Wow! What a game! The Phantoms came out of a heated battle to win a close one with Bennett & Bennett.
I can’t tell you how much this was a stressful game to manage, especially when I was already without my starting catcher in the line-up and learning right at game time that I was down another player. I had to make on the fly adjustments and made mistakes on who was suppose to sit out an inning. I like to have things dialed in at least a day in advance.
The Phantoms had 9 hits and 12 walks while B&B had 6 hits and 8 walks. The team had 3 doubles by Benji, Sean & Ian and 6 singles by Alex R, Chris, Reilly & Ryan. The game started with 2 runs at the top of the 1st inning for team Echelbarger, but B&B came back with 5 runs in the bottom half. We went ahead in the 4th with 5 runs and scored a run in the sixth.
Christian didn’t have the best of games. It’s a struggle to coach him sometimes because he doesn’t listen to my advise. I don’t believe he properly warmed up before the game because I was too busy prepping the field and it showed with the lack of control at the mound. His pitches were in the ground, it didn’t help that B&B has a good hitting line up. He gave up 5 earned runs, 3 hits, had 3 walks and 0 strike outs, but the they did get 2 outs in the inning.
At the plate he struggled and was letting the umps big strike zone get to him. At least he struck out swinging and got walked. I’m forced to put him down the line-up until he starts getting hits again.
Chris was our MVP of the game. The kid is as cool as ice in both batting and pitching. He pitched 4 awesome innings of shut out baseball with 9 strike outs, 1 hit, 3 walks and 0 runs scored. I’d like to give special honorable mention to Reilly for solid playing at 1st base. He leads the team in put-outs with 9.
Defensively we made a few mistakes…Kids didn’t cover home plate and we bobbled a couple plays in the field. I’m trying to teach the kids to move to the ball once it is put in play.
Christian did get a 1-3 play during the 1st inning. He should have had a 4-3 out in the 2nd, but he didn’t charge the ball and Reilly’s catch was after the runner got by. Matters got worse in the later innings where he bobbled the ball in routine plays. One of those plays should have been a 4-3 out to get the last out of the game, instead the tying run crossed the plate. A couple missed opportunities cost us 3 runs in the sixth.
I was hoping to try out Jack pitching tonight, but didn’t want to put him in a high pressure situation for his first time out this season. He and others who haven’t pitched yet will get a chance in the next couple of games.
I remembered a rule from minors last year that if the game results in a tie at the end of the game and no more innings can be started, the score reverts back to the previous inning. So the score of last nights game is 7-5 in our favor!
All in all we played hard. I’m proud that the team held it together and didn’t get down on themselves too badly when we were behind. Our offense will give us a chance to win in every game.
Our next match is Thursday, April 1st against Insurance Resource Group @ 5:00 pm on Field 1. See you there! Go Phantoms!
Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Bennett & Bennett 5
