Game 3: Tampa at Lakeland

I took my cousins to our first baseball game today. I took one of the older ones and two of the middle ones. I had previously taken the two middle ones to Rays Fanfest but real baseball is much better. It was a treat explaining what a ball is as well as a foul ball, hit, out and strike. Kids these days, seriously.
Josh Romanski was the starter for tonight's game and he was really good. In 6 innings pitched he only allowed 1 run(a home run), 3 hits and no walks. It was enjoyable not to worry about a runner scoring because hardly a runner made it into scoring position.

                                                                    Josh Romanski

Romanski was followed by Mark Prior in the 7th inning(told you all he was with the team) who pitched a perfect inning except for an error on the first baseman, he struck out one and got 2 fly balls. When he came up and they announced his name, you could hear a hush fall over the crowd like they couldn't believe it was actually Mark Prior pitching, of course I knew it because I had seen him the day before.
Prior was followed by Scott Allen for the 8th, interesting thing here is that Prior is the oldest member of the team and Allen is the youngest. I thought that was cool. Allen did not have his best stuff today, after a strikeout for the first out, he gave up a hit and walked two to load the bases. Ronny Marte came out and managed to get a ground ball that was handled and turned perfectly for a DP to escape the inning without allowing the Tigers to score. Pretty impressive.

Zoilo Almonte

The TY scored a run in both the 5th and 6th innings. In the fifth inning, Zoilo Almonte doubled and moved to 3rd on a groundout by Mitch Abeita. He scored on a single by Walter Ibarra. In the 6th Abe Almonte singled, moved to 2nd on a groundout, stole 3rd base and scored on a single by Luke Murton.

Because baseball games can never just end easily I was on the edge of my seat through the bottom of the 9th and for good reason. Ronny Marte came out to pitch the 9th after putting out the fire in the 8th. He got a ground out for his first out and then allowed a single. With 2 outs, he got a really easy ground ball to the first baseman but Luke Murton, the first baseman, booted the ball allowing the guy already on first to go all the way to 3rd. Marte walked the bases loaded(of course) Sojo, the manager came out and talked to him and let him stay in the game. Marte eventually got the batter to ground out to short, though it was close. Like the night before with a runner on 3rd and 2 outs, the batter hit a slow roller past the pitcher, Angelini had to really break for it, luckily he got to it and was able to throw it in time to barely beat the batter to the bag. Ballgame over. TY Wins 2-1. It was definitely a nail biter down to the last out.

Tomorrow, Jose Ramirez will be pitching for the TY. I will be there and will try to take good notes. I will not be going to the monday night game because I need to spend some quality time on homework but I will be there on Tuesday and maybe Wednesday depending on how much schoolwork I have left to do.