Mariners Notes:
'Are you kidding me?!' is the first thing I said to the disappointed Mariner faces, as we huddled up at the end of the game. 'There were freakin' eight of you....' That's right sports fans, we had one more than Yul Brenner's Magnificent Seven, and although good ol' Yul prevailed at the end, he had a village who rallied behind him. Unfortunately, the Ms two person OF of Greg H. and Trey K. had no villagers to rely upon, and simply ran their hearts out chasing down balls all around them, but the odds just caught up to them in the bottom of the sixth when the D-Backs put four across to put the dagger in us. Before then though, the Ms were playing like there were 10 of them on the field, keeping it a 2 to 2 game through 3 innings. Christian had the start and did his best to pitch them in the same spot so we could take our best guess on where to play our OF. In fact, although the D-Backs batted 8 in the 1st, they only had 2 to show for it, thanks to a nifty grab by Sam F. at 2B on a flare that had 2 RBIs written all over it. Karsten, filling in for all of our hurt SSs, was money as he made 6 assists, not including his own over the shoulder catch in shallow LC. Not to be outdone, Aaron had a little Brooks Robinson in him today as he snared two for-sure doubles/triples (we played no LF) and then made some great long throws to 1B to keep us in it. Luke H. also had a pair of lasers to 2B and 3B from the catcher spot, but the gloves just couldn't handle the hot throws to complete the tags. But the defensive highlight had to be in the 5th, when the Ms had the most hope, when Alex pounced off the mound to grab a hard bunt, fired to Karsten covering 2B, who then relayed it to Christian for the textbook DP. The Mariners' offense also showed an added dimension besides 'small ball' today as Greg continued his hit parade as he drove in our first two runs with an inside the parker that went to deep left-center. He then tried to do it all himself again with a smash up the middle in the 5th, stole 2nd, and scurried home on an errant pick-off throw. At that point, the short-handed Ms were only down 5 to 3, and closed it to 5-4, even after Christian smacked a shot through the hole, stole a bag, but got caught with a fake throw to 2B. Steady Aaron followed suit with his own 1B, as did Trey on a hit and run that gave him a ribbie to put us in striking distance. But, just like in Vegas, it's hard to beat the house, and placing all our chips on the pass-line caught up with us in that unfortunate sixth as Trey almost snagged a hot liner with the tons of runners on, that just went past his outstretched glove. By that time, the dynamic duo of Greg and Trey had probably run a marathon out there, and it just wasn't to be on this crisp, blue day at Willard. But as I was saying before I went on this game summary tangent, these 8 young men have no right to be disappointed. Still, I have to admit I was especially proud of how competitive these guys are. From the 1st inning, Luke 'Trust The Force' had his game face on, and you could see how badly he wanted to win this particular game , as every AB he had was like the last AB in the 7th game of the World Series. Although not all the Ms wore their competitivenss on their sleeves as much as Luke, I took note of a subtle swagger that was simply one OF short of what if...? Gamers, that's all I have left to say.... all 8 of them.