A beautiful night for mid-April made for the perfect night for baseball and the Bears won for the first time on Opening night in the franchise's short history as Rob Bialkowski outlasted three Warriors pitchers for a 1-0 classic that took less than 2 hours to play.
The Bears played error-free baseball behind Bialkowski who went the 7-inning distance on 2 hits, 3 walks while striking out 11 batters.
Bialkowski made it through the first unscathed allowing one walk while striking out two. In the bottom half of the inning, new Bear Jeff McQuide made an immediate impact crushing a booming one-out double and moved to third after a fielders choice by Rob Bialkowski; however the Bears would strand them both.
The game would remain scoreless and uneventful except for a long single by Patrick O'Sullivan in the second inning and a very impressive throw to second by Madison Goldfischer to gun down a would-be base-stealer.
The Bears broke the scoreless tie in the 4th when Dave "Boomer" Hartman crushed a double to left-center field and moved to third on a Joe Montemarano ground out. With two outs, Warriors pitcher Connor McMahon would uncork a wild pitch allowing Hartman to score and the Bears led 1-0. After a Patrick O'Sullivan walk and stolen base, Austin Blum hit a rocket to right field and Warriors right fielder Paul Marotta made an absolutely astounding diving catch robbing Blum of the RBI and an assured triple - perhaps even an inside the park homerun.
The Bears would load the bases again in the 5th with only one out but could not plate a run keeping the pressure on Bialkowski to hold the Warriors scoreless. Back-to-back leadoff walks in the 6th to Hartman and Bialkowski and a double steal had runners at second and third with no outs and the Bears could not push one across and the Warriors went into the 7th down only one run.
The Warriors would not give in as the leadoff hitter Erik Weber hit a laser-beam to right field where Joe Montemarano was roving around and Joe made a leaping catch to rob Weber of extra bases for the first out. Bialkowski issued his third walk of the evening to Justin Palermo and Jeff O'Neill followed with a single and took second base when confusion in the infield left second uncovered. But Bialkowski would bear down by getting a pop-up to first base and a pop-up to second base to end the game at 1-0.
Despite the feel good story, the Bears still only amassed four hits because the Warriors trotted out three exceptional pitchers of their own. Jim Morrill was throwing smoke for the first three innings; Connor McMahon looks to be equally as impressive and Erik Weber may even have been the best of the trio and he only threw the sixth inning. The Warriors also played near-flawless defense committing only one error and it didn't end up costing them a run. The Bears had multiple base runners in four of the six innings they batted but the Warriors' staff only allowed the one run.
Final line for Bialkowski reads: 7 IP, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 H, 3 BB and 11 K for the CGSO.
Offensively, Dave Hartman reached all three times with 2 BB, 2B, R, SB; Jeff McQuide had a 2B and SB, Bialkowski reached twice with 2 BB; Patrick O'Sullivan had a BB, H and SB and Rob Wadsworth recorded the only other Bears hit.
The Warriors two hits came off the bats of Jim Morrill in the 4th and Mike O'Neill in the 7th.
Up next for the Bears is a date with the Padres on Tuesday, April 26th at 6:00 p.m., Blatnick Park and the Warriors likewise play next Tuesday at Blatnick Park at 8:30 against Team Rake.
Excellent summary Rob. Your squad looked great last night, and a great start for the season. Bialkowski threw a exceptional game. The Bears are going to be formidable this year if you keep putting performances like that together. Not to pat myself on the back, but that was me in RF for that catch.
I look forward to more of these "articles" in the future.
Nice job guys. Still hoping to join the team before the cutoff. Have a **** ton happening on the acting front during the week but I am hopeful it clears enough to get back with you guys. There is never enough Kevins on a team.
