With no frisbee players in our way, the Red Scare were able to get started on last night’s game vs. Lieber’s Redrum early, with first pitch at 5:19 pm. On the mound for his first start of the season was Sam, who walked dimunitive leadoff hitter Izzy before getting a strikeout. The next ball was grounded straight up the middle, deflecting off the umpire (once again Mr. Ottavino from Tuesday night), who correctly called the ball dead and awarded the batter first base. The next batter, Will, lined a ball to right field that Ben C just barely missed making a shoestring catch of, driving in Izzy, but Sam struck out two more Redrum batters to stop the scoring there.
In the bottom of the 1st, Ben M led off with a groundball that the Lieber shortstop misplayed then threw wild to first, allowing Ben to advance to second. After a groundout to first, Yates delivered a long fly that went over the head of the center fielder, ending up on second with a double, then advancing to third on a wild pitch. Max’s single to right scored our second run, then Ben C beat out a grounder to third for another single. The runners moved up on a wild pitch, then Jordan N swung at strike three as the ball got away from the catcher; he raced for first, the high throw barely beating him as the first baseman’s foot landed back on the bag an instant before Jordan’s, but it allowed Max to head home with our third run.
Sam set the Redrum down easily in the 2nd, then the Red Scare fired up the scoring machine again in the bottom of the inning. Shiloh led off with a loud single down the right-field line, then was replaced at first by Taylor. who hit into a force play. Ben M and Sam followed with ground singles, then Yates hit another grounder to the Lieber shortstop, who booted it for an error to load the bases. After a strikeout by Lieber starter Ollie, Ben C pulled a ball down the line that the third baseman threw wild to first; three runs ended up scoring on the play as Lieber’s squad was slow getting the ball back to the infield.
The middle of the Redrum order got to Sam for a couple more runs in the 3rd, on a pair of singles and a walk, but Sam picked up his sixth K of the game to stop the bleeding there. In the bottom of the 3rd, Roan led off by beating out a grounder to short; two outs later, Ben M beat out a grounder to third for a single (the line between hits and errors by the not-sure-gloved Lieber infield was a blurry one this game), then Sam’s grounder to short was thrown away, and the Red Scare had an 8-3 lead.
Sam shut down the Redrum again in the 4th on a walk, two groundouts, and a strikeout. In the bottom of the inning, Max led off with a single that snuck through the middle for a hit, Ben C worked a walk, then Roan singled them both in. With Sam having thrown 86 pitches, Yates came on in relief, and threw two scoreless innings — aided by four strikeouts and a terrific pickoff of a runner on third by catcher Max, which led to a rundown in which Max almost tagged the runner out, then threw to shortstop Sam covering at third for the out. With no time left to play the bottom of the 6th and advance to the next inning, that was the ballgame. Red Scare 10, Lieber 3
It was good to get back in the win column after Tuesday’s tough loss. The rest of the schedule presents no easy matchups, though, as we have three games against two other tough teams in the span of eight days:
Sunday, Oct. 8 at 12 pm vs Shiffman
Tuesday, Oct. 10 at 5:30 pm vs Miller
Sunday, Oct. 15 at 9 am vs Shiffman
I’ll be there on Sunday for pregame practice starting at 11, but please arrive no later than 11:30, as we’re likely to have the bare minimum number of players. See you then!
