^rocko

All season long the muscle bound giants of Ron’s Auto have been pushing the league around with their booming bats and athletic agility in the field. Needless to say, they are really good, they are the team to beat this year and their record shows it. Last night the Rebellion made a last ditch effort to end the perfect record Ron’s Auto win streak and your summer time boys and girls did not want to disappoint. It was going to take all our efforts, unwavering defense, solid hitting, stellar pitching and patience at the plate.

Right from the start the Rebels looked good. Landon in left field set the defensive pace for the red and whites right off the bat (pun intended) when Ron’s lead-off hitter drove a sharp liner to left. With a good jump on the ball, a slide and a scoop, he stopped the little white pill for the first out in dramatic fashion. The tone was set. It took Ron’s 3 innings to get through their order once and they didn’t score until the 5th. The entire squad pitched in on the defensive end to stop Rons runs. Mike yanked down a nice out at home to keep the high and mighty Rons stifled. There were no pot of gold at the end of Ron’s rainbows last night either. Amy started and darted in right center tracking and bagging the high flying treasure much to Rons dismay, and she wasn’t alone. With Landon, Andy and John patroling the outfield with her it looked like the Rebellion had four versions of Willie Mays pulling the ball out of thin air. Laura settled in at the plate and her bat is starting to come alive just in time for the playoffs. Rock put on a hitting clinic and mashed a few balls that looked to leave orbit sometime around 6:30 last night. Not to mention his heads up play at 1st to block and collect a rocket down right field line and get to the base before the speedy Ron’s runner stomped the bag. Tom, Brent and Rachel kept the infield tight with flashes of leather and smart plays. Once again, our defense controlled the pace of the game.

We had one bad inning and let Rons creep back into the game allowing them to score 5 in the 6th to make the score 7 - 6. But, Erica settled in, pitched like a sharp shooter and got Rons to hit into a double play to end their half inning rally. On our end of the inning the bats and some out of this world base running by John “go ahead and throw the ball” Cacace we able to tack on another three to make the score 10-6.

With a 4 run cushion the defense headed to the field to stop Ron’s perfect record season in it’s tracks. The 7th started shaky with the first two batters reaching. A grounder to Tom got one out on a fielders choice. A come-backer to Erica and a heads up throw to second got the second out on the force, and Landon sealed the deal on Ron’s first loss of the season reeling in the last can-of-corn to left. It took a whole team working together Rebs and not just any team, our team. I am proud of you all. We did what no team could do so far this season, we beat RA. Let the chants begin.

I would like to add that, I gave the game ball to the entire team last night, you all deserved it. That said, Ed gets an extra special tip of the cap from the manager. He was the consummate teammate last night putting the team ahead of his desire to play choosing to coach bases and cheer his team on as our defense put on a show, It was fun to watch. I hope you had as much fun as I did.