Dateline: Hook Road
Despite a huge thundershower at lunchtime, the sun came out and field had dried sufficiently by gametime. The Rockies came in riding high after three big wins without a loss. The A’s dug in and jumped on the Rockies starter for a quick three runs that was led by a big single by Donnie. Matthew, Richard and Drew scored, giving the A’s a 3-0 lead. The Rockies retaliated with a very fortunate four runs despite Alyssa throwing a plethora of of good, hard strikes. After one, the A’s were down 4-3, but all felt it was going to be a thriller.
In the second, the A’s bats were quieted and Alyssa returned to the mound. She shut down the Rockies with only a lame run and after two it was Rockies 5 A’s 3.
The A’s stayed in the game with a big hit by Matthew who eventually came around to score. Drew came on in the bottom of the third a threw of bunch of nice strikes, but sadly the Rockies got a couple of week dribblers that enabled them to score four runs. After three the Rockies had a lead of 9-4.
The A’s never quit though and in the top of the fourth, they scored three runs on a big single by Donnie and Mitchell followed by a four-base error on a short hopper to the mound hit by Pierce. When the dust had cleared, the A’s were down only 9-7. Matthew took the mound and walked the first batter. The second batter hit a long drive to right field. Daniel camped under and caught it easily. This took the wind out of the Rockies’ sails and Matthew went on to quickly retire the side.
Moving to the fifth, the A’s scratched out two more runs to tie the score. Richard and Will had a big line drives to the outfield. Two runs scored and the game was tied. In the bottom half of the inning Matthew continued his excellent pitching and after 5 it was 9-9.
Mitchell led off the sixth with a smash to left, but he was left on first and A’s faithful were left hoping that the A’s could hold the Rockies and come away with a tie. In the bottom of the sixth, fans and players were on the edge of their seats. The leadoff man walked. The next batter advanced him to second on a groundout to first. The next batter advanced him to third on another groundout. With two out and a runner on third, Coach Grossman threw out the “book” and did not walk the next two batters. A surprised crowd looked on as Matthew calmly struck out the A’s leadoff man to end the game in a 9-9 tie.
Coach Grossman was extremely busy preparing for Game 5 against the Reds next week and orchestrating a practice for tomorrow had only a moment to contemplate the tie “….I heard the Rockies were a tough team, but its clear we can play right with them. I would prefer it if our guys would start paying a little more attention during the game. Today I heard a game of ‘marco polo’ being played while we were at bat. This is not the ideal time to play such a game. Overall, I was very happy with our batting and our fielding (especially Daniel’s catch was impressive)…I also like how we kept after the Rockies despite going down by 5….” Coach Goldstein said “My heart is still pounding — this game was exciting, but I had a feeling we could keep up with these guys….”
