Dateline: Yeonas Crabtree
On another enormously hot, humid summer evening the Reston Nationals went on the road to Yeonas park. Coach Grossman got to call the toss. He consulted with Coach Goldstein who felt really good about HEADS. He called “heads”, the coin flipped and flipped, it landed on the cement, and it was…..TAILS. Coach Grossman grumbled about listening to Coach Goldstein on important matters such as this. The Vienna coach chose to be the visiting team and Coach Grossman rejoiced because he wanted to be the home team anyway. (Editors Note: It was clear the strategy here was to put Reston National in the hotter dugout and yes, it was quite toasty in the Reston dugout.)
Ian looked great on the mound, an infield error and a single put runners on a first and second. A ground out to Kaz at first moved the runners to second and third. A double scored two and a single scored another run. Ian settled down and blasted a strikeout past the next batter and got the last batter to popout to the mound. The Nationals went down in order and after one it was Vienna Colonial 3 Reston National 0.
Ian continued to look sharp as he got a ground out to second where Eric made a nice play as he flipped to Kaz for out one. The next batter hit a long fly to right and Michael came in and made a nice grab for out two. A single, triple end infield error resulted in two runs iwth two outs, but Ian settled down and struck out the last batter on three quick pitches for three. The Reston Nationals went down in order, but we note Eric layed down a pretty nice bunt that just died in the sand in front of home or he would have been on first. After two it was Vienna Colonial 5 Reston National 0.
Ian looked great in the third as he retired the side in order on a strikeout, popout to the mound, and a ground out back to the pitcher where he made a nice throw to Cam at first for oour three. Three up and three down. Michael walked to give Reston their first runner of hte day. Cam grounded out to short for a fielders choice. Unfortunately, that was the end of the rally and after three the score remained 5-0.
Ian again looked sharp in the fourth. The first batter hit a soft fly to shallow center, Tyler charged, and made the catch for out one. The leadoff man bunted in a desparate attempt to make something happen, Justin made a nice play as he leaped in front of the plate but the throw was off line and the runner ended up on second. Ian was fine and on the first pitch got a pop out to first where Kaz made a nice catch for out two and a ground out right back to the mound for out three. In the bottom of the fourth, Tyler drilled a line shot that unfortunately went right to the second baseman. The next two batters went down in order and after four it was still anyone’s game at 5-0.
Sadly, the wheels came off in the fifth as the Vienna Colonials got a few hits. Ian came out, but we note that he had two, 8 pitch innings which is phenomenal. George came in and a couple of misplays in the outfield resulted in some more runs. George did get two batters out on a strikeout and a ground out to Alec who made a great play as he fired across the diamond for out two. Tyler came in and ended the rally with a fly out to Ian in center for out three. Unfortunately, 15 batters came up during the inning and 11 runs crossed the plate. The Nationals went down quietly in the bottom of the fifth and the game was ended due to a rule that says, after the fourth inning, if one team is down by ten or more runs, the game is over. Final Score: Vienna Colonial 16 Reston National 0.
Coach Grossman said, “Well, Ian certainly deserves credit for keeping us in the game against a very good team. We were only down five and with a couple of hits, that isn’t much of a lead at this level. We’ll work on our defense. So far, the majority of our runs have scored against us in just two bad innings. These scores look bad, but I KNOW we are a far better team than these scores suggest. On Monday we play a team that lost to the Falls Church team and we know we could have won that game with a couple of bounces here or there. So we can turn this around with a good weekend of practice and still have some very positive results. I also want to point out that we didn’t give up a single walk all day. Control like that puts a lot of pressure on the offense of other teams. We clearly need to work on our defense. It got a little better, but we still are giving up too many outs. We’ll be ready for Monday.”
