Spirit Win In Longest Game In Recent Memroy Up North

I went up with Eric and Alan to the Nashua/spirit game on Jimmy Buffett night up in Nashua. We eventually saw some of the sttaff and the other Dave up there. Anyway,let's get to the game report.......


The Spirit @ Nashua Game By The Numbers:
Spirit: 8 Nashua: 6 Innings: 13
Total Combined Hits: 27 Total Combined Errors: 7
Pitchers Used: 6 Spirit, 7 Nashua
Total Time: 4 hours, 21 Minutes
Total blown calls,Umps: $#$%##@

This game was so long that all of the Can-Am games were done before ours…..and even the Red Sox game IN TEXAS was done before us. Even the fireworks had to be canceled due to city ordinances, announced over the PA system by our friend Spike—filling in for the regular PA guy who was in Manchester. I even ran out of space on the front of my scorecard and had to use the back of it.

This was set to be a good matchup. It was going to be Siak Vs Thorton. Joey Siak was lights out. He went 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 6 hits while striking out 2 and walking one. Siak also had the help of a good first tweo innings for the Spirit. In the first, Jerson Perez struck out but got to first on a wild pitch. The next batter, Darren Blackley, belted a 2-run homer to left to make it 1-0 Spirit. Then up came Carlos Rodriquez and her too belted a homer to extend our lead to 2.In the second the Spirit scored again after a Roche single and Rosa double on a passed ball and a B.J. Weed sacrifice fly. The sac fly was an amazing play though, as both center and right fielders dove for the ball VERY close together, with the right fielder coming up with it. This made it 5-0 Spirit after 2.

In the third both teams scored a run. The Spirit scored in the top frame on a RBI single from Mike Toress that scored Rob Fischer, who went to third on a Rea single. The Pride finally got aboard in the bottom frame on a lead-off homer to C Allen Mottram. The score would be 6-1 after three, but the Pride cut the lead in half in the 6th, scoring off of former Pride Jamie Baker. Baker came in after Siak allowed runners onto 2nd and 3rd with no outs. Baker came in and gave up back-to-back RBI singles to make it 6-3 Spirit. Manager Vic DaVilla then took out Baker and replaced him with Robinson,who ended Pride scoring.

The Pride shut down the Spirit lead behind the pitching performances of Jason Kosow and Lance Steven while the Pride made comebacks in the last 2 innings. In the 8th the Pride scored 2 runs on a single from Creighton that turned into an E8 then E6. Then in the 9th they scored to tie it up at 6 on a weird series of events after Fitzy came in to try to pitch. The first batter, Mottram, hit a grounder to Fitzy who then threw the ball to first…..but it was a very weak throw and the runner reached (it was ruled an E1). A wild pitch advanced the runner then the batter grounded out to Fitzgerald to advance the runner to third. The next batter was CF Rich Gianetti who sac flied to right to tie up the game. The bases would later be loaded and Fitzy got out of the jam by getting Creighton to pop up to the catcher.

Now it would go into extra innings. As the game progressed Eric, Alan, Dave, & I got a little frustrated. Before we knew it we were on our 5th pitcher and it was the 12th inning. After a while we began to wonder who would be left to pitch. It seemed like the game would never end, and the announcement of the final score of the Red Sox game only strengthened that. I will admit that although this game was frustrating it was still a blast. For the first time I saw Joe “Slim” Pescuci behind the plate…..I am totally amazed at how much weight the guy lost. However, he was not the same tonight behind the plate as the game progressed. At one point in the 12th he yelled (and swore) at the Spirit dugout for something I don’t think they did on a 2-0 count then after the next ball awards the batter first. He messed up a few times tonight, as did other umps. This game was THE WORST umpping job I’ve seen in a long time.

The Spirit bullpen of Macnamara and Langdon shut down the Pride in extra innings while Palazzolo, El Guapo himself, Mann and Borroughs held the Spirit offense at bay. Then came the 13th inning, and in came the Pride’s Nagasaki to face the Spirit’s Rodriquez with runners in scoring position. Carlos belts it to center for an RBI single, but more damage is done when the center fielder drops the ball and another run scores. The score would then become 8-6 Spirit, and that’s how it would stay in after the bottom frame was complete.

Altogether both teams did very well and the pitching performances were amazing. I really enjoyed theis game and hope that we can take another road trip home. Also, sorry if this ran a little long…..I’m no good at condensing stuff.

