th, with a vengeance! It all started innocently enough, with the first Golden Marlins error of the day, a booming double off of the bat of Elgin Henderson, and a one out single by John Sheehan, preceded a towering home run by John Haff, and all of a sudden it was a 5-4 game and the Yankees had only one out.
The Marlins went with a change on the mound, bringing in Girard, and moving Jerry to second base. Jerry would later tell me that he hadn't played second base in a very long time. As fate would have it the next two Yankee batters would hit the ball on the ground to second. Well, Mr. Solomon handled those two chances like a pro, and the game was over. 5-4 Marlins win!

Playing the final regular season game as a group for Golden Marlins, was bitter sweet, but we were all glad it we were able to secure a win to close it out. Hats off to John Reel for starting and running such a successful franchise, and many thanks for bestowing upon me the honor of managing the last 3 seasons. It certainly meant a lot that you trusted me with that task, John!
Our final task, as a band of baseball brothers will be to make our mentor proud in the upcoming playoffs.
I think we are about as ready as we can be. I wish it wasn't two weeks away!!!


-- Edited by mgirard11 on Monday 25th of August 2014 09:29:36 AM