The Black Bears played back-to-back games on Monday and Tuesday and earned a 10-1 win against the Mets and dropped the Tuesday game to the Indians by a score of 12-3.
Bryan Rounds went 5-for-5 with 3 2B, 2 R, 3 RBI and Rob Wadsworth was 2-for-4 with a SB and 4 RBI. Tommy Ayers and Kevin Bondi each picked up 2 hits in the game against the Mets as well. Rob Bialkowski went all seven innings allowing 1 ER on 6 H, 4 BB and 4 K's.
Tuesday's game wasn't quite the outcome the Bears were hoping for but for the first time ever the Bears were not "mercy-ruled" by the Indians. Baby steps, baby steps.... Sherwin So kept his knuckleball dancing for six innings - although the Indians knocked him around for 17 hits. So allowed 5 runs in the 3rd inning but other than that he managed to avoid the big inning and scattered the hits around. The Bears only managed five hits against Indians pitching (Leo Primeau and Brendan Roberts) - 2 by leadoff hitter Darren Foote, a booming double by Rob Bialkowski and individual hits by Sherwin So and Tommy Ayers.
Once again, despite the differences in the franchises, the Indians played with class. Jim Bonaparte has assembled a great group of guys who also happen to be exceptionally talented ball players.
As for the Mets game, the Bears appreciate the Mets for playing the game despite the awful field conditions combined with the weather that is not conducive to baseball. The Bears were not pleased with the field conditions either, but we had the fortune of winning the game which helps alleviate the frustration but the Mets were not afforded that same courtesy. You guys deserved better that night and still played a great game. Dan Tarullo has a great group of guys and some damn fine ball players.
Lastly, it was disappointing that (once again) a Bears game was "bumped" at Shuttleworth Park for another event. Last year, a game scheduled for 7:00 p.m. didn't start until 9:00 when we were bumped for a game in another league. Last night we were bumped for a Union College practice. I understand that the field needs to be used by other organizations, but if we're paying to use that field then we should be able to play our games as scheduled and not get bumped by someone else. If there is potential to use the field by another organization then we should try and schedule our game somewhere else where we won't have players showing up for a 7:00 game and not able to take the field until 7:45. That seems fairly unacceptable.
Up next for the Black Bears is a late night game with the Diamondbacks on Monday night at Blatnick Park.
