Dateline: Browns Chapel
On a very pleasant fall evening, the Phillies were up first. Micahel walked and moved to third on two wild pitches. Krishan came up with a big two out hit with a single to score Michael. Aidan looked sharp and shut down the A’s as they only got one run on a long blast by their third hitter of the left field wall. After one it was all tied at one.
Top of the second and Aidan led off with a double to left. Krish moved him to third on a ground out and Isaac walked but sadly the last batter struck out to end the threat. Aidan looked sharp on the mound and held the A’s in the second.
Top of the third and after a leadoff walk to Evan, the Phillies went down in order. Sam looked sharp in the third as the first batted grounded out to first where Cam made a nice play for the out. The next batter tripled to center. The next batter beat on an infield hit to the mound but the runner didn’t score. With runners on first and third the Phillies went with their favorite play — the ole throw down to the shortstop where Michael caught it and fired home and Reece deftly applied the tag for a huge out two. A dropped popup put the A’s back in business and two back to back triples resulted in runs. When the dust cleared the A’s were up 4-1 after three.
The Phillies came right back in the fourth with three runs on a walk by Krishan a single to center by Reece and a long blast over the right center field wall by William. William was initially called out as he sort of fell into home plate. The rule is clear that you can’t slide into home but Coach Grossman asked the umpire to consider the notion that it was a dive or a slide. This did nothing to convince the umpire, but hats off to the A’s Coach Wilburn for asking the ump to not call the batter out. [Editors note: Just when we think we have seen it all, something like this happens.] The A’s scored scored a few more runs in the fourth but the Phillies came right back with two more on a walk to Evan, a single to right by Michael and Kyle hit a long double to right and scored on some bad throws. After four and a half it was 9-7 and Reece came on and struck out two but one run did score to make it 10-7. The Phillies went down in order in the top of the sixth.
Coach Grossman said, “Well the A’s are an awfully good team, but I was thrilled to see William get his first home run of the season I liked watching how much better our pitchers are doing at throwing strikes. We still have to clean up our fielding as we gave them a bunch of extra outs, but we are getting better each week.”