Dateline: Fox Mill Park
The Cubs continued their home stand on a very chilly fall evening. Dylan started on the mound and looked great. He struck out two and got the last batter to popup weakly to Greg who made a nice play at third. Cubs bats were quiet in the first and Dylan returned to the mound in the second. The first batter grounded out to Conor who made a great play as he fired to first for out one. Dylan then struck out the next two to complete his outstanding outing with four strikeouts and no runs. The Cubs loaded the bases on walks to Kaz, Dylan and Kengo but the O’s started settled down to get out three. After two it was a scoreless tie.
Justin started the third and made things exciting with a leadoff single and three walks which resulted in one run, but he settled down and struck out the O’s four, five, six hitters to end the inning. The Cubs retaliated swiftly with a leadoff walk to John, a single by Michael, and a walk to Colin to load the bases with no outs. Robbie got a huge RBI single to center to score John. Conor popped out to shallow center and Michael alertly tagged up and scored the Cubs second run and suddenly the Cubs had the lead. Justin singled and Greg walked to load the bases, but the O’s starter induced Kaz to hit a sharp grounder to the right of the mound and the pitcher made a great play to throw home and get Conor by a step. At the end of three it was Cubs 2 O’s 1.
Justin started things off with a leadoff strikeout, but two walks and another strikeout put him at his fifty pitch limit. Kaz came on and threw strikes but the O’s batter fought them off for three weak infield hits. A few misplays resulted in four runs for the O’s. This reporter would rather not go into the gory details. In the bottom of the fourth, Cubs bats were quiet and Cubs fans were worried as the Cubs now trained 5-2.
