Elimination Game 1, vs. LA Thunder

The Blizzard welcomed "MT" to the squad today.  The gang is together again! Also of note: Wilford decided to return to the scene of the crime and play SS again, despite a very sore face from the bad-hop the day before.  Tough as nails...

In the top of the 1st the Thunder went down 1-2-3 and the Blizzard came up with a chance to take control of the game.  Wilford gets a leadoff double, sparking the crowd (made up of mostly Boston Rebel team).  But 2 of the next 3 batters would have uncharacteristic at-bats, with Jeskey striking out and Connolly popping up to the pitcher.  In between was an RBI single by Maldonado (who features prominently in the play that ended the inning.

With two outs Gordon draws a walk, and Murphy follows up with a bloop single to center field.   Maldonado tries to score, but realizes about 80% of the way there that the ball was about to be caught by the catcher. he turns around to run back to 3rd base, when he slides in safely.   However, the umpires conferred and decided (wrongly) that Diego was out of the baseline when he ran back to 3rd base, despite the Blizzard protestations.   (This was the wrong call, as Diego was merely turning around and not avoiding a tag in any way)  This was an enormous swing in the game.  Instead of being up 2-0, with a lot of momentum, the Thunder ran off the field elated and pumped up.

In the top of the 2nd, Thunder leads off with a solo HR. That may have been all they would get, but the Blizzard made 3 uncharacteristic errors, allowing Thunder to score 3 more times.  The blizzard went down 1-2-3, despite a couple of hard-hit balls.

Thunder got 4 more in the 3rd in a clean inning,  getting 6 hits and a sacrifice fly.  The Blizzard went down 1-2-3 again in the 3rd, and now trailed 8-1.  The Thunder were held scoreless in the 4th and 5th, while the Blizzard scored 2 and 1 run respectively, cutting the lead to 8-4.

In the final 2 frames, Thunder get 1 run in each. In the final half-inning, "MT" led off with a triple, but none of the next 4 batters could manage a hit and the Blizzard would lose, 10-5.

Losers bracket, here we come!!

Hitting Leaders
Maldonado:  2-3
MT:  2-3 (3B)
Wilford: 2-4
Banks:  1-2
Murphy:  1-2

Round Robin, Day 2, Game 2 versus Minnesota ICE

In the final inning, SS Jon Wilford got mashed in the face with a bad-hop grounder.  More on that later...

After another long layoff between games, The Blizzard came out cold, even given two gifts in the first inning by errors, and managed 0 runs on 0 hits. In the second inning, Garrett Gordon hit his first extra-base hit, with a missile triple to right, and was plated by Frattura's single.   There were no more hits in the inning, but Frattura scored on 3 fielder's choices (1 with an error) and a walk by Yaeger. In the 3rd, the Blizzard combined 4 hits with 1 error and scored 3 times.

Minnesota did not score until the 4th, with a single run.   The Blizzard got 3 more in the 4th as well, highlighted by a double by Jeskey and a triple by Maldonado. In the 5th, Yaeger got things going with a double, and the Blizzard got 2 more runs, to take a 10-1 lead.  In the last frame,  Minnesota could only muster 2 more runs. in the bottom of the inning,  But the real drama was when the first batter of the inning his a grounder to shortstop, which took a NASTY bounce and hit Wilford in the grill.  The glasses went flying, and Jon was bleeding.     The tough son of a bitch calmly walked to the dugout and tried to dry up the blood, and he put on a bandage to head back on to the field.   The umpires would not allow it because of the blood rule, so Jon had to stay out.    note: we scored that play an ERROR on Wilford  (i'm kidding).   After the 4 or 5 minutes stoppage, the game resumed and the VERY NEXT PITCH had another ball to shortstop take another nasty hop (deja vu), catching Frattura in the shoulder...but the Blizzard managed to get a force out at 2B on the play.  Scary stuff!

Jon appears to be OK and is ready to rock-n-roll today!!!

In their final at-bat, the Blizzard got a lead-off HOME RUN by Gordon!  Moon shot!!!   fun fact: Garrett is wearing Sandro's #14 jersey this week...and he is clearly positively influenced by wearing the shirt of a legend (in his own mind).    But for the record, the other #14 (yours truly) has never hit a ball out...so I am pleased that at least my jersey has done so!  :-)

Hitting leaders:
Gordon:  4-4 (HR, 3B)
Frattura:  4-4
Maldonado: 3-4 (3B)
Jeskey: 2-4 (2B)
Wilford: 2-4
Yaeger: 1-2 (2B BB)  (note: time has 4 walks on the tourney!  Mr unselfish...)