The Bullets knew coming into their third NYMSL tilt things were about to get more difficult, but having dominated Newsweek/Daily Beast in the first two games of the league season their confidence was soaring. Their latest opponent (Forbes), though, were looking for some payback after being shutout on the season series last year (which contributed to them missing the playoffs in their inaugural league season). Frustrating DC with great defense all night, they got that payback with an 8-5 victory over the comic book makers.
DC got off to a decent start with three consecutive singles from Neil Hiremath, Nel Yomtov, and Kevin Schwoer that plated the Bullets' first run. A fly out and fielder's choice (by a returning Andrew Arnold) set up the first of many frustrating plays. Team manager Sal Cipriano roped a line drive that was destined for the left field line, and probably 2 RBI's, but was denied with a nice snare by the Forbes third baseman. A heavily stacked top of the Forbes order pushed them to the early lead in the bottom half of the inning 2-1.
In the top of the second, two fielder's choices and a ground out sandwiched two singles by Larry Ganem and Allison Klein, but none came across. Forbes was also held scoreless in the bottom half of the second.
Both teams put up two more runs each in the third. First, Nel singled and Kevin followed up with his 3rd HR of the year, a booming shot to center. Forbes to their credit answered back with 2 consecutive home runs that went under left fielder Kevin's glove and rolled away into the Riverside night.
Nel and Sal singled around an Andrew walk in the top of the third, but Forbes escaped with the bases loaded. That was the first of three straight goose eggs in the coming innings that their defense put up. Forbes struck their biggest blow of the night scoring 3 runs that ultimately put the game out of reach in the bottom of the 4th. They added one more in the bottom of the sixth to make the task all the more difficult for DC.
But the Bullets don't give up easily, and after a ground out and line out by Neil and Nel, Kevin doubled and scored on John's single. Andrew added another single which set up the final frustrating play of the night, amazingly with Sal again. The DC Manager stroked a hard grounder seemingly through the 3B/SS hole, but the SS somehow grabbed on his back heel and tried to make the play to first. John, in the meantime, scored as the ball was overthrown into the Bullets "bench" area. Sal, hearing shouts that it's "live ball" rounded first heading towards second base with Andrew starting his run to the plate. Forbes' first baseman, however, made sure that didn't happen as he recovered quickly and fired to second where the second baseman (miffed from an earlier incident) put a hard tag on Sal for the final out.
A tough battle on an unforgiving field was won by the home team on this night, but the last inning 2-out rally left the Bullets craving more. They'll have to wait till August for the rematch to get back at Forbes, but they'll be right back to NYMSL action this Monday against WNYC. That game will be played on the shock jocks' North Meadow Field #10 at 6PM.
Big offensive shout out goes to Kevin, who once again had a big night almost scoring his second cycle in a row, missing out on a triple! On the defensive side, Neil made a tremendous outstretched catch of a line drive fly to right center that saved the Bullets from further damage.
Bullets Box:
CF Neil Hiremath 1-4 R
3B Nel Yomtov 3-4 R
LF Kevin Schwoer 3-4 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR
DH John Choi 2-4 R, RBI
SS Andrew Arnold 1-3 BB
1B Sal Cipriano 2-4 RBI
RF/2B Christine Napolitano 1-3
SC/C Joel Press 1-3
P Larry Ganem 2-3
C/RC Blake Kobashigawa 1-3
2B/RF Allison Klein 1-3
DC got off to a decent start with three consecutive singles from Neil Hiremath, Nel Yomtov, and Kevin Schwoer that plated the Bullets' first run. A fly out and fielder's choice (by a returning Andrew Arnold) set up the first of many frustrating plays. Team manager Sal Cipriano roped a line drive that was destined for the left field line, and probably 2 RBI's, but was denied with a nice snare by the Forbes third baseman. A heavily stacked top of the Forbes order pushed them to the early lead in the bottom half of the inning 2-1.
In the top of the second, two fielder's choices and a ground out sandwiched two singles by Larry Ganem and Allison Klein, but none came across. Forbes was also held scoreless in the bottom half of the second.
Both teams put up two more runs each in the third. First, Nel singled and Kevin followed up with his 3rd HR of the year, a booming shot to center. Forbes to their credit answered back with 2 consecutive home runs that went under left fielder Kevin's glove and rolled away into the Riverside night.
Nel and Sal singled around an Andrew walk in the top of the third, but Forbes escaped with the bases loaded. That was the first of three straight goose eggs in the coming innings that their defense put up. Forbes struck their biggest blow of the night scoring 3 runs that ultimately put the game out of reach in the bottom of the 4th. They added one more in the bottom of the sixth to make the task all the more difficult for DC.
But the Bullets don't give up easily, and after a ground out and line out by Neil and Nel, Kevin doubled and scored on John's single. Andrew added another single which set up the final frustrating play of the night, amazingly with Sal again. The DC Manager stroked a hard grounder seemingly through the 3B/SS hole, but the SS somehow grabbed on his back heel and tried to make the play to first. John, in the meantime, scored as the ball was overthrown into the Bullets "bench" area. Sal, hearing shouts that it's "live ball" rounded first heading towards second base with Andrew starting his run to the plate. Forbes' first baseman, however, made sure that didn't happen as he recovered quickly and fired to second where the second baseman (miffed from an earlier incident) put a hard tag on Sal for the final out.
A tough battle on an unforgiving field was won by the home team on this night, but the last inning 2-out rally left the Bullets craving more. They'll have to wait till August for the rematch to get back at Forbes, but they'll be right back to NYMSL action this Monday against WNYC. That game will be played on the shock jocks' North Meadow Field #10 at 6PM.
Big offensive shout out goes to Kevin, who once again had a big night almost scoring his second cycle in a row, missing out on a triple! On the defensive side, Neil made a tremendous outstretched catch of a line drive fly to right center that saved the Bullets from further damage.
Bullets Box:
CF Neil Hiremath 1-4 R
3B Nel Yomtov 3-4 R
LF Kevin Schwoer 3-4 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B, HR
DH John Choi 2-4 R, RBI
SS Andrew Arnold 1-3 BB
1B Sal Cipriano 2-4 RBI
RF/2B Christine Napolitano 1-3
SC/C Joel Press 1-3
P Larry Ganem 2-3
C/RC Blake Kobashigawa 1-3
2B/RF Allison Klein 1-3
No comments:
Post a Comment