Game Summary @ Hoboken

Lets start with some good news... Bruins won 5-3, my boys at Carleton put up a 12 run 5th inning that went as follows:

Carleton College 5th
Fujisawa doubled to left center.
Wirta lined out to ss.
Bowen homered down the lf line, 2 RBI; Fujisawa scored.
Philley tripled down the rf line.
Ames reached on a fielding error by 2b, RBI; Philley scored.
Fabry doubled to left field; Ames advanced to third.
C. Cline to p for M. Johnson.
Parrish struck out swinging.
D-Valentine singled through the right side, 2 RBI; Fabry scored, unearned; Ames scored, unearned.
Cushing pinch hit for Gomi.
Cushing walked; D-Valentine advanced to second.
Fujisawa walked; Cushing advanced to second; D-Valentine advanced to third.
Wirta singled to left field, RBI; Fujisawa advanced to second; Cushing advanced to third; D-Valentine scored, unearned.
Bowen walked, RBI; Wirta advanced to second; Fujisawa advanced to third; Cushing scored, unearned.
A. Aebly to p for C. Cline.
Philley singled down the rf line, 2 RBI; Bowen advanced to second; Wirta scored, unearned; Fujisawa scored, unearned.
Ames homered to left center, 3 RBI, unearned; Philley scored, unearned; Bowen scored, unearned.
Fabry flied out to cf.
12 runs, 8 hits, 1 error, 0 LOB.

Nicely done boys.

Now, as for the real reason I'm writing right now, we got handed another bad loss today against the Hoboken Pioneers, 16-6. The game was similar to the one last week at Namur in that there was some good, some bad, and some ugly.

Hoboken has a solid team, but in my opinion, we gave them far too much credit. All week the talk was about how good Hoboken is, how well we will have to play to beat them, etc., etc. In the end, we beat ourselves and didn't make them earn the W. I will reserve commenting on the umpiring in case this somehow manages to get back to them (paranoid? maybe.), but lets just say that there seemed to be 2 different zones, and the one was expanding like the galaxy while the other one would be hard to pick up with an electric microscope. Umpiring, however, had nothing to do with the outcome, as no umpire could possibly account for the 15 free passes we gave them (15 BB+HBP). This was where our problems started, but they definitely didn't end there. Some poor base running mistakes, too many K's (of which I too am guilty, although one of the two was an atrocious call), and mental mistakes (throwing to the wrong base, not anticipating, not holding runners, etc.) all contributed to the poor outcome. The bottom line is we had some chances to make it a different game and we didn't capitalize. We had 8 hits and so did they. Hopefully tomorrow will be a different story. I will be on the bump for the first time all year and am looking forward to the challenge of pitching to a good team. I also decided that if I give up 15 free passes, I will walk back home from Belgium directly from the game, so everyone hold your breath.

On the day I was 2 for 4 with a double, and two runs. Unfortunately I struck out twice as well, once on a nice curveball that I swung over in my first at bat, and once on a terrible call on a pitch that was high and tight and almost hit me. In my 3rd ab, I got behind 0-2 on another questionable call before fouling off a nice slider, working the count to 2-2 and then smashing a double in the right center gap on a high fastball. In my final ab, I hit a line drive over the second baseman's head for a single. In my last two at bats I scored.

I also saw my first action of the year at 2nd base. I had one nice sliding play in the hole to get the guy at first and also threw a runner out at 3rd on a long relay from out in right field. I guess 2 was the number of the day for me as everything seemed to come in pairs. Anyways, I'm looking forward to bouncing back and taking a game from them tomorrow.