Dateline: Stratton Woods Park

After a cold rainy morning, the sun came out in time to continue the Cubs home stand. Dylan started the game and threw heat. The first batter popped out to Conor who made a nice catch at short. Unfortunately, Dylan had trouble finding the plate for a few batters — he then settled down and threw a lot of strikes. Unfortunately, the infield had some trouble getting in sync and the Braves quickly held a 5-0 lead. The Cubs started chipping away at the lead with a walk to Conor who then stole second and third. An RBI grounded to short by Greg to put the Cubs on the board. After one it was 5-1 Braves.

Dylan struck out the first batter, walked two and a weak infield hit resulted in a run. He then struck out another batter for out two and induced a grounder to Conor at short who flipped to Danny at third for out three. The Cubs went down quietly and after two it was Braves 6 Cubs 1.

Greg came on in the third and the first batter hit a line shot to Danny in center. Danny broke right at the sound of the bat and made a phenomenal shoestring catch for out one. Greg struck out the next batter and got the last batter to groundout to Conor at short for out three. Michael started things off in the third with a single to right. Robbie walked. Conor hit a hard single to left to score Michael. Justin walked to load the bases. Greg singled to score Robbie. Kaz singled to score Conor. Dylan walked to score Justin. Greg scored on a wild pitch. Suddenly it was tied Cubs 6 Braves 6.

In the fourth, Justin threw blistering heat. He struck out the side and Cubs fans rejoiced. Cubs bats were on fire in the bottom of the fourth. Kengo hit a sharp single to right. Christian lined a shot to left to put runners on first and second. Jordan walked to load the bases and John walked to score Kengo. Michael was hit by a pitch to score Christian. With two outs and the bases loaded Conor drove a long drive to right for a clean double to score Jordan and John. Michael scored on a wild pitch to end the inning at the limit of five runs.
The Cubs had now scored ten runs in two innings to take a commanding 11-6 lead.

Justin continued his masterful performance with three more quick strikeouts — a nice total of six strikeouts in two innings. The Cubs added two key insurance runs as Justin walked, Greg singled to put runners on at first and second. Dylan drove a long double to center to score Justin. Greg scored on a wild pitch to give the Cubs a 13-6 lead.

Kaz come on for his first appearance of the season. He looked great after giving up a shallow single to right. The batter advanced to second and third on wild pitches. The next batter grounded to Justin at second who tossed to Greg at first and drove in a meaningless run. Kaz struck out the next batter for out two and settled down to get the last batter to ground out to Greg at first who flipped to Justin covering the bag. Final Score: Cubs 13 Braves 7.

Coach Grossman said, “I wasn’t too happy with out start — our guys clearly need more work at fielding ground balls, but I really liked how we stayed calm and came back. Justin had his best outing of the season and its great to see Kaz have a nice inning. Our bats are starting to come alive. This team is only going to get better — they are improving very quickly.”

Coach Goldstein said, “The catchers keep progressing and I was very impressed with that big catch in center by Danny.”

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