And now, our man from the Mission, and resident Indians fan, Mike Gaspar:
well it was time for another match-up between mission baseball club
and the inmates of San Quentin. in this game we were going against the
pirates.
we all met in the parking lot and were happy to at least escape
the fog and cold of san francisco. there were eight of us all told.
(sq is always willing to lend a player or two) in true mission style
we just pieced together a lineup as we waited to get checked in.
fortunately we had some versatile talent on hand and felt pretty good
about our chances. we got checked in record time and after a twenty
minute warm up it was time to play ball.
things started off well for the m.b.c. as we had runners on first and
third with only one out. but a base running blunder by yours truly led
to a double play and snuffed out a would be rally.
Noah took the bump for our side and after a walk and a couple of
bloops the pirates had tallied two runs. but as he would do later, Noah
came up with a key strike out to leave a couple of pirates on base.
the top of the second was our big inning. in truth it was our only
inning. we got a runner to third but alas he was cut down at the plate.
but we still had some fight in us and manged to load the bases. and
a great at bat by our guest player, mike, led to a walk and plated our
first run. the next batter grounded a seventeen hopper up the middle
and a couple of more runs scored. two more base hits followed and
before the third out was recorded we had scored six runs.
but the pirates were able to slowly but surely come back. no major
rallies. just a run here and a run there. some walks a couple of
bloops, but within a couple innings the scored was tied.
meanwhile the m.b.c. bats went a little cold and this, coupled with
the fact that the pirates defense tightened up caused the momentum to shift.
after pitching a gutsy four innings, johnny came into relieve noah.
again the pirates managed to put some crooked numbers (their bats started
to heat up) and before we knew it, it was 11-6 favor of the pirates.
m.b.c. managed a few more threats but to no avail. soon enough we ran
out of playing time and the game was called after seven innings. all
told we were pretty proud of our effort. we only had three or four
errors, our pitchers, though often in trouble, made some great pitches when
they needed them to prevent a blow out. in addition we had some good
determined at bats. just couldn't get the "big hit" when we needed it.
and i think i can speak for the entire squad when i say there was no
place i would have rather been that afternoon. next game is 6-20 against
the pirates and we sure could use a few power hitters. chris, mitch,
mike l. you guys out there?
one last thing. as usual the sq players were very happy to have us there
and i think we even made them sweat it out a little
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