Game# 3-May 27, 2010
Hurtin' Units win- 10-7
Team Record- 2-1-0
Keogh Park- Well, we are finally back at Keogh park and it was a great night for baseball. The temperature had dropped to a comfortable level and our first night at Keogh saw the Hurtin' Units facing the undefeated Brew Jays. The Hurtin' Units had been off since last Tuesday when they were defeated by the Torn Ligaments.
The Units were again were down a few players this week, Don and Chris R. had informed me that they would away, Tom had to leave early for a prior commitment and so I decided we needed a substitute for our game... Our thanks go out to Simon Smith for coming and helping us...
Adversity was starting to stir around game time, the sun was in the faces of the first and second basemen as well as the right fielders, we were still down one player and that player was our ace on the staff..... Jerry Wallace. It had most of us asking the question “ Where's Jerry?”
They say there are two seasons in Canada, winter and construction... I would say with the temperatures over the last week, winter is over and we are into our other season... Our ace (Jerry) had been out of town for the day and thought he had plenty of time to get back for our game, but as Murphy's Law would have it, Jerry faced his own adversity on the roads...
There is construction going on everywhere. Our tax dollars are hard at work beefing up the infastructure of the province and keeping residents of Ontario employed...I am quite aware of the amount of construction going on, at least in the City of Mississauga. Jerry had been trapped in construction and traffic on game night and was unable to make our game...
With no sign of Jerry at game time, we were forced to use the backup plan. “ Backup plan? What backup plan?” I guess it wasn't that difficult to come up with a backup plan, shuffle the players around and let's play some ball... We were still short a player at game time and the Brew Jays supplied us with a catcher. I was prepared (not really prepared, but more than willing to start pitching) when Tom stepped up and let me know he had pitched in the past (8 years ago), I thought “ sure let him start, if he doesn't do well, I'll come in”. Tom started his practise pitches, not one in the first five pitches hitting the board...
The Brew Jays put players on base in the first inning, but Tom started to find his range and the Hurtin' Units defense got us out of the first inning unscathed. During the inning, one more Hurtin' Unit player showed up “ Is it Jerry?”, no it wasn't Jerry, it was Nyezee ( Chris N.), we had a full team. In the bottom of the 1st inning the Units got the batting going early, we scored 6 runs and stranded the 7th on third...
Tom (P3) pitched four innings, finding the board more and more often, the defense behind him tracked down balls, made some great catches, snagged some tough ground balls and made the undefeated Brew Jays (2-0) look average at bat. All said and done, we gave up only 5 runs to the Jays in the first 4 innings, I'd say that's pretty good in any league... Tom had to leave early for a prior commitment, he runs hockey at Nottawasaga and I was aware, before the game, he was going to depart, I could tell he felt badly about going, but we all understood.
When Tom departed we were leading the game by a score of 8-5. I started the top of the fifth inning pitching and after several pitches I started to feel comfortable. This is not the way I like to start pitching in the season, I like knowing in advance so I can stew about it all day long and make myself really, really nervous...Perhaps this is the way to make the season debut, get thrown in to the fire and not have time to think about it...The defense behind me continued to play well. Mike made a line drive catch which was headed for his nads, giving new meaning to “heads up”, Paul continues to shine at third, our outfield is the (in my opinion) strongest in the league and our infield is keeping us in the games, Robin, Al and myself all made contributions. We only allowed the Jays to score two more runs in the game and we countered with two more of our own... We won our second game of the year by a score of 10-7. A job well done...
I really liked this win, it was a great team building game. I'm looking forward to having a Chris, Don and Jerry back in the lineup, giving us some more hitting power.
After the game, several of the Units went back to the Legion to celebrate the win. I joined in for a quick mug o' beer, but had to leave early, for I too play hockey on Thursday nights. I saw Tom at the Nottawasga arena and informed him of our victory, needless to say, Tom was elated with the news... And as we stood by the boards talking, we asked the question... Who's Jerry??? LOL.
Great game guys... UNITS UNSCATHED!!!
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