Mike Kaffee
Hurricanes Baseball Reporter
[email protected]
Green Team takes game one in the best of three in the Annual Fall Classic where you saw an explosive offensive outbreak by the Green Team scoring 5 unanswered runs before Orange could answer back with three of their own. Short-lived, Green trailing by three in the 8th, shut the door for the final time taking the lead for the first time with 5 runs. 9 runs in two innings by Team Green. Orange led throughout the game in a slugfest of their own leading 7-3 going into the 7th and that is when Green literally exploded making mince meat of the opposing pitchers. Pitching as a whole was disastrous on both sides and the bats took definite advantage of the same. A combined total of 22 runs on 23 hits made you sit back and ponder, what does this team have for pitching? Not one pitcher showed they were even close to being ready for the start of the regular season. We are talking about two of our potential weekend starters, Ronaldo Gallo and Alejandro Rosario, who showed that all they were ready for is serving up pitches for batting practice. I have to be fair in stating that I missed several preseason scrimmages due to weather and have had limited visibility on their performance to date, but what I have seen of Ronaldo has not been at all encouraging. As for Alejandro, starts out great with his 95+ speeds but by the 3rd inning, as like last year, crumbles. True, our hitters have faced them many times, but… You have already heard from past reports as to our freshman crop of entries this year, and I can only hope that between now and the first pitch in Feb., JD can wave his magic wand and perform some type of miracle. We have two more days of what should be a pitcher’s showcase at this time of year but until now it has been a whole different story. Hopefully the next two days we will find some pitchers that will take command against a bunch of hungry hitters that at least for today have been in the driver’s seat.R
onaldo Gallo opened for Team Green, and right from the lead-off batter For Orange, Dario Gomez, it was obvious that Ronaldo was not ready to pitch. In fact, he did not record his first out until the 5th batter and by that point, two runs had already been posted on the scoreboard. Gomez led off with a deep double to left-center, with Blake Cyr following with a single putting runners on the corners.
WP brings in the first run of the game. Man on 2nd and CJ follows up with an RBI double. CJ is still in the hitting mode only and not running or playing position. Team Orange would post one more run on a SF to center by Zach Levenson. Orange takes an early lead of 3-0 even before Green has a chance to even come to bat. Rosario looked good the first two innings having his stuff hitting all the right corners. Started out Striking out Jacoby Long on 4 pitches and only faced 4 batters to retire the side giving up a walk to Edgardo Villegas.
The second inning was more of the same 3up/3down. That is where it ended. It was the same as last year that by the 3rd inning things started heading south. Solo HR by JD Jones with one out. This was followed by 4 straight walks with Yoyo grounding out in the middle of this out-of-control pitcher who could not find the strike zone. Alejandro stayed in to pitch one more inning adding another run to his total on a pair of singles and for not the outstanding play by Dorian Gonzalez playing second prevented further runs to add to the tally.While Alejandro managed to keep the runs at three through 4 innings, Ronaldo continued to struggle. If not for the outstanding play of Yoyo playing third on two hits by Adrian Dominguez (5-3) and Dorian Gomez (5), more runs would definitely have been added to the 3 he gave up in the first. By the 4th inning, he was going through the options just trying to record an out. Lead-off single by Carlos Perez followed by a Gaby Gutierrez walk. Double steal from two players not known for their speed had runners on second and third. SF to left by Jason Torres and an RBI by Adrian Dominguez was enough and Alejandro day came to a disappointing close. He would be charged for three of the 4 runs put up in the inning. Gunther Braendel who relieved would be charged with one on an 2RBI double by Blake Cyr, one of the two runs given to Gallo. The 5th and 6th saw no runs by either team. Carlos Lequerica, came in relief for Roasario in the 5th. The 7th inning onward seemed like the world’s end for Orange pitching. Green tied it up in the 7th with a 4-run rally. Whatever Lequerica found to keep Green quiet in the 5th and 6th, he let the dogs out in the 7th with 4 big ones coming after recording the first out. Jacoby Long with a bunt single, with back-to-back-doubles by Edgardo and Yoyo(2RBIs). Time out with Renzo Gonzalez flying out to center (defensive play of the day) caught by Edgardo. Yoyo tagging to third. Lorenzo Carrier collects the third double of the inning (RBI) and works his way home at an attempted P/O at second by Lequerica going into center field.With the score tied at 7th, Orange still had enough in reserve to bounce back with 3 of their own with a 3 run Homer by Carlos Perez after Zach initially walked and Dorian singled putting runners on the cornersThe 3 run lead didn’t hold for long with Green finally sticking the knife with a 5 run breakout to take the lead for the first time and hold for the victory. Alejandro Torres had his one inning of fame and fame it was for Team Green. Ian Farrow opened with a solo blast, followed by back-to-back walks to Jack Scanlon and JD Jones. Long singles to load the bases for Edgardo to clear the pads with a 3RBI double. Two batters later Renzo Gonzalez finishes today’s marathon with an RBI single ending a hitter’s paradise of hitting and the pitching staff running back to the drawing boards to contemplate what went wrong.It was an Offensive barrage of hits many for extra bases with 3 leaving the yard (Jones, Farrow, C.Perez) along with 8 doubles (Villegas(2), Yoyo, Carrier, Gomez, Cyr, Kayfus, Pitelli). Only two players were without a hit today Jason Torres (SF) and Jack Scalon (walk).Defensively, we saw some great stops by Yoyo at third (2), Dorian Gonzalez at second, Renzo Gonzalez at first, and Edgardo in center.Hopefully, the pitching staff can come up with a plan for both sides to make what we should be seeing at this stage: a pitching contest.
Not a batting practice as we witnessed today. This year’s Achilles heel is our pitching staff as it now stands. Without pitching, this year’s team is going nowhere. Tomorrow they will have the opportunity to prove me wrong which I prey they do. First pitch for game two is 1030AM.
