Blue Tops Gray Again

To quote Stephen King in "Faithful" : "Isn't it a pain when life gets in the way of baseball?" Ah, I feel the pain. Tonight I didn't get to Fraser until the 3rd inning due to a prior commitment, and tomorrow, I won't even be able to make the game due to a family affair. What does this mean to you, my dear 5 or so loyal readers? Subpar game reports for two days. Tonight's story is based on semi-abbreviated notes as I didn't have time to make my typical full set-up and full notes of the game. Tomorrow, I won't be there, so the story will most likely be a slightly edited form of the North Shore Spirit press release (GASP! I am TERRIBLY sorry for that misfortune but I promise it shall not happen again).

Expect a return to form on Monday as the Spirit finally hit the road for a 4-game series with mighty Quebec.

Now, back to the show-

LYNN, MA- The Spirit keep rolling on, downing the Can-Am Grays 7-1 tonight in front of about 350 dead-silent fans at Fraser Field. In front of an atmosphere more reminiscent of Pine Grove Cemetery or Olympic Stadium than Campanelli or Fenway, John Kelly had his first truly great start of the season, upping his record to 2-1 by pitching 7 solid innings, giving up just one run. He was perfect through 4 and 2/3. Taking the loss for the Grays was former Spirit Greg Conden who falls to 0-2. The Spirit victory improves their record to 9-3 and keeps pace with torrid Quebec. The Grays loss sinks them back to .500 at 8-8.

The Spirit struck first yet again in the top of the 1st inning. 3 straight walks to Agramonte, Storey and Davilla to open the game led to a Travis Oglesby RBI groundout. Conden was able to escape further damage and limit it to 1-0. In the top of the 3rd, however, the Spirit extended the lead. Storey led it off with a single. Vic Davilla laced a double to follow that up. Travis Oglesby's sac fly plated Eric and moved Vic to 3rd. A passed ball allowed Davilla to score. Alex Trezza then singled, followed by an error by the SS which allowed Macchi to reach. Garret Weir picked up an infield single to score another run. When the dust cleared it was 4-0 North Shore.

The Grays finally got to Kelly in the Bottom of the 5th. With 2 outs, Kelly gave up a walk to King to give the Grays their first runner. This was followed by a Storey fielding error to continue the inning. The next man, Larry Best, picked up a base hit into shallow center to make it 4-1. A strikeout ended the inning but the flirt with perfection was over. Kelly wound up pitching 7 innings and became the first Spirit to pick up 2 Player of the Game honors from this site.

The Spirit capped the scoring in the top of 9. A Walk to Oglesby with 1 out started the roll. Trezza then hit into a fielders choice, followed by a Macchi single. Rob Fischer hit an easy ground ball to the 3rd baseman but he booted it, and the 4th Grayces error put Rob on 2nd and plated Alex Trezza. Another error, this time on the shortstop, brought in two more runs as Fischer and Macchi came home to make it 7-1.

Peter Soteropoulos and Ryan McCally combined for 2.0 innings of scoreless relief, giving up just one hit, a Keith Strickland single off of Soteropoulos in the 8th. Peter had 3 strikeouts in the 8th and McCally got the leadoff man Lebron to whiff, followed by groundouts by King and Best to end it.

SPIRITFANS.BLOGSPOT.COM PLAYER OF THE GAME: John Kelly (2)

Around the League

-Brockton's finally of the schneid as they topped the Cutters tonight 6-5 in extra innings at Campanelli Stadium. Oil Can Boyd pitched but got yet another no-decision. Brockton's 8-8; New Haven's 4-12.

-The Capitales won yet again, this time flattening the Pios 5-1 at Le Stade. Quebec improves to 13-3 while the Pioneers drop to 5-11.

-The New Jersey Jackals closed to within one game of Worcester for the lead in the South division, topping the Twisters 7-5 tonight at Yogi Berra Stadium. The Jackals are now 7-9 while Worcester is a magnificently mediocre 6-6.

STANDINGS
QUE 13-3
NSR 9-3
BKN 8-8
GRY 8-8

WOR 6-6
NJJ 7-9
ELM 5-11
NHC 4-12