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Sunday - January 28, 2007

2007 Alumni Game Report

Jennie and I got to the Dell Diamond at about noon yesterday. Camera in hand, I was ready for the day. Alas, I hadn't thought things through very carefully beforehand and only had about 10% charge left on the battery in my camera. The second was fully charged but that wasn't enough to last the day. Argh. I did get a bunch of photos and will be posting them over the next few days. Mom and Dad joined us and Mom took quite a few photos so I may post a couple of hers as well.

The weather was great. A bit cold...but lots of sunshine. I picked out some seats over the 1b dugout...home to the '07 squad for this year's game. The game was lots of fun. I did not keep score...just jotted down some notes as the day went on. On-hand for the Alumni:

Beau Hale and Drew Stubbs did not play. Mom said she saw Beau warming up in the bullpen but he never came out. Drew Stubbs traded turns with Dooley Prince as first base coach for the Alumni team. And, Roger Clemens was there (wearing, perhaps, the ugliest jeans on the planet) to throw out the first pitch. Alas, it did not soar over Preston Clark's head. Too bad he didn't do that. Anyway...

The '07 squad ended up winning the game but it took a bit of... ummm... underhandedness (?) on the part of the '07 squad to make it happen! The line:

The Alumni scored those two runs in the 4th on back-to-back home runs by Curtis Thigpen and Dustin Majewski. The '07 team tied things up on a 2-run homer by Bradley Suttle. I can't remember how the Horns scored that run in the 8th. In the top of the 9th, trailing by 2, the '07 squad engineered that bit of underhandedness I mentioned earlier. The Alumni had run out of pitchers so they "borrowed" Hunter Harris. Hunter promptly plonked Nick Peoples to start things off. Ouch. After loading the bases, Hunter gave up a single to Todd Gilfillan. Todd hit a ball to lf and it rolled under the glove of the always dependable Brandon Fahey. It rolled under his glove? Yep...and on toward the wall. The always dependable Brandon Fahey (who never fails to hustle) casually trotted after the ball. The Horns cleared the bases as Todd hit an error-assisted in-the-park grand slam. Ahem. After scoring another couple of runs, the Alumni had their last chance. J.D. Reininger (who hit 3 home runs in one game as a Freshman at the Dell Diamond several years ago) hit another one but it wasn't enough and the Alumni ended up losing the game.

I had a good time and thought the current squad looked pretty good. Randy Boone had a very nice outing to start the game. Kyle Walker gave up those two home runs but then settled down. James Russell and Austin Wood also did very well in the final 3 innings. Defensively, the team turned 2 or 3 double plays. Bradley Suttle made a great dive at one point to keep a ball from going into the lf corner. Very pretty.

Posted by Joanna at 8:51 PM