Monday afternoon at the ballfield for the start of a busy week of baseball, Warwick was the opponent for the first of four consecutive games at home. At 4:15 first pitch it was 65 degrees with winds from right to left at fifteen miles per hour. JPM is a very young team, there are just three seniors listed on the roster and it stands to reason there will be some growing pains especially in a division with perennially strong opposition. The Red Tornado trailed early 1-0, in the second inning Janpaul Rodriguez and Joshua Reyes were each hit by the pitch and both would score on an error to put JPM up 2-1. Warwick replied with five runs over the next two innings, in the home fourth JPM put together a three-spot. Eli Morales started it with a base hit and Lars Holland drew a walk, they both scored on Andrew Carlisle's two-run single. Adrian Rodriguez's RBI hit plated Carlisle to pull within one at 6-5 but Warwick put up six more over the fifth and sixth innings. In the bottom of the sixth Rey Ortiz singled and came around on Adrian's second RBI hit making it 12-6. That would be the final score, Carlisle started on the mound and took the decision with Morales finishing it in relief. Wednesday afternoon's gametime conditions were almost identical to Monday's, the major difference was brilliant sunshine as opposed to the overcast skies on Monday. On this day Hempfield was the opponent and it started poorly with the visitors posting four in the first inning. It stayed that way until the top of the sixth when a two-out error opened the door, Hempfield took immediate advantage and upped the lead to 7-0. JPM got those three back in the bottom half, Jhanel Perez reached on a base hit and Reyes was hit by the pitch. Ortiz singled to score Perez and Reyes came home on a groundout by Carlise, another A-Rod RBI hit scored Ortiz making it 7-3. There was no further scoring and we'll never know how the rest of the game would have played out without that sixth-inning error but it's all part of those growing pains we mentioned earlier. Tobe Kuntz got the start on this day with Lars, A-Rod and JP-Rod appearing in relief. The boys are at home again on Friday but I'm out for the Royals playoff opener at the Arena, my next game would be a non-leaguer on Saturday morning at 11:00. Take care, thanks for reading.
