Thunder Bats Rumble to Victory

  
      -Sandy Springs. On Sunday, the Thunder took on the Wills Park Raiders on a hot day in Chastain Park. At 2:16, the game started with the boys from DHYS as the visiting team. With one out, Gaines Moore got things going with a single to left and moved all the way to third on a couple of wild pitches. Noah walked and James hit a ball that the 3rd baseman could not handle, and both runners were able to score. Ryan knocked in James and Max ensued with a single up the middle and with JJ batting, moved up 90 feet each on a wild pitch. Ben got Ryan in on an infield single and Trevor Gulley collected his first hit of the season and 2 RBI's to run the score to 6-0 in favor of the Thunder. Some Thunder parents seemed  joyous and even comfortable with the lead at which point Jack Hammond reminded us "It ain't over till its over."  Noah took the mound in the bottom frame and gave up a couple of singles after two walks, but was able to hold the Raiders to three runs.
     Noah led off the second with a big double and James walked. Ryan and Max picked up RBI's to get back two of the runs. In the bottom of the second, Max took the mound and got two quick outs, but the Raiders did not go down easy. A long single to the wall and a walk followed by a mammoth 3 run homer brought the Raiders back to within 2 runs.
    In the third, the first six Thunder batters reached base and Kenny, Jack and Ben had RBI's to push the score to 15-6. Jarrett held the Raiders to just one run in the bottom of the third, with some superb defense from the Thunder. The fourth for DHYS was quiet with only a single by James Huey.  JJ started the inning but walked the first two Raiders. Trevor came in to pitch and gave up a double but then settled down to get out of the inning with a good lead still intact at 15-10.
     The fifth started with JJ reaching on an error and a single by Mercer who subbed in the game at third. Trevor got an infield hit to score Jarrett and two batters later,  Jack hit a single to the wall, scoring two runs. Ryan walked with the bases loaded and Max reached on an error to hit the 20 run mark for the Thunder.  Kenny came on to in the bottom of the fifth and gave up a bloop single to left.  The runner stole second and, feeling confident, tried to steal third. Max let him know that wasn't such a good idea and threw him out for the first out. The next batter hit a single to Jack at deep short followed by smash that Jack handled, stepped on the bag and threw to first for a game-ending double play.

Interesting stats and facts:
- Trevor Gulley collected 3 hits and 3 RBI's (as did Jack and Ryan)
- Only one error for The Thunder!
- Ben and Max each threw out a runner at 3rd attempting to steal
- Behind stellar defense in the fifth, Kenny faced the minimum number of batters.
- 564 miles logged so far

So long everybody.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E	L
DHYS Thunder	6	2	7	0	5		20	18	1	9
Wills Park Raiders	3	3	1	3	0		10	9	4	3