Opening Night

  • No dates present

Numbers Don’t Lie

With the dress rehearsal behind us we were ready to play ball!  We had a couple long time FRC faithful bow out for reasons we will not address.  This left the FRC roster depleted.   We were scrambling to find an able body.  FNG Ryan came through with a call to “Brad.”  The FRC had 10 to play for the first pitch.  Luckily Potter showed up as well to spell a young Lars behind the dish after Lars was circling the bases all night.

Game #1 vs. Varmit

Historically the FRC get six or less innings in against a team that is generally the slowest team on and off the field in the five state Midwest area.  I will never understand why they ask who is up next when they have followed the same guy in the batting order since 1983.  The game was back and forth through out.  We’d score three, they’d score four, we’d come back with five, they’d score two, and so on.  The ump didn’t do the FRC any favors and missed at least three calls.  In the bottom of the sixth the FRC padded their lead and took the field in the top of the 7th up nine.  From the opposing dug out we could hear, “we need nine to tie.”  That is like lion smelling blood.  Any team looking to tie is destined to lose.  Varmit scratched and clawed in the top of the 7th, but their output followed their goal….I bit too low.  Varmit scored seven, but lost by two. 

Final score:   SFRC 19 – Varmit 17

Last out: CW

Plays of the game:

In the field: Sans snagging three line drives up the middle.  Sans hustling over to cover first (just like we practiced in the gym back in January).  Brain putting the film room to work and catching a line drive towards the hole at second base. 

At the plate: Brain and his new found power from the left side of the dish going 4-5.  Cinco, in potentially his last night at the diamond without being a father, going 4-5.  35, going 4-5, which could have been 5-5 if not for the “grand slam out” because……Pub Krull going deep to left center for a pivotal HR.  Pub Krull also hit a laser off the fence in left.  The rest of the FRC crew missed a golden opportunity to freeze out Pub Krull and leave him out there on his own after his big HR.

Game #2 vs. H-Bomb

Another thriller.  H-Bomb had 8.5 players on this evening.  The outfield was open.  The FRC did what they could to take advantage of the green grass and tallied 30 hits in Game 2 of the night.  The game was back and forth with a few very strong innings.  In the top of the third H-Bomb scored six, the FRC would not allow them to win the inning and scored six of our own in the bottom of the third.  The game continued to be back and forth and again “Red” didn’t help the FRC out at all.  In the bottom of the 6th down three with time running out the FRC plated two runs and trailed by one.  Luckily, as the FRC are wont to do, we left enough time to play one more inning.  In the top of the 7th H-Bomb scored two to take another three run lead.  What did we hear coming out of the FRC dugout?  “WE NEED FOUR TO WIN!”  A distinct difference from the opposing dug out in Game #1.  What did the FRC do?  They proceeded to get runners on base and score runs to take the victory in the bottom of the 7th. 

Final score:   SFRC 22 – H-Bomb 21

Last out: Brad

Plays of the game:

In the field:  There were some big catches in left, left-center and right.  There was a put out from left to third base (oh wait, Red missed that one), there were a couple of double plays (3rd to 1st) and at least one other double play that was botched by Ol’ 3-5. 

At the plate:  CW was the leader of leaders going 5-5.  Cinco continued to stay hot (he also had another four hit game).  Lars had two doubles and a nice SAC (he also had an RBI with a sacrifice fly) and circled the bases two at a time.  We may have even seen a FRC player slide. 

Fan of the night:

Mad-Dog making a brief, but important appearance before mysteriously disappearing.

Numbers:

Numbers don’t lie.  The season is two weeks old and the FRC have not lost and sit at 2-0.  Brain donated some time and put the stats together.  Early batting leaders are CW and Cinco at .800.  But the FRC are about the team and this team is batting .582 for the season.  Could running hills, watching film and practicing start to be paying off?  See you next week!

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>