Dateline: Fox Mill 2
The Twins took the field to start their fall campaign on a pleasant late summer evening. Only two players, Kyle and Jared, returned from the Coach Grossman’s dominant Red Sox team this Spring. Jake started off on the mound and quickly shut down the Rangers with three strikeouts. The Twins moved out to a quick lead with a leadof walk to Jared, a single by Jake and another single by Greg. After 1 it was 1-0 Twins.
In the second, the Rangers bats were again silent as Jake struck out three more. The Twins padded the lead on walks to Tom, Andy, Isaac, Nick, Chris and Jared. Tom, Andy, Nick and Christian scored and after two it was 5-0 Twins. Andy came on in relief of Jake and threw several strikes, but unfortunately walked a couple of batters. After a run scored, Coach Grossman signaled for Greg to come in from the bullpen. Greg obtained a strikeout, but a the Rangers were fortunate to have a few more walks and score four runs. The Twins lead was now down to 5-4. In the top of the third, Tommy, Tom, Andy and Isaac walked. Tommy and Tom scored to advance the Rangers lead to 7-4.
With darkness looming and a slim lead, Coach Grossman called for his closer Jared to come to pitch the fourth. Jared gave up a leadoff walk and struck out the next two batters. As fans held their breath, the next batter walked. With first and second, two outs, Jared threw a wild pitch. Isaac at catcher picked it up and threw it past the third baseman into left field. The Rangers third base coach sent the runner home. Jake was in left and he deftly scooped up the ball and fired home. Jared caught the ball and made the tag for an exciting last out of the game. This reporter was impressed with the play, but he has no idea why Isaac threw to third as there was no play, nor does he have any idea why Jared was between third and home instead of backing up home.
Coach Grossman was busy preparing for the Twins second game, but was available for a brief comment, “We are a very young team and I am starting to see our guys starting to work together. I was very happy that our guys came up swinging and got a few hits early in the game. I hope we can build on that as the season progresses. Coach Goldstein said “I like how our catchers looked today, both Kyle and Isaac have plenty of potential and I am sure we’ll get some additional catchers in as we have several games coming up soon.”