March 29

There was some light rain overnight into Thursday, in the early afternoon I called the athletic office at McCaskey. The baseball team was scheduled for its home opener at 4:15, Jon Mitchell confirmed the JV game as a casualty to the weather but the varsity game was still on. For me it's the start of my third year on the mic, head coach Tyler Horst begins his fourth season as the field boss. The varsity roster features fifteen players, there are four seniors, ten juniors and one sophomore. On this day Reading High was the opponent for a nonleague contest which started poorly for the home team as RHS scored three runs in the first inning. The Red Tornado rebounded by batting around in the second inning and plating three of their own to tie the game. Returnees Dylan Esh and Jonathan "JoJo" Metzler started the rally with base hits, an RBI single by Seth Winters scored Esh to make it 3-1. Alex Polito grounded out for the first out of the inning, Evan Proulx walked to load the bases. Caleb McFarland was hit by the pitch to force Metzler home with the second run. Mason Lee's infield fly was caught for out #2, Alex Dominguez worked a bases-loaded walk to score Winters with the tying run. In the third Esh got things started with a leadoff double, he advanced to third on a hit by Winters and scored on an RBI groundout by Polito. That would prove to be the final run of the day as JPM held on for the 4-3 win. Seth Winters was the starting and winning pitcher, after the rocky first inning he settled down and retired eleven of the next twelve hitters he faced. Dylan Esh came on in relief in the sixth and picked up the save. It's always good to be back on the ballfield especially where it's about The Game and not the BS (been there, done that). The next home game is on April 4 but I am out because of ice hockey, my next ballgame is on Monday the 9th. Take care, thanks for reading.