A band of thunderstorms passed through the area late Sunday night into Monday morning, in the afternoon word came down that the scheduled ballgame at McCaskey was postponed to the next day due to wet grounds. Tuesday dawned bright and clear, the ballgame with Hempfield went off as planned at 4:15 (one of only three "after-school" home games we have). It was an almost perfect day for baseball, game-time temperature was in the low-60s with partly cloudy skies and a slight breeze out to right field. Things started well for JPM, in the first inning RayJay Marmolejos doubled and scored on Alex Ruiz's RBI single. Eliam Santana followed with a double into the gap plating Ruiz to give the Red Tornado a 2-0 lead. Through two innings Hempfield had six baserunners but could not cash in, in the third the roof came crashing down. The visitors sent fourteen batters to the plate and scored ten runs, in the fourth another round of fourteen batters added eight more. The game was ended via the mercy rule after four innings, the final score was 18-2. Orion Frailey started on the hill and took the loss, he was followed in relief by Albert Rosario, A.J. De Los Santos, Alex Ruiz and Kolby Esh. The result finishes the first half of division play with a record of 1-4 and an overall mark of 2-5, the boys are right back at it at home on Wednesday with a crossover game against Solanco. Take care, thanks for reading.
