The Southside Express A team defeated the Warriors by a score of 5-3 at Centennial #3 on Tuesday night.
The Warriors struck first with a run in the bottom of the first inning on a single to leftfield off the bat of Sam Marc. That was Sam's 22nd RBI of the season--ranked 3rd on the team. However, the Warriors left the bases loaded when the SSE's leftfielder made a running catch down the leftfield line to end the inning.
The Warriors starting pitcher, Lance Cardinal, did not allow a run through his first three innings of work. He was assisted by some baserunning blunders by the Southside Express. SSE had a runner thrown out or picked off a base at least once in each of the first five innings of play!
SSE scored two runs in the top of the fourth inning to take a 2-1 lead over the Warriors. The Warriors continued to leave runners on base. By the end of the game, the Warriors stranded 12 runners!
The Warriors tied the game in the bottom of the fifth inning when Jason Waner singled to centerfield and later scored on a base hit to leftfield by Paco Lauciello.
The SSE scored took the lead on a two run homer over the centerfield fence in the top of the sixth inning. The Warriors closed the deficit to just one run when Lance Cardinal singled to centerfield to score Jack Lebert who had singled to rightfield earlier in the inning. But, the Warriors stranded two more runners in scoring position as the inning came to an end with the score 4-3 in favor of the Southside Express.
The SSE scored an important insurance run in the top of the seventh inning. The inning ended with the three runners on base when Sam Marc fielded a ground ball at third base and fired home to Paco Lauciello for the force out.
Jason Waner drew a walk in the bottom of the seventh inning to bring the tying run to the plate. But, Brad Jerantowski, the SSE closer, struck out the last two hitters to end the game.
Game Notes:
- Lance Cardinal threw the first complete game of his career. This was the third consecutive complete game by the Warriors' pitching staff!
- The Warriors had a season high 11 strikeouts on offense in this game.
- The SSE had at least one runner picked off or thrown out attempting to steal in each of the first five innings.
- Neither team committed an error in the ballgame.
WARRIORS: 3 runs, 7 hits, 0 errors, 12 left on base
