Holden Bests The Milleteers In First Place Battle

The Milleteers travelled to Holden last night to battle it out for first in the standings as each team only had one loss on the year. The teams had not met since the first game of the preseason that saw the Milleteers dominate on the way to a 14-0 win. It looked early on that this game might go the same way as the the Holden starter battled some control problems early that allowed the Milleteers to jump out to a two run lead. On the other side of the ball junk baller Shawn Brinkworth was tough early as he needed only five pitches to get through the first and then struck out the side in the second.

 

 

Holden battled back to tie it in the third as they learned to lay of Brinkworth’s soft stuff and worked a few walks and a hit by pitch to load the bases. Then veteran Blue Jay Pat Kawilalak cleared the bases as his single up the middle hit a tractor rut and skipped over center fielder Kevin Doyle’s head. In the fourth the Blue Jays scored another run on a safety squeeze to take the lead.

 

After the good first inning, as they often do, the Milleteers let Holden starter Jake Thorowsky settle in and find the strike zone in the middle innings. The Milleteers have had a history of just doing enough on offense and not showing enough killer instinct to put teams away early when a pitcher is struggling. In the fifth the Milleteers finally got a clutch hit by Murray Doyle to plate two to retake the lead, and then they scored one in the sixth to take a two run lead.

 

It all went downhill from there as the Blue Jays managed to score four runs on reliever Kevin Doyle. After a bloop single from the lead off hitter, Doyle managed to get an out on a sacrifice bunt. Then a slicing liner was misplayed into a double by right fielder Brent Thomas, who looked pretty rusty after being activated off the DL. Then number nine hitter Kyle Muzechka hit a single up the middle, but center fielder Steven Pahl came up throwing and looked to have the tieing run gunned out at the plate, but inexplicably Doyle tried to cut it off, only to see it tick of his glove and have it roll to the catcher to not only allow the run to score, but the other runner to advance to second. Then the next hitter hit another fly to Thomas in right to allow him to redeem himself, but he misplayed this one into a triple. In the end the uncharacteristically bad defense from the Milleteers allowed the Blue Jays to plate four runs and win the game after the Milleteers failed to score in their last bat.

 

On a positive note catcher Brad Engel, who the Milleteers nominated to send to the all star game, tied a team record with four steals on the night. Brad was an absolute terror for the Blue Jays as he had two hits, two walks, fours steals, three runs, and took extra bases with reckless abandon tonight, as well as being solid behind the dish. The two teams won’t have much time to rest as they will be back at it against each other to kick off the Ryley Rebel Tournament tonight at 7:00pm. Future PBL Hall of Famer Scott Peterson is expected to get the start for the Milleteers.

 

Posted on June 18, 2010 by Steven Pahl