April 11-15

Wednesday lunch with Jenny as is per usual, at 4:15 we were back at McCaskey for the third consecutive day. The league schedule is generally a Monday-Wednesday-Friday pattern but weather has played hell with the routine, JPM has already had three postponements. The weather was similar to Tuesday: chilly and windy but at least we were playing under clear skies and sunshine. Warwick was the opponent for a divisional matchup. after two straight losses the Red Tornado rebounded with an important victory. In the first inning Dylan Esh started things with a base hit and Mason Lee was hit by the pitch, they both scored on a Warwick fielding error to put JPM up 2-0. Warwick scored single runs in the third and fourth to tie the score, in the bottom of the fourth JPM put together a two-run rally to retake the lead. Noah Bergey singled and Evan Proulx was hit by the pitch (if that sounds familiar refer to the first inning), Lee's RBI double scored Bergey with the lead run, Proulx came home on a wild pitch to put the Red Tornado ahead 4-2. The roller-coaster ride continued with Warwick scoring two in the fifth, in the bottom of the sixth JPM went ahead for good when Caleb McFarland walked and scored on Esh's RBI double into the gap. Seth Winters started on the mound and went five innings, Alex Dominguez worked the last two and retired all six batters he faced to pick up the win in relief. The rest of the week was uneventful except for lunch with Jenny on Saturday, temperatures over the weekend incredibly reached into the high-80s. Earlier in the week we were playing baseball in snow flurries and frigid wind, five days later it felt like the middle of July rather than April. The Royals played the first two games of their playoff series in Manchester over the weekend and on both occasions the script was eerily familiar. In game #1 the Royals lost in double overtime 3-2, in game #2 they lost (again) in double overtime (again) 3-2 (again). In the first game the Royals scored the apparent OT winner which was called back on goaltender interference, in game #2 Manchester's OT winner was by all accounts scored under very similar circumstances and was allowed to stand. The series comes to the Arena for games on the 16th, 18th and 19th (if needed). Take care, thanks for reading.