The Avalon Park Wolves won their first game of the fall season vs the Orlando Exprez.  It was a well played game by both teams that involved both brain and brawn.   Our boys are learning to play together as a team and understand the flow of the baseball game.

“Overall, I would give our performance a B- when I look at the team from hitting, pitching, fielding, and base running.  We got big plays when we needed them - especially on defense,” said Coach Gonzo in post game remarks to his team.

Offensive Highlights:

Alec took the second pitch of the game with a monster smash to the left field fence which, on any normal field, would be well into the parking lot.   At one point, while the ball was in the air, Coach Gonzo said to Coach Beamer, “My god, that ball may hit my elementary school library behind left field.” Michael, Kevin, and Jesse all hit very hard singles to drive in runners.  Not to be outdone, Bret smashed a double into right center.  At that point, the Exprez changed pitchers with the Wolves up 4-0.  This was the brawn side of the game.

Through the middle of the game, Conner provided some much needed energy in the dugout as our team faced a pretty good pitcher. Tanner took some tremendous swings at bat and helped drive up the pitch count and wear the pitcher down.

In the final two innings, the Wolves scored a run to ice the game.  Coach Tim Beamer implemented the brains side of the game.  Bane drew a walk in the top of the 6th inning and promptly stole second and third. Mac hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop which scored Bane for the go-ahead run.

The Wolves agreed to play 7 innings at the beginning of the evening so we knew there was still work to be done. Jesse drew a walk to get on base and we pinched ran Bane once again.  Bret put down an awesome sacrifice bunt to move the runner. Bradley then put the ball in play on the right side of the field and was called out on an extremely close play.  He succeeded, however, in moving Bane to third base. David came up with a clutch smash over the second baseman’s head and scored Bane.  Its was a text book case of getting a runner on, moving him over, and scoring.

Defensive Highlights:

Kevin started off the game on the mound (or lack of).  Even without a pitching mound, this kid presents a rather intimidating presence to the batter.  Kevin faced 10 batters and had 4 strike outs and has shown some improvement in his control.

With two men on in the second, Coach Tim brought in Trevor. The physical contrast between the two of them is always interesting to see.  The Exprez hit Trevor a few times, but the Wolves kept their heads in the game.   Trevor got settled in third inning and retired the next 12 of 13 batters.  He was helped by some tremendous play on the defense.  Jesse threw two boys attempting to steal second base on 65 foot bases and shut down any chance to score.  Alec also caught a deep fly ball, on the run, in the bottom of the sixth inning for the third out.  This was a big play for our team!