Dateline: Smithsburg Field 4:00 PM
Game two, the players returned for more action. The field was still mighty warm as the sun beat down on players and fans alike. Coach Galloway lost another toss and the Reston All Stars came up to bat.
Matt drilled a single to right. Kent singled. Pete hit a long fly to center to score Matt. Andy went to the mound and threw heat. The first batter grounded out to Sal who threw to Jake at first for out one. A rare Reston All Stars error put a runner on first. Andy struck out the third batter and the last batter popped up to Sal in shallow right who drifted back and made a great catch for out one. After one it was Reston 1 Myersville 0.
Sal led off the second with a single. Graham grounded into a fielders choice. Owen walked. Matt grounded out to second but Graham scored. Andy threw more heat with a strike out, a ground out to second, a walk and another ground out to second as Sal made another great play. After two it was Reston 2 Myersville 0.
The Reston All Stars bats really came alive in the third. Pete led off with a long fly out to right. Conor smashed a hard ground ball to third who fired to first and got Conor by a step. One might think with two outs and Pete and Conor out of the picture, no further offense would happen. One might be quite wrong. Andy and Jake walked. Justin was hit by a pitch. Brendan walked to score Andy. Owen walked to score Jake. Matt walked to score Brendan and pick up his second RBI on the day. Kent walked to score Justin. Pete walked to score Brendan. Conor walked to score Matt. Yes, its true. NINE walks in a row! Andy blasted a long fly to left which was chased down for out three. Andy quickly struck out two more batters and got the last batter to ground out back to the mound. After three it was Reston 8 Myersville 0.
Reston bats were quiet in the fourth but Andy continued sailing along. The first batter struck out, the next batter hit a sharp grounder to Conor at short for out two and the last batter struck out. After four it was still Reston 8 Myersville 0. This reporter notes that at this point Andy had thrown only fifty-nine pitches, he had fourteen batters (only two over the minimum) and struck out six of them. This is just an ominous note by the reporting staff for the Reston all-stars. Andy had never gone more then four innings this year, but he looked great after four.
In the top of the fifth, Matt singled to reach base for third time of the day. A perfect bunt by Kent moved him to second and Matt alertly noticed that the third baseman had not returned to the base so he continued on to third. Pete grounded out to second to score Matt. Conor blasted a long fly to left that was caught for out three. Andy continued on the mound as it was known to the coaches that he was not going to be available to play the next day as he was going with his dad on a scouting trip to identify good T-ball players for Coach Grossman’s coming T-ball team this fall. Players are being scouted far and wide for this adventure. The first batter grounded out to third where Owen made a nice play as he fired to Jake at first. The next batter walked on four pitches — the first time that had happened all day. Andy settled down and struck out the next batter. On a 3-2 count, the next batter walked. With the two outs the next batter reached on a rare infield error. Again on a 3-2 count the next batter walked. With a one-one count Andy suddenly winced in pain. All Reston fans held their breath and the Coaches quickly removed Andy from the game. This reporter certainly sends his best wishes to Andy for a speedy recovery and he really hasn’t seen such a thing so he’s very worried about all of this, but he diverts his concerns by writing these wrap ups. This reporter notes that Andy threw 30 pitches in that last fateful inning and for much of the inning he had two strikes and two outs so its easy as a coach to say “OK — ONE…..MORE ….PITCH”. Conor game in with a one-one count and blasted two pitches by the next batter to close out the inning. When the dust had cleared it was Reston 9 Myersville 1.
In the top of the sixth, the Reston All stars added to their lead. Brendan popped out to first. Jake popped out to third. Again with two outs, the offense came alive. After four walks to Sal, Graham (who was hit by a pitch), Owen and Matt (this one scored Sal), Matt walked to score Graham. Kent drilled a single to left to score Owen. Pete singled to pick up his fourth RBI on the day as Matt scored. Conor drilled a long double to left to score Matt, Kent, and Pete. Brendan singled, Jake singled to score Conor. When the dust had settled, seven more runs had score.
Owen came on in relief and looked sharp. The first batter reached on a rare infield error. The second batter grounded out to Sal and second. The next batter popped out to Conor and short and the last batter grounded out right back to the mound. Eleven pitches and Owen had efficiently shut down Myersville.
Final Score: Reston 16 Myersville 1
Coach Galloway again was not able to comment due to his immediate departure for the aforementioned T-ball scouting trip. Coach Grossman said, “It was a great game, but I certainly am very concerned about Andy. We clearly pitched him too much and I certainly am responsible as it was my job as the bench coach to really stay on top of the pitch count. My thoughts are certainly with Andy. Our team had a great day and we’ll see if we can keep things rolling tomorrow. This reporter asked him if he really had sufficient tournament experience to take Coach Galloway s place at the helm. He replied tersely, “You reporters are always questioning everyone. So what if I have never coached a tournament like this??? — baseball is baseball and our team has so many great players, my goal will be to stay out of their way and try not to mess things up.”
