A nail-bitter of a game for Team Echelbarger. We had solid pitching and great fielding. We just couldn’t get our runners on base home and stranded 5. The Phantoms out hit Interbay 7 to 5 and we were even on walks with 4 a piece.
We have Pitching! Christian who pitched a great game for us in the last regular season game started us off, but struggled to throw the ball down over the plate. He had walked 2 runners, hit a player and earned 1 run. So I had to pull him early. Chris relieved him going 2.2 innings facing 10 batters with 30 strikes of 47 pitches, 6 strikeouts, 2 walks, 2 hits and 1 earned run.
We have defense! This is one of the best fielding teams I’ve coached. For the most part we are taking care of the baseball. Chris had a 6-3 with Reilly in the first inning. Alex R started a 9-6 combo with Sean in the second. Sean caught a huge pop-fly to left field for the final out of the fourth and Benji caught a pop-fly to center for the 1st out of the fifth.
We have bats! The coaching staff and I took too many risky base running moves today and we got burned 3 times. We under estimated their catcher and third baseman. Chris hit a single in the bottom of the first, but got tagged out on a single from Sean. In the bottom of the third inning, Alex R & Alex B got walked. Christian hits an RBI single to get Alex R home, but Alex B got tagged out at 3rd.
The MVP of the game was Jordan. He pitched 3 innings facing 11 batters with 29 strikes of 42 pitches, 7 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1 hit and 0 earned runs. He gunned down the runner leading off at 1st with a 2-3 with Reilly for the 2nd out of the second. Jo Jo went 3 for 3 at the plate. A single in the first, a lead off double in the fourth on which Sean had a RBI sac fly to left field to tie the game, and a single in the bottom of the sixth inning to become the winning run on a single hit from Benji!
The Phantoms have the entire 6 man pitching staff ready for Friday’s game against team Wilcox. We are going to need them as we will only have 1 day of rest for Sunday’s Championship game. Wilcox is a sleeper team that was off the radar until the playoffs. Their bottom 5 players of their lineup has combined for 5 hits in the regular season. But their bats erupted in the sixth inning against Bennett & Bennett with 12-0 runs. The score reverted to 2-0 as they didn’t complete the sixth inning.
I am hopeful that the team in green will persevere and play in the Championship game!
Next game is 5:00 pm Friday, June 11th on Lynndale Field 2. See you there. Go Phantoms!
Final Score: Interbay 2 – Echelbarger 3
