We’re entering the last week of the regular season and incredibly none of the seedings for the City Tournament are set. All teams will finish on Saturday May 11th and it will be a big day!
We’re hoping for all mom’s to attend our special Mother’s Day Rose Ceremony at roughly 1PM after the first game is finished. This sentimental event was started by former Commissioner John Orofino who will be on hand as our celebrity Italian chef serving up authentic lasagna, sausage and peppers and more. Don’t miss it as all $$$ from concessions will be going to improve the Alto dugouts.
Not only that, we are also hosting Majors Day at Alto — free hot dog and a drink for all Majors players who come by Saturday. After we hand out roses, we’re going to have some of the 11 and 12Us try to field and throw a ball cleanly from shortstop to win some candy from the Alto Snack Shack.
On to the recap.
The week opened with the Red Sox dropping a contest to the Cardinals 8-0 and suffering their 3rd straight loss in a shutout. This confounding result may appear downright impossible to those of us in the stands where we see teams score even when no one is paying attention. The Cards Tianu Koss, Roberto Santo Domingo, Nolan Ward, and Philip Walker gave up a lone hit to Sammy Marcus. Gio Perez and Hudson Williams had doubles and Tommy Strong and Gio joined the Hell Nah HR list of nukes that weren’t because the fence was not up.
The Orioles had a great week and bested the Mets (13-6) on Tuesday and then the Cardinals (14-7) on Friday in a preemptive game because of the rain forecast. We all tip our caps to Gael “Bamm Bamm” O’Brien who put the team on his back going 7-8 with 9 RBI! JP Peavy also joined the Hell Nah HR list with a nuke to deep left while going a relatively pedestrian 4-7 with 4 RBI. Luke Hamer had a hit and the O’s relied on Ty Cerne, Noah Schick and Will Weir from the bump to keep their opponents at bay. Mets Liam Winn and Colin Montgomery both had a pair of hits. Feddy Tellez had 4 hits in defeat.
The Pirates blanked the Giants 10-0 on Thursday to notch their 10th W of the season with Nico Rocherolle, Raymond Cao and Colton Zinn holding the Giants to 2 hits — knocks by Seamus Mauer and Nash Benford. Alex Radics continued his power surge with a 4th HR of the season to deep right. Declan Lam and Cedra Crews each roped singles.
After a rain interlude the Pirates were back on the field Sunday morning to take on the Red Sox who experimented with their first lord of the flies managing scheme which turned out to be a stroke of genius as Player/Managers Hugo Bockh and Miller Weir oversaw an artillery show from the once sleepy Sox bats — 14 hits and 15 runs with 9 of 10 players getting hitting safely and 7 of 10 scoring. While the Pirate defense wasn’t having their finest day, their bats were also alive and kicking turning this into a topsy turvy game that ended due to time constraints 15-12 after 6. The loudest cheers were for Tommy Hockin, Pirate 6th grader who got his first Juniors hit on a line drive over the shortstop’s head into the outfield. Cedra Crews had 2 hits including a double to the fence.
The weekend ended with the Giants besting the Mets 17-7. The Giants racked up 14 walks and had multi-hit games by Liam Garlick, Erickson Kenyon, and Wade Green as they tallied in every inning. Gavin Bailey also had a hit and a pair of RBIs. The injury plagued Mets benefitted from 13 walks as they tried to stay in the game but some solid defense by the Giants let many Mets stranded. Luca Masdea had a hit an RBI and 2 runs scored in defeat.
Through May 5
Home Runs
Alex Radics (Pirates) 4
Henry Edwards (Red Sox) 1
JP Peavy - Hell Nah
GIo Perez - Hell Nah
Tommy Strong - Hell Nah
Fireballers (Ks/Inning Pitched, 8+ Min)
Henry Edwards (Red Sox) 2.7
Heath Hochanadel (Red Sox) 1.6
Tianu Koss (Cardinals) 1.5
Dylan Murphy (Orioles) 1.5
Liam Garlick (Giants) 1.5
Nikki Welter (Mets) 1.4
Ty Cerne (Orioles) 1.2
Miller Weir (Red Sox) 1.2
Nico Rocherolle (Pirates) 1.2
Miller Weir (Red Sox) 1.1
Cal Byrne (Pirates) 1.1
Raymond Cao (Pirates) 1.1
Tough Outs (Ks/PA, 25 Min)
Will Weir (Orioles) .029
Tenzin Mak (Red Sox) .032
Jacob DiPippa (Giants) .033
Zander Ting (Pirates) .047
Gio Perez (Cardinals) .067
Nikki Welter (Mets) .068
Colton Zinn (Pirates) .073
Alex Radics (Pirates) .075
Adam Mortimer (Mets) .077
Nico Rocherolle (Pirates) .085