Recap – May 22nd Week

Wednesday May 24th

Only two games were played during the week because of the Victoria Day weekend and the extreme wet weather we have in during the spring of 2017.
The 6:45 pm American League show-down between Silver and Blue Steel 2 turned out to be a real pitcher’s battle between the teams four pitchers. The scored ended up 4 all in the end of a very exciting game. The score was 2 all going into the top of seventh inning. Blue Steel scored two runs to go up 4-2 and Silver tied the game on two-out, two run double by Rob “Puppy” Eklove off of Blue Steel 2 rookie pitcher Sean Tracy.  Key to the inning was the full count walk that “Mini” Mark Lee took to allow “Puppy” to bat.  Solid for the silver squad was pitcher Les “The Beard” Silverstein along with of course “Mini” Mark Lee who pitched five solid innings for Silver.
Kevin “Slippers” Green pitched four shut-down innings for Blue Steel, giving up only two runs. Jeff Retchshaffen continued his solid hitting, with a two run home run to lead Blue Steel offensively.
The 8:45 pm National League game saw Blue Steel 1 win their first game of the year over “G” Rays, 12-5.
Blue Steel was again led by Paul Silverstein who hit his league leading third home run of the season. The Marshall father and son tandem (Frank and John) did not allow a run against the vaunted Grey offense. Robbie Cooper did hit a three shot to right centre to lead the “G” Rays offense. Blue Steel had solid offensive contributions from Adam Altberg, Steven Goldsmith and Dan Berlin along with John Marshall’s first home run of the year.

Sunday May 28 – Double Blue VS Purple

Double Blue beat Purple (also known as Red) 6-5 Sunday morning.  Purple scored 3 quick runs in the first helped by a few bloopers, but after that, Nathan Jack settled in to throw 5 solid innings.  Michael Goldberg made his Exec league debut, helping to turn 3 double plays then pitching 2 shutout innings for the save.  Jason Greenwald continues to be one of the hottest hitters in the league, consistently hitting hard liners each time up.

Sunday May 28 – Powder VS Orange

Powder got some timely hitting in the 6th and a powerful close in the 7th to beat Orange 8-5 on this sunny Sunday afternoon.  The game was tight throughout with a 5-5 time going into the 5th but Powder pressed on for the win ending Orange’s perfect start to the season.

 

NOTE – the below is a late entry update from the previous week… compliments of Irwin “The Grey” Tobias

Wednesday, May 17th – Powder 2 VS Blue Steel 2

We saw summer arrive for a short two days and a couple of Executive League games being played on a warm 30 degrees summer evening.

In the first game, an American League encounter between Powder 2 or Blue Steel 2 or the Brewers, whatever you want to call them, and the Green “Art of Food” (we are still wondering what the connection is between the sponsor and the team). The aforementioned triple-named team, defeated the under-manned  “Art of Food”, 8-1. The game was close till the sixth inning, when Blue Steel 2 broke it open with a four spot. Kevin Green and Sean Tracy both pitched solidly and Colin Halpern and Jeff Rechtshaffen had key rbi’s. Solid catching by veteran Dana Karkheck and a fine stab of a liner by second baseman  Rob Walsh led to  Blue Steele’s first win of the year.

May 17 – Red VS Powder

A high-intensity National League game between the Redlegs and Powder Royals capped off the evening. Red, behind the stellar pitcher of defector Howard Shilling, who kept the vaunted Power attack at bay until the bottom of the seventh. Powder came back from a 6-3 deficit with two out to tie the game with their last at bats. Shilling deserved the game ball, as he was hit in the upper chest by a line drive scorcher off the bat of Johnny Marshall in the first inning. He recovered nicely to pitch a gem of a game. Red was led by solid infield defense from Michael Hochman and Dave Katz and key hits when they needed them the most. Red coach and versatile player Johnny Mandel was quoted after the game, “That was the most intense game, I have ever played in”. That tells you a lot about that exciting game. Mandel has been playing ball all his life, and has played in many leagues including, tyke, midget, industrial and prison leagues.