The offense would roar then sputter. Same could said for both teams . We tied in stranded runners 7-7.
Jerry Solomon started smartly for this reconstituted version of the Fish ; Not allowing a hit till Dave Plew broke it up in the 4th. Jerry went on to allow one other hit while walking one and striking out 6. Scott Ross finished with 2 innings on the hill. 5 K's , one walk and error and two runs ... and just in time as the Cyclone bats came alive.
The ever powerful Boomer Hartman had flied out deep to right in the 4th which might have been the tilting point in the game. Marlins had a slim lead at the time and things felt tentative for this yet winless squad. Said sputtering offense did manage runs in all but one inning. Still it seemed like we were failing ?! We did miss three players one to a vacation and two others to health. Our new but older squad works best when everyone is there...like the NBA Spurs. grrrrrrr. Alas we ably played defense and relied on Jerry and Scott. We employed what we now call the Cyclone shift ....Tim Brown manned SS. Skip Treece third ,and put rookie MSBL'er Rich Lombardo in the OF , who went deftly back and circled the previously mentioned Boomer ball. One error on the day was a gift given this shift. The roaring part of our offense was led by Ross' 2hits and two runs in the lead off spot, Brown's three hits, one a triple and Joe Hervieux's and Nic Kinellis' two RBIs. The Cyclones in addition to Plews single had hits from Ben Petrone, Lawston, AND a long double (and a single ) by Don Shultis that provided their runs.
This Marlin squad was a enigma in the winter. An open door with no invitation attracted some old fish. some wrapped in newspaper and still fresh some wriggling on the line. some free birds. man I didn't have to find but one or two jerseys! does everyone in the league have a teal jersey in the closet?! After an opener loss to the Chatham team and a trouncing by the defending champs...where we all measure ourselves, good to get a win. kudos to Jose for keeping the Red squad in the game. a wide open strike zone , a sunny , breezy day, glad we met. see you next time.
