Dateline: Reston North 2 (form erly North Point 2)
On a cloudless day the Ironbirds entered Storm stadium and showed those cloud mongers what a baseball team really is. The Ironbirds were short a few key players, but they decided to put the hurt on the Strom early. As the at bat progressed, each batter looked sharp, hit the ball into play and beat out every throw. This reporter noticed that the Ironbirds started the game with 7 players, then 8 prior to the start of the bottom half of the inning and finally nine.
Lucky for Coach Goldstein that the 9th player showed up, it was Nicole and she looked like she wanted to knock the cover off the ball. Which she happily did with one hop to the outfield behind second base. As each runner crossed the plate tension mounted, and here comes the throw and here comes Nicole and the throw is on time, but off line, an in the park home run. In the bottom half of the inning as play progressed there were some nice plays to first, but the best play was an unassisted out by the second baseman Mitchell, who scooped up a Sharp hit grounder and smartly ran to second base for the force out.
In the second inning Nicole was inserted into her proper place in the batting order and thus Logan was the final batter. With a few final tips from Coach Goldstein Logan hit a nice shot to the left side of the field, he took off for first and beat out the throw as it went wide into the fence, he rounded second, as the infields for the Storm had a miscommunication as to where the ball needed to go. Logan rounded third as the throw came in to the catcher. The catcher scooped up the ball and waited on home plate for Logan with Coach Goldstein yelling SLIDE, Logan decide to just touch home plate, and as the catcher did not tag Logan, the at bat ended with another in the park Home run. The fielding for the Ironbirds went as expected with some nice fielding and throwing.
The last inning went as planned with some excitement as Scott was on the mound with Alec at the plate. Three batters hit ground balls to the pitcher and three quick throws to home almost had the force outs, but it was not to be.
A great game to end the Ironbirds fall season.
Coach Grossman contacted during a West Coast scouting trip as he has started preparations for the Ironbirds Spring campaign said, “The team clearly played well and it was great to hear we even pulled off a force out at second. Few coaches are able to leave teams in the hands of such a capable and experienced assistant coach. I’m sure this performance will only serve to increase the number of head coaching offers that Coach Goldstein routinely receives. A great job by the offense and the defense. We were a very young team this fall and progress has been magnificent. I wish the Spring season could start next week!”
Coach Goldstein said, “Great game!”
The final event for this young team will be the Awards Ceremony at Coach Allen’s training facility.
