Wednesday afternoon at McCaskey for the first home game of baseball season and my ninth year on the mic (it should be ten but we all remember that story). During basketball season Lebanon is a divisional foe but not so for baseball, on this day they were the opposition for a non-divisional game. At 4:15 gametime it was sixty-nine degrees with a breeze coming in from left field, little did we know at that point this would be a long day's journey into night. The Red Tornado fell behind 2-0 in the first but scored three in their half on base hits by Josh Reyes (two RBI) and Chris Ruggierio (one). After Lebanon tied it in the second JPM again forged ahead on Eli Morales' two-run single in the second to lead 5-3. The visitors got to within one in the third and went ahead with two in the fourth, in the home half Morales doubled and scored on an error to tie it again at 6-6. The game settled down somewhat at that point, there was no further scoring in regulation play. In the eighth Lebanon took the lead 7-6 before JPM tied it when Adrian Rodriguez tripled to deep center, the throw to third got away allowing Adrian to score the tying run. In the ninth the pattern continued, another Lebanon run was equaled when Elliott Fluck walked and scored on Adrian R's booming double to deep right-center. On we went into the tenth inning where it all came apart, Lebanon scored seven runs and put the game away. JPM scored one final run in their half on an error, the final was 15-9. Niko Bergeron took the loss in relief of starter Elliot Fluck, Eli Morales also worked in relief. By the time the marathon ended it was 8:15pm, it reminded me of some of the L-O-N-G nights I endured when I was in the business Up North at a place I never talk about anymore. The ballclub's next home game is on Wednesday the 26th. Take care, thanks for reading.