SPIRTFANS PLAYER OF THE GAME: I’ll have to say Macnamara. He gave us quite a few great innings in a time of need.

PRE-GAME NOTES:
--Spike called us over. He said during Friday’s game our favorite “MVP” Andy Dillard hit a grounder to short, dogged it out, and was immediately replaced by Wasserman. SO, since DeVries is gone, Spike wants us to carry on tradition and make Dillard our new “Run it out!” guy. XD
--It was Jimmy Buffett night up there. There was a band that was pretty good….but what I really liked where the jerseys, which impressed me.

IN-GAME NOTES:
-- Eric got the home run ball that Darren Blakley blasted in the first. If we are correct, it is the first homer rin ball of the Spirit season.
-- WE got talked to by an usher, who said we were swearing. I don not believe this to be true, and think that it was just some rude fans behind us who didn’t like us cheering for our team. (Sound familiar?)
-- In the 4th Donahue sent home Rosa on a double that should’ve held him to third. The result was an inning-ending out at home. While some say Rosa ran through the sign some others (like myself) say Donahue sent him.
-- I liked Slim when he weighed 500 pounds. He was horrible tonight….but at least we could still make fun of him =]
-- Spike was good as PA announcer tonight, minus a few mishaps.
-- I toom a few small video clips.

POST-GAMED NOTES:
--Obviously,like I said, the planned fireworks show got cancelled
-- Ok,this was uncalled for……leaving the game me and Alan walk down some stairs and Alan very gently grazes a guy walking down. The guy gets realy mad at Alan, even after he apologized, and is still yelling at us while climbing th stairs and we’re heading for an exit. Alan swears at the guy just once and the dude jumps at least 10 feet down and starts chasing after us—but thankfully is held back. That was totally uncalled for….and I hope someone brings it up to the Nashua people, as Spirit people saw this all front and center.




!~! VIDEO (WITH PICS) TO BE UP SOMETIME TOMORROW! !~!

Lads pull one out of the fire, 8-6 13 inning win

I'll leave the game reporting to Dave since I just started listening to the game in the 9th, but...

Wow, sounds like a wacky night in Nashua. North Shore took an early 6-0 lead but blew it, letting Nashua score 6 straight including 1 in the ninth off of Fitzgerald to send the game into extra innings.

And on and on it went until the 13th inning. With the bases loaded and two out, Carlos Rodriguez hit a grounder toward second base; a throwing error (Nashua's 4th of the night) was made, allowing two runs to score and giving the Spirit an 8-6 lead.

Donny Langdon came in and got the save (1) in the home half of the 13th, giving Shawn McNamara (1-0) a well-deserved win; he threw three solid shutout innings to get the W.

El Guapo made his Nashua debut pitching scoreless tenth and eleventh innings for Nashua.

The Spirit had the bases loaded in the 12th w/ nobody out off of Jim Mann but Nashua escaped the jam in a sequence which included several disputed calls that saw both Vic Davilla and de-facto 1st base coach Brian Morse tossed from the game. Pete Filson steered the ship from there.

From the sounds of it, Slim Slow was his usual self despite not being fat any more- horribly biased against the Spirit, overly confrontational, self-important, and quick to toss people out of the game.

Looks like it'll be a new year but the same old crappy Can Am umps.

I'll leave more detailed reporting up to Dave when he gets home, but yeah--- good win for the boys, they're 2-1 now and go into the series finale tomorrow with a chance to come home 3-1.

Looks like Siak pitched pretty well (3 runs allowed over 6 I believe?) and the bullpen let it slip -- Baker (1 IP 0 ER?), Robinson (1 IP 2 ER?) and Fitzgerald (1 IP 1 R 0 ER?) pitched before McNamara righted the ship and Bronder shut the door.

Nashua used 7 pitchers --- their entire bullpen.

The Spirit only did not use last night's losing pitcher Derek Drage.

Both teams will be hoping for good, long outings out of their starter tomorrow. Luckily for the Spirit they have a few days off after that.



and the Pride just loaded the bases off McNamara after the Spirit had 2 outs and no one on...

In the top 12 the Spirit had the bases loaded w/ nobody out and failed to score. The Spirit blew a 6-0 lead and a 6-5 9th inning lead to get to this point. This is nervewracking.

Spirit Squash Pride in a Grand Opening

NOTE : The previous post on the blog was this site's 500th post! Hooray!

