It was quite an atmosphere at the Acworth Sports Complex last night. New teammates, new uniforms, new season, and the 12U Thunder donned their bright whites and right away looked like a team ready to play. Coach Nick braved a batting cage without a safety net and threw BP to the kids. He has catlike reflexes for his age and escaped unharmed. At Field 3, the team witnessed a last at bat victory at the end of the 6:00 game and quickly took the field for a few minutes to survey the grounds. The Thunder won the coin flip and selected to be the home team and remained in the first base dugout. First pitch was at 8:10 and the temperature was 83˙. Jack Purdy was on the mound and the Wills Park Eagles, in their nifty red uniforms came out swinging and after a quick pop out, got a runner on base on an error. Ben "Gunner" Thilo had his eye on the runner and sure enough threw him out at second on an attempted steal. After another error, the Thunder got out of the inning with no runs scoring. In the bottom of the first, two consecutive singles by Kenzilla and Cheddar followed by Stovepipe taking a pitch to the arm, set up a bases clearing double by newcomer Ryan Murray. The inning ended with a 4-0 lead for the Thunder.
The game went back and forth for the next hour and a half and heading into the last inning, the Eagles had a 12-10 lead. It was time to see what the Thunder were made of. Sure enough, the Thunder got up off the deck with patient at-bats and a clutch single by Jack Purdy with the bases loaded and won it in nail-biting fashion 13-12. Thunder parents and fans were seen distributing Tums among themselves as the game ended. Congratulations to Coach Phil on his first 12U victory. Next game is Friday at 7:30 in Acworth, followed by a tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
Some interesting Stats:
-Newcomers Mercer Buechner and Ryan Murray accounted for 6 of the 12 RBI's.
-Three players came to bat in the bottom of the 5th a combined 0 for 6 and drew three walks to help extend the game and give us a chance to win. Those three players scored the three runs we needed to win the game that inning! Batting averages and RBIs rarely tell the whole story.*(from Coach Phil)
-Everyone on the team scored at least one run last night except Ryan. And since Ryan led the team with 4 RBIs we’ll forgive him for not scoring*
-The concession stand drew rave reviews from Thunder fans.
-There is NOTHING like a night out at the old ballpark.
-76 miles logged so far.
So long everybody.
WP: Kenny Andrews, LP: -, SV: -
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E L Wills Park Eagles 0 2 4 5 1 12 12 4 7 DHYS Thunder 3 2 2 3 3 13 10 7 5
Great write up! Can't wait for Friday night--see you there.
ReplyDeleteRyan