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Thursday, September 06, 2007

Spirit hang on for the win in game 1

ATC 0 0 1 / 0 1 0 / 2 0 0 -- 4
NSS 2 1 0 / 1 1 0 / 0 0 X -- 5

Well, it wound up being a nailbiter (of course)! The Spirit hung on to defeat the Atlantic City Surf 5-4 in game 1 of the semifinals in front of a tiny crowd at Fraser Field.

The Spirit held a 5-2 lead in the 7th, but the Surf clawed back with a 2 out rally off of Spirit starter Ryan Bicondoa. David Keesee hit an RBI double to make it 5-3. Then, Lucas Taylor knocked an RBI single in to left field to cut the lead to 5-4. Bicondoa escaped the jam by getting Anthony Granato to strike out looking with the go-ahead run on base.

In the 8th, Bicondoa worked his way into a jam, but Donny Langdon and Derek Drage worked their way out of it ---- barely.

With 2 men on and 1 out, Bicondoa was lifted for Langdon, who came in to face the left hander Clyde Williams. He whiffed Williams for the 2nd out of the inning and was quickly lifted for closer Derek Drage, who was called upon to get four outs.

He got off to a shaky start, giving up an infield single to Rob Fischer to load the bases. Alex Trezza then made what may well have been a game-saving play. After a pitch to Wally Rosa, Trezza caught Fischer sleeping at first and rifled a snap-throw to the 1st baseman. Fischer was tagged out to end the inning and the threat was defused.

There was more drama to come in the 9th for Drage. Wally Rosa popped out to start the inning, but David Keesee walked to give the surf a chance. With Lucas Taylor up, Drage threw a wild pitch to move Keesee into scoring position. Drage then whiffed Taylor for a huge 2nd out.

That brought up Anthony Granato, who flew out to center field to end the ball game and give the Spirit the 1-0 series lead.

Bicondoa got the win, and Surf ace Brian Rodaway got the loss after giving up 3 early runs in the first 2 innings. He ultimately gave up 5 runs in 7 innings of work.

The Spirit struck first in the home half of the first inning with a 2-out rally. Vic Davilla singled and Luis Lopez walked to bring up Nilson Teilon. Teilon singled up the middle to score the first Spirit run. Then, the throw home was wild, allowing Lopez to score and making it 2-0.

A scorched Jerson Perez homer to left field increased the lead to 3-0 for Bicondoa.

The Spirit put up single runs in the 4th and 5th to cap off their offense for the night. In the 4th, Trezza launched a leadoff double and was brought home by a bloop RBI single by Gary Roche. One inning later, Josue Lopez picked up an RBI to make it 5-2.

Atlantic City would add two to their total, but the Spirit hung on, and are now two wins away from the finals.

Onward...

4 comments:

DaveCo said...

It was indeed a greta game. I am still saddened by the fact I was doing LynnCAM when I would've loved to be in the stands.....but what can ya do? (and don't be smart and say "Quit" XD)

But anyways.....I will be taking my second set of classes tomorrow and they will run kind of late. So.....I won't get to the park until 8:30/9ish. ='[

Hopefully when I get there tomorrow we won't have a soccer game crowd that rovals or surpasses that of a professional baseball team in the playoffs.....

Anonymous said...

I was told by two employees at the game last night that they were told by their boss that the Spirit won't be backnext year. The reason I was given is the mayor is trying to shake down Lopardo for an absurd amount of money.

Joe Grav said...

well, I wouldn't doubt it if that were true --- from what I know about the City of Lynn, it's just like the City of Revere --- meaning, it wouldn't know a good thing if it smashed it right over the head.

One more thing - I just want to thank Nick Lopardo for thanking us for our loyalty tonight, it's greatly appreciated. We should all say thanks to management in our last trip(s) to Fraser -- whatever differences we've had over the years, these guys are still the ones that brought us the team we love.

Anonymous said...

Agreed....
Thanks Nick for the run, it's been GREAT.
I appreciate the opportunity to see Baseball in Lynn and hope it will continue if possible.
I wonder if there is any influence we as fans may be able exert upon the city that may help; as naive as that may sound, occasionally public opinion can help in these types of situations......I dunno.

Sparky.