A late surge by the Gold team wasn’t enough as solid defense and timely hitting was the key to the Blue team’s victory. Mark Pauwels led the way for the Blue team by going 3-5 with two RBI.
The Blue team jumped to an early 2-0 lead in the second inning when it was able to get to the Gold team’s starting pitching Jerry Bray. The Blue was able to score on an Andy Maloney sacrifice fly and a Derek Kaczor single.
Bray was able to settle down and hold the Blue team scoreless in the third and gave the Gold team a chance to get one run back in the bottom of the third when Josh Miranda was able to knock in Johnny Lyszczyk.
In the fourth inning, the Gold had a defense breakdown which allowed the Blue to score another run on a Pauwels sac fly off of relief pitcher Derek Chaffins.
The Blue team was able to increase its lead in the sixth inning when Brian Risk walked a batter, hit another, and gave up two hits which allowed three more runs to score making the score 5-1 in favor of the Blue team.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Gold team’s Brent Miranda hit a shot off Chris Boertje into the gap for a double scoring Justin Root.
The Blue team countered in the top of the seventh when Kaczor plated another runner with a single and then Jose Paez was able to score Kaczor with a single of his own off of Allen Manyen.
Josh White hit a double to the fence in the bottom of the seventh scoring Lyszczyk to make the score 8-3 with the Blue team still on top.
Andrew Strom then gave up two costly runs in the top of the ninth when a couple of hits and some wild pitches plated Tim Seigfried and Jon Somenhauer for the Blue team.
In the top of the ninth, the Gold team had a rally going against Derek Fleetham and was able to score three but it wasn’t enough and the Blue team was able to hold on for the win.
Starting pitcher Vince Webb picked up the win for the Blue team while Bray took the loss for the Gold team. With the series tied at 1-1, the Blue team will take over home field advantage and look to take a 2-1 lead going into Wednesday’s game.
Game three will be played once again at 3:45 at the SHU Baseball Field.