Dateline: Hook Road
The sun finally came out for an A’s game after a season of torrential rain. It was a beautiful day at Hook Road as the A’s took the field for their first game against the Mets. Matthew led off with a walk, Mitchell singled, a couple of walks and a bunch of wild pitches later and an infield hit by Richard resulted in a swift 4-0 lead for the A’s.
Alyssa strode the mound to start the game and got two of the first three batters out, but a few weak infield singles resulted in 3 runs for the Mets. It was 4-3 A’s after one.
The A’s continued pouring on runs and scored four more in the second on a walk to Tommy, a long single to right by Matthew, a walk to Mithcell to load the bases, Drew walked in a run and Donnie smashed a three run double to end the inning. Alyssa quickly shut down the Mets in the second striking out two more and after two the A’s led 8-3.
The third would be the only inning that the A’s did not score. Drew came on in the bottom of the third and with three weak infield hits the Mets managed to bring in four runs. After three it was a thriller at 8-7.
The A’s continued to pour on the offense. In the fourth, Matthew led off with a single, Mitchell singled, and three consecutive walks and a series of wild pitches resulted in four runs. The A’s now had their five run cushion back at 12-7 and they never looked back. Matthew took the mound in the fourth and struck out two and got the last better to hit a simple grounder to second base to end the inning. After four it was 12-7 and the coaches agreed the fifth would be the last inning as the sun started to set on Hook road. The A’s poured on the offense with their last at bat. With no run limit, A’s kept circling the bases. The highlight was a long in-the-park home run to center by Will. When the dust cleared, the A’s had scored six runs to take a commanding 18-7 lead. Matthew quickly retired the Mets and the game ended on a very positive note.
Coach Goldstein said “I really like how the team hung together despite having no rest all — we were down to only nine.” Coach Grossman said “I’m glad to be back in action — scouting for the ’04 season is only so much fun. It was great to get out on the field and whenever the team scores 18 runs, I suspect we’ll do fairly well. I’m looking forward to our games on Wednesday and Saturday as I really like how many people were swinging the bat.”
