FALL '05
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Coors Monster 3-0 Infrored |
| A much-anticipated opening game of the new wiffle hall season, it did not fail to deliver the excitement. In a game that featured a ceremonial pitch by Chris Szeto '09, commentators, broken glass, naked men and a controversial call, Coors Monster held off the exciting rookie duo and escape with the first win of the season, 3-0. The game could have gone either way, as each team put 6 runners on base. 11 out of 30 total at-bats went to full count. It was one element that separated the teams: experience. The Coors Monster initially was the focal point as they debuted their dark-gray and silver uniform, but it was the rookies Infrored that came out with the fire. Aarons, in his first start in the big league, calmly went to work. Though he walked two batters from full count, and a man in a towel appeared into the stadium (security was not present to handle the situation), he was not rattled, as hestruck out three with his nasty, sidearm pitches. On the contrary, Murata quickly got himself into trouble, as Smith's triple and Aarons' walk put men on corners. The controversy occured on the fifth pitch against Aarons, after Smith lined out to make it one out. Murata threw three straight balls and then a strike. Aarons thought the next inside-high pitch was a ball and put down the bat, but the conference by the crowd agreed that the pitch had clipped the edge of the strike zone, making the count 3-2. On the next pitch, Aarons struck out. Murata then walked Smith on four pitches to load the bases, and again found himself down 3-0 in the count against Aarons. He worked thecount back to full, then made a diving catch for a ground ball to barely escape the jam. On top second, Smith got himself into trouble with two walks and a double to load the bases with no out. Moody cashed in with a single that Smith could not field to record the first run of the season. Still in the no-out-bases-loaded-jam, Smith maintained his composure to place his pitches. He got Murata and Moody to ground out, and got out of the inning with a nasty submarine pitch which Murata looked on helplessly for a three-pitch K. But it was not after 3 runs had scored after the single and two grounders. Moody went to work on bottom second to preserve the 3 run lead. Moody, still recovering from "mental" injury he has been battling recently, was also not in his top form, as many pitches floated high. However, after hew alked one and also gave up a single to Aarons, he delivered when it mattered the most. He struck out 3 in the inning, 2 of them from full count. Aarons kept the Infrored in the game with his 1-2-3 top third pitching performance, but the 3 run hole proved to be too big of a deficit against Moody, even though his command was so shaky that a fastball actually broke the window behind the strike zone, about 3 feet above. After he gave up a two-out single, he struck out Smith for his 6th K of the game to preserve the victory for Coors Monster. All 3 K's on bottom 3rd came from full count. This game proved that the level of competition will be very high this year, and the runs will be hard to come by. It also proved that teams that execute when it matters the most will come out on top. So this has been just one game of the season, there is 65 more to go! |