Mounties Defence SOLID AS A ROCK!

The Vancouver Mounties were finally able to get the Monkey off their back and defeat one of the upper echelon teams garnering two hard fought victories over the first place Richmond Chuckers.  The Mounties decided to put there work boots on and play some good old fashioned hard core defence.  The Mounties defence was on top of its game making all the routine plays, making a few great plays while executing 3 double plays, throwing out a runner at 3rd and the dish while committing only one faux pas on the day. The Mounties won the first game 7 - 3 and the second game by a 4 - 2 score. 

Game 1 Mounties 7 Richmond 3
The Chuckers brought out their ace Hoefer in this one and he certainly lived up to his billing as he dominated early  striking out 8 Mountie batters in the first 3 innings. Mounties Rookie Gee drew the assignment and was equally as good keeping the game locked at zero until the bottom of the 3rd inning when Richmond scored a run to take a 1 - 0 lead.

The Mounties were finally able to get a base runner in the 4th when Quito singled and stole 2nd base.  Quito scored and tied the game at 1 when  Ensing lined one down the 3rd base line. 

Mavis entered the game in the 6th and Quito welcomed him with a single. Ensing drew a walk. Yang executed a sac bunt to move them both into scoring position and Kingsbury clutched up with a 2 out double to clear the bases and score Quito and Ensing.
 
Rankin singled in the bottom of the 6th and stole 2nd.  Rankin advanced to 3rd when Gee got the next batter to ground out.  At that point with the Mounties clinging to a 3 - 1 lead Gee gave way to Yang.  Rankin scored on a sac fly and then Yang got a strike out to get out of the inning with the Mounties still leading by a 3 - 2 score.

The Mounties added 4 insurance runs in the top of the 7th when Lee led off with a walk, Lindeman promptly moved him over into scoring position with a well executed sac bunt, and Younan finished off the sequence doubling to score Lee. Quito then walked and Ensing Tripled to drive in 2 more runs. Yang scored Ensing when he reached on error.

The Chuckers threatened in the bottom of the inning scoring 1 run but Kingsbury sucked the life out of them when he threw out a runner at 3rd. Yang fed off that and struck out the last Richmond batter to end the game.

Gee picked up the win with Yang recording the save. The Mounties out hit the Chuckers by a 7 to 5 margin.

Game 2 Mounties 4 Richmond 2
Richmond brought Hayes to the bump for this one hoping to repeat his victory over the Mounties at Nanaimo Park a couple of weeks ago.  The Mounties also started Hogan the losing pitcher in that game and were hoping that Hogan would reverse the misfortunes of the past.  The Mounties scored early when Ensing and Yang battled Hayes and emerged with a couple of walks.  Hogan helped his cause when he scored Ensing with a sacrifice fly.  Richmond got that run back in the bottom of the inning and the game was knotted at 1.

Hayes left because of a sore arm but Hardy came in and put up a doughnut in the top of 2nd.  Richmond brought in Marquis in the 3rd inning and he also kept the Mounties off the board.  Hogan was also stellar continuing to put up zeros.  

The Mounties got to Marquis in the top of the 4th when Lindeman led off with a single and then Younan and Quito blasted back to back triples.  Yang also singled and Richmond brought in Rankin to get out of the inning, but the damage was done and the Mounties counted 3 runs in the inning.  Richmond added 1 in the bottom of the inning and the Mounties were now leading by a 4 - 2 score after 4 complete innings. 

Rankin did his job shutting the Mounties out for the last 3 innings, and after Hogan gave up a leadoff triple in the bottom of the 5th Ensing came in to put out the fire.  On Ensings first pitch a comebacker to the mound he threw out the runner at 3rd and got caught up in a rundown and after the out Kingsbury doubled up the runner who was trying to get to 2nd base during the rundown.  Ensing retired the next 8 Richmond batters to pick up the save.

Hogan drew his record even with the Chuckers by picking up the win while Ensing recorded the save.  The Mounties out hit the Chuckers by a 8 - 7 count.