What a rout!

Spirit stomp all over Tornadoes in opener at the HIP

The North Shore Spirit evened up the season series with Worcester and took the 1-0 lead in this 3 game series with an impressive, dominating victory over the downsliding Tornadoes. The Spirit romped Worcester 15-4 to improve to 9-6 with their 5th straight victory and their 9th in 12 after being swept by the Rox to open the 2nd half. Vic Davilla was the hero for the Spirit, going 5-for-6 with 2 homers, and 7 RBI, 4 coming via a grand slam in the 4th. John Kelly got the win to improve to 8-4, gutting out 5 innings, giving up 3 runs on 5 hits. McCall got the loss for Worcester, as he was pounded for nine runs.

The Spirit started the explosion in the 1st. Garret Weir led it off with a single. With 1 out, Davilla got his first hit of the night to put runners on 1st and 2nd. A wild pitch moved the runners up. Alex Trezza legged out an infield single to load the bases. Then Brian Macchi smacked a 2RBI single into left center. Alex Trezza was thrown out trying to reach 3rd base. That was all the Spirit would get in the inning but it was enough to take a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of 1 however it looked like it was going to be a back and forth affair as the Twisters got to John Kelly early. Josh Buregard got a leadoff single, then Alex Pena and Andy Brown hit back to back home runs to tie the game at 3. Kelly settled down however and was solid for the rest of the first and thru the 2nd. The Spirit were also quiet in the 2nd, the only inning in which they were kept off the bases til the 9th.

IN the 3rd, the Spirit took the lead for good. Rob Fischer and Vic Davilla hit singles, then Travis Oglesby cranked an RBI double to give North Shore the lead 4-3. The Spirit exploded in the 4th. Eric Storey hit a triple to lead off the inning; then Yuri Sanchez got an infield single, and then Garret Weir reached on an error, which allowed Storey to score. After Rob Fischer reached, Vic Davilla put it out of reach with his 3rd hit of the game, a grand slam to make it 9-3 Spirit. This chased McCall from the game, but B-U-L-L-P-E-N would not spell relief for beleaguered Worcester.

The Spirit made it 10-3 in the 5th as the streaking Yuri Sanchez, whose average has risen from .177 to .226 since getting engaged (Woooooo) got another RBI single to score Marcos Agramonte , who got a triple. In the bottom of the 5th, Worcester loaded the bases with 1 out and threatened to come back, but John Kelly got two straight Ks to end his outing and strand 3 Tornadoes.

In the 7th the Spirit continued the rout. Marcos Agramonte doubled, Garret Weir got an RBI single, and then Rob Fischer doubled moving Weir to 3rd to bring up Vic Davilla, who was 4 for 4 entering the at bat. All he did was smack another home run, this time a 3 run blast, to make the score Davilla 7, Worcester 3 and extend the Spirit's overall lead to 14-3. Zach Strong's homer in the bottom of 7 made it 14-4 but it was FAR too late, and the Spirit even added insult to injury with another run i the 8th as Garret Weir picked up another hit, an RBI single. The sole highlight for Worcester: they actually got Vic out in the 9th, retiring him to make him 5-for-6 on the evening.

Alex Herrerra closed it out for the Spirit and got the "hold," a statistic that actually exists, but nobody quite knows why.

The Spirit and Tornadoes go at it tomorrow night at 705 in game 2 of the 3 game set.

PLAYER OF THE GAME - Unquestionably Vic Davilla!

Around the league: Elmira lost their 23rd straight road game, falling to Brockton despite the fact that they pulled the shameful publicity stunt of having original Bad News Bears cast members playing in the first inning. Truly pathetic on the part of both the Brockton Rox and the Elmira Pioneers, the Rox for degrading the game of baseball, and Elmira for still managing to lose, 9-3.

Quebec beat New Jersey and the Grays led New Haven 6-4 at last check. New Haven is first in the South coming into tonight, a game up on the Jackals and Tornadoes, while the Pios lag behind; in the nailbiting north battle, Brockton leads it by 3 over Quebec and 4 over the Spirit while the Grays are 2-12.