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Sweep-less

What've you gotta do to get a sweep around here? For the third time in this young season the Sox did all

the hard work by winning the A game in the morning, only to lose the B game in the afternoon. I suppose

I should be thankful, the last B game against the Mariners was a 36-26

marathon and I thought we might have to call it for nightfall; this time we got

it all done in less than 2 hours. An improvement of sorts!

All credit to the Mariners B squad though; the Sox had a very strong line up,

scoring 6 runs but defensively we yielded up 9. Highlight for us had to be

Boomer huffing around the bases for an in the parker.

The morning A game was an excellent game of baseball all round. The Sox

chipped away at the Mariners pitching eventually compiling 5 runs, which

was enough as Niall had himself another strong outing. 2 runs, 1 earned

was his (partial) line for the day. Once again, some nice defensive work was

a big feature of the Sox's 5th A victory, along with the signature 'Mr. Treeple'.

This week that honour went to Sal.

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Sloppy Thirds

Coming off our recent A level defeat to the reigning champions, Spartans, it was refreshing to see the Sox

show up with a purpose today. At one point the coach was worried that we would leave all the plays in the

warm-up we were so good. Apart from the aforementioned third inning though, he was wrong. The Sox put

on a thoroughly professional display and beat the Hurricanes with something to spare.

Leading by a run in the first, it was the Hurricanes who started that third inning by giving up 5 on mostly

mistakes. We gave 'em all back again with mistakes of our own in the bottom half. Play of the game

went to Gabby Gonzalez in left when he hauled back in a monster shot to left with the bases loaded for the

third out. The real difference was that we put that inning behind us and pitching/defence put up zeroes for

the remainder. That was something the Hurricanes couldn't do and the Sox offence put on another 7 for a

13 to 6 victory.

As is so often the case, we split the double header, going down 10 to 6 in the B game. It was a good

game of baseball resembling an A game of 2 years ago which is testament to how far we have come as a

club. The B squad played for an excellent victory recently against the Spartans but today too many

mistakes were costly. When they start to disappear we will be ready to defend our our B title.

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Sox Move To 3 and 0

Another dominating performance by the Sox and we start the 2007 Irish season at 3 and 0. There has

been no let up in the run scoring department; coming off the back of 16 and 18 run efforts; now add 26 to

that line. Final score, 26 to 7.

The scoreline I suppose is a little misleading as it wasn't all one-way, especially early, and 20 of those 26

runs were scored in 2 innings, 8 in the third and 12 in the last. Niall showed some true grit too early on

when not everything was going his way but he battled and got the job done. He settled down quickly after

that and should have finished the game with just the 2 runs scored against him, but some costly errors

with 2 outs in the last inflated the oppositions score a little. Gotta put my hand up for one of them, but hey

it was my 2007 A debut today and if anybody makes a big deal out of it, you get benched! That goes for

my map skills as well.

Special mention to the offence who put on a hitting show today. Triples (2 by Brendan Scott), doubles,

solid and intelligent base running and supreme patience at the plate were all on display.

Next Saturday we are back in Shanganagh hosting the Spartans, both A and B. Previously our great

nemesis, but we have made huge strides this past 2 seasons so we can expect a good game.

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One Hit Wonder-ful

The Sox today continued to gain momentum in the 2007 Irish Baseball season with an emphatic 18 to zero

win against the Twins. Niall Rowan, making his first season start threw a stellar one-hit game. He

displayed that dominance with 13 K's. In fact, prior to the lone hit it took a hit batter for the Twins to get a

base runner.

Fundamental and error free defence in the few opportunities Niall allowed was also a key to the shut out.

When he wasn't swatting invisible bees, Peter Mullen exemplified that defence with a great diving play on

a ball hit to shallow left.

At the plate, the Sox put on a hit parade; a triple, couple of doubles and numerous singles.

Next weekend, it's off on the road again with a trip to Belfast on Saturday.

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Football Scores, Extra Innings and Points Shared

The Sox opened the 2007 Irish Baseball season against the Greystones Mariners today and helped add

some footnotes to Irish Baseball history with a few new records. At least I think they are records,

keeping stats is not the league strong point so I guess you'll have to prove me wrong.

In two games, both an A and B level game, a total of 85 (eighty five) runs were scored. That's record

number one, most runs scored in a single game day in one venue. The B game in the afternoon had a

final score of 36 to 26 to the Mariners. That's records number two and three, most runs scored in a single

game and most runs scored by a single team in a single game. The Mariners scored a total of 43 runs in

the two games, if you can't be bothered to do the maths, the Sox did win the A game by a score of 16 to

7. That's record number four, most runs scored by one team in a single game day. The Sox's Bob

Kennedy in the B game broke the last new record (that I'm aware of at least), when he had 7 plate

appearances in one game with no official at bat recorded. All 7 appearances resulted in walks.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the games themselves; the B game especially has me too

worn out to bother. I will mention that going into the bottom of the last, the Sox were 10 runs behind and

scored exactly that. In extra innings we couldn't repeat when we found ourselves this time 11 runs behind

and plating only 1 run in reply.

The morning A game saw the return from injury of Eoin O'Connor to the mound. Eoin spent the most part

of last season on the DL with only a few at bats to his name. Today he pitched all 7 innings and recorded

his (and the Sox's) first victory of 2007.

All in all, a good start to our quest for a first A championship, a minor setback in our defence of the B title

and plenty of action on the field.

Till next Sunday when we go on the road to face the Twins, winners today against the Northstars. That

game is at Corcagh Park.