Roos' Bats Come Alive Behind Dominant Pitching in Game 1

Roos' Bats Come Alive Behind Dominant Pitching Efforts

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

We departed SUNY Canton and drove across town to St. Lawrence, where we arrived at 2:30

During warmups, with about 15 minutes to game time, snow began drifting down from the sky.  

The snow started to come down much harder by the time Jeremy Baez came up with two outs in the top of the first.    

Baez worked a great at bat but was thrown out by a nice barehanded play by Saints shortstop, Chris Fernandez.

Soon after, Robbie Osterer started his outing in the bottom half of the first by striking out Fernandez for the first out.  

The next batter walked, but Greg Dobies drifted towards a pop fly in foul play and made a nice catch after a long run to record the second out.  Robbie battled back after falling behind in the count and blew 3 straight fastballs past the Saints four-hitter, Andrew Schreyack. 

Brandon Welch rapped out an infield single with one out in the second to notch the Roos' first hit of the evening. 

Robbie struck out another batter in the bottom of the second to get himself out of the inning.  However, Mother Nature took control for the rest of the night, and the game was called on account OF THE SNOW. Unfortunately, yes, you read that correctly: THE SNOW. 

It proved to be a good decision to postpone the remainder of the game because it continued to come down harder throughout the night.  We helped tarp the field and instead enjoyed dinner at Sergi’s Italian Restaurant, as they accommodated us on short notice due to the weather. 

Saturday, April 11, 2015

We resumed play on Saturday after a long, cold pregame warm-up.  The game-time temperature was a frigid 37 degrees, with accompanying winds.

The sun came out for a brief period in which some of the players soaked it in while they could.  

Robbie continued pitching where he left off, and produced a force out at second to record the second out.  Chris Roenbeck made a running catch over his shoulder to end the inning.  Jesse Barton worked his way back in his at bat and forced a walk.  

Two pitches later he beat the catcher’s throw down to second base to record a steal and put a runner in scoring position for the Roos.  Christian finished his at bat by poking a ground ball through the third base hole and put the runners on the corners.  Christian stole second base to continue the threat. Wilson Matos sent a shot into left field which plated Barton and put the Roos on the board first.  

The inning proved the Roos were seeing their pitches well and putting the ball into play.

Robbie struck out two batters with the bases loaded to end the Saints offense for the inning. Roenbeck snagged a liner in the bottom of the 4^th and doubled up the runner on first and ended the 4^th with the Roos trailing by just a run, 2-1. Nick Demarais started the Roos Rally™ in the 5^th by reaching first and then advancing to second, and put a runner in scoring position with no outs.  Dobies followed with walked. Jesse laid down a perfect bunt and advanced each of the runners 90 feet.  Christian plated Dobies to tie the game at 2.  He then stole second to put two runners in scoring position again.  Wilson brought them both in with a single to right centerfield.  The Roos took the lead, 4-2.  Baez pushed Wilson all the way to third on a well-executed hit and run, which Wilson read well.  Douglas plated Matos on a hard hit single between third and short to increase the lead to 5-2.  Seth also stole second base.  In the bottom half of the inning, Seth made a nice running play in left field and capped it off by jumping the left field fence with pure athleticism.  Robbie followed up on the mound by striking out the next batter for the second out.  Roenbeck led off the 6^th and sent a towering shot into left center.  Demarais pushed Chris Jones, who pinch ran for Roenbeck, to third with a well-placed sacrifice bunt.   Dobies kept the inning rolling by ripping a shot past the Saints’ infielders who were playing in, and brought the Roos lead to 6-3.  

 Robbie continued pitching into the 6^th.  With no outs, Dobies fielded a slow roller and fired to second to force out the lead runner.  Robbie got the next batter to ground out to Chris Jones at first on the next play.   In a huge situation following, Robbie struck out the Saints’ biggest threat looking. With another good, quick start to an inning, Matos led off the 7^th with a double down the 3^rd base line.  He advanced to 3^rd on the next pitch.  With a run 90 feet from scoring and no outs, Jeremy Baez lifted a shot into deep left field, plating Matos, and sending himself to second.  Travis Schindler pinch ran for Baez, and scored when Welch dropped a hit into right field with 1 out.  The next batter, Chris Jones, dropped a hit down the opposite field line as well, his down the left field line. 

Robbie continued his dominating pitching and kept the Saints at 3.  Cruz walked in the top of the 8^th. Mancini took over on the mound in the bottom of the inning.  

 Dobies fielded a chopper at third and zipped a strike to first base which nabbed the runner for the first out.  Mancini struck out the 2^nd batter after coming back in the count.  Chris Jones stayed down on a ball that was pulled towards him at first base. He picked it cleanly and took it himself to the bag.  Jones then worked a two out walk the next inning.  

 Mancini helped himself in the bottom of the 9^th with the bases loaded and no outs. He snagged a liner back to the mound for the first out, struck out the next batter, and got the last batter of the game to groundout to Matos at short, who fielded it and took it to second himself for the force out. 

Mancini pitched well to escape the inning unscathed.  He closed out the Saints, as the 

Roos won, 8-3!

gregwazhere