It was a cool start to the 2018 Tuesday season. With a setting sun and cool breeze in the air, first up on the docket for 2018 season the long standing nemesis of SBW, the Lumberjacks. This would prove to be a tight affair to kickoff the season. Starting on the road SBW took to the bats and came up with a big goose egg. A small public service announcement brought to you by Sebastian, who would like remind us all why you don’t swing on a 3 – 0 pitch that wasn’t remotely destined for the plate. Naturally because they result in a small gimme fly outs! Looking for a mulligan for the at bat, SBW got right to the defence and locked it down, with the first outs of the season coming from Justyn with a Y crushing a double play to Peter H at 1. Newcomer Jess Marie made a spectacular catch in right field on an out of play ball just to showoff her stuff. SBW would get on the board next go around with Alexander taking a ball deep to left field. (Side note, Alex went 3/3 on the night with 4 RBIs!)
The third inning would prove hard for the Buds as the Lumberjacks’ hitting that we all know came back with a vengeance (and the help of some questionable calls.) Early in the bottom of the third, Justyn with a Y was denied for his bid for his second double play of the game with a bullet throw that went to the runner. Following it up later in the inning, Eric D covered off Peter H’s nice snag at first only to not get the call on the foot race with opposing Captain Dylon Lockyer. Inning ends with Captain Eric stopping a hard hit back up the middle for the third out only to find that 7 runs had already come in.
The next few innings the Buds rallied back minimizing the damage against including a nice play from Seb in center field who made an all-star running catch in shallow center field and followed it up with a heads up play to see the runner tagging up for home and hooked up with Julie W to make a double play to end the inning. (Side note, Julie W crushed it at bat going 4/5 with 3 RBIs, with the lone out being inches away from being hit over the fence.)
The Buds would chip away at the Lumberjacks’ lead and tie the game up at 10s in the 5th with Lawrie’s 3 run drive (Lawrie also had a great 4 RBI game.) SBW finished the 6th inning strong to take the lead 12 / 11.
With the Buds about ready to pack it up with a job well done, they failed to realize we had one more inning to play. The 7th. Marcel was determined that we would get all innings in making for a roller coaster of a finish.
The Buds start the 7th off strong with some patience from Peter H (who took two walks on the night while leading off the inning) and managed to tack on 4 more runs to extend the lead to 5. The runs were cut a bit short with some confusion from the third base coach and commitment lines (no names.)
Sporting a 5 run lead in the bottom of the 7th, the Buds had to hold on. The Lumberjacks’ short stop quickly cut the lead to 4 with a solo home run to start the inning. After a few more plays and the Lumberjacks mounting a comeback, Mark “Lawrie” Laurin was able to secure the second out inning while keeping the tying run on 3rd and winning run on 2nd with a laser throw to Peter H at one. (Lawrie spent most of the game scooping up balls at three and gunning the Jacks down at one.) With the lumberjacks’ pitcher up to the plate with 2 outs, the tying and winning runs on the bases, he pops a deep shot to right field where Jessica makes her third big catch of the night at the fence, locking down a big win to start the season against true rivals SBW have never managed to best!
-Eric
Next Game: https://www.sudsbudswindmills.com/event/game-2-vs-playball-boys-h/