The Skinny:
Spirit win 6-2 on Opening Night in Nashua; Morse gets the win and Perez is HR shy of the cycle

Game Story:

North Shore played a perfect ballgame tonight on Opening Day at Holman Stadium in Nashua, NH, defeating the Nashua Pride 6-2 in front of about 200 people. Bryan Morse pitched 5 solid innings to get his first victory of the season, yielding one run on four hits.

From there, Shawn McNamara, Dennis Robinson and Kevin Fitzgerald carried the Spirit to the victory, with Robinson giving up the only other run. Mike Torres had a dream debut, going 3-4 with a stolen base and a hustling infield hit. Jerson Perez also had a smashing opener, picking up a triple, an RBI single, an RBI double, and two runs scored.

North Shore led the whole way, starting with 2 runs in the 4^th off of Nashua starter and losing pitcher Tim Bausher. Torres began the inning by legging out a chopper to 3^rd base. Jerson Perez followed with an RBI double to open the scoring. With Perez at 3^rd base, Ricardo Cordova grounded out to 2^nd to drive in the 2^nd run.

Nashua narrowed the gap to 2-1 in the 5^th inning on Andy Dillard’s solo homer off of Morse. Morse struck out Ramistella to end the inning and his outing, in which he had to deal with a delay in the 4^th inning when Jake the Diamond Dog decided to relieve himself on the first base side (I for one thought it was a set-up, there is no way such a well trained dog does that without being set up to do so, and I think that it’s pretty lame and unprofessional for that to happen), eliciting the biggest cheer of the day from the Nashua Faithful.

The Pride threatened to equalize off McNamara in the 6^th inning. Omar Rosario led off the inning with a single and stole 2^nd and 3^rd base off of Spirit catcher JC Gutierrez. With 1 out, McNamara got Ryan Duplissie to line out to Perez at short, then ended the inning by getting Mottram to ground out 6-3. The Spirit then scored their third run in the 7^th when BJ Weed picked up an RBI sac fly to center to score Jerson Perez, who led off the inning with a triple.

McNamara got one more out in the bottom of the 7^th before being taken out in favor of Dennis Robinson after yielding a walk to Tim Creighton. (Here I thought Davilla made a good proactive decision, unlike a certain other manager who would have waited until the game was tied.) Robinson bridged the gap to the 9^th for North Shore.

The good guys put the game away in the 8^th inning with a 3 run explosion. Jason Kasow walked Carlos Rodriguez and gave up a single to Rob Fischer. Then, after a wild pitch moved the runners into scoring position, Brad Rea plated them with a 2 RBI single laced into right centerfield. That ended Kasow’s Warpinskiesque day. Lance stevens came in, but could not put out the fire as Jerson Perez added an RBI single to plate the 6^th Spirit run.

Robinson yielded another run in the 8^th but Fitzgerald did not let the Pride get any sniff of a comeback in the 9^th, getting them to go down in order to end the game and give the Spirit the win.

Line Score

NSS 0 0 0 – 2 0 0 – 1 3 0 --- 6

NAS 0 0 0 – 0 1 0 – 0 1 0 --- 2

Win: Morse (1-0)
Loss: Bausher (0-1)
Save: None
HRs: Andy Dillard, NAS (1)

Spirit Pitchers:
Morse: 5 IP 1 ER
McNamara: 1.1 IP 0 ER
Robinson: 1.2 IP 1 ER
Fitzgerald: 1 IP 0 ER

Spirit RBI:
Rea, 2 (2)
Perez, 2 (2)
Cordova (1)
Weed (1)

Spiritfans.Blogspot.Com Player of the Game: Jerson Perez (1)

Post Game Notes:
-Shawn McNamara coming out of the bullpen seems to me to be a sign that Bicondoa really is coming back , as Mac was supposed to be in the rotation
-The Spirit traded OF Chad Gabriel to the Grays before the game for future considerations (which will probably be Chad Gabriel, eventually). They also officially added INF Gary Roche.

Burning Questions

1 Were you also impressed by Vic’s proactivity in bringing in Robinson when he did?

2 What were your impressions of Morse’s first outing?

3 Do you think that the Jake the Diamond Dog thing was set up?

4 Admit it, you laughed when you found out that thin gentleman was Joe ‘Slim Slow No More’ Pescucci. But wasn’t it weird that his trademark eeeeeeeAGGHHHH call is also gone along with his ginormous biff?

Did Anyone Notice...

That Slim-Slow was umping 1st base in the Sox/Yankes game tonight?

Also, this home plate umpire reminds me of one of those self-important ass-hats that we get in the CanAm League...