Liverpool Trojans Baseball Club
Sunday June 7th 2009
Liverpool Trojans 7 - 2 Bolton Robots of Doom
Liverpool Trojans 1 - 7 Bolton Robots of Doom
Game 1 Summary :
This year's much improved Bolton side had the potential to cause the Trojans plenty of concern, not least to due to the number of key players missing from the Trojan line-up. Ace Martin Godsall, Slugger Paul Smith, Utility Infielder Dave Martin Baez, Outfield Mainstay Alan Alger, Rookies Andy Heap and John Gill, and Veteran Catcher/Team Manager Robbie Alger were all on the absentee list presented to stand-in manager Ian Blease, who was also unavailable for selection due to a painful shoulder injury.
Blease called in favours from former Preston Jazz team-mates Barry Agnew and Damian Mullen as they made their Trojans debuts aged 38 and 41 respectively. Another Trojans debutant was Shaun Manning, although at least Manning still had the advantage of youth on his side! Would this makeshift Trojans side be able to compete with the ROD?
The Trojans struggled with the bats in the early innings as ROD pitcher Martin Bell retired the first 11 batters he faced supported well by impressive infield play on what proved to be a very slow infield.
Not to be outdone, Trojan's pitcher Ian Smith threw a very solid game and despite the odd walk, error in the infield, and some particularly questionable umpiring at times the scores remained tied going in to the top of the 7 th .
Leading off for the Trojans, Damian Mullen singled and advanced to 3 rd on Chris Gary's base hit. The table was set for Barry Agnew to drive in the go ahead run. Agnew's shot just evaded the glove of the second baseman, and although Gary was caught pushing for 3 rd , Mullen scored and it left Agnew on second base. Confusion followed next, Richie Hesketh struck out to make the second out and the Umpire called for the end of the inning. Realising the error Blease ran over to the umpire and pointed out his mistake, “swiftly” followed by 80+ year old Norman Wells, Trojans Club President and Scorer. After a brief conversation with umpire Talib Yaseen, the ROD were sent back out on to the field to make the final Trojan out. Next up was rookie Shaun Manning, who drove a shot in to the outfield scoring Agnew and extending the lead. Despite Jordan Lynn striking out at the next at bat the Trojans still had a 2-0 lead to defend to take the victory.
Ian Smith had been majestic on the day and retired the first 2 batters he faced easily. 1 more out and victory belonged to the Trojans. Smith threw hard and inside, and jammed the ROD batter sending an easy catch straight back at him. Only Smith knows what happened next as he inexplicably dropped the ball. To make matters worse he followed this up with a walk. An infield error led to a run scoring and runners on second and third. The pressure was on. Smith struck out the last batter he faced to redeem himself and give the Trojans a hard fought 2-1 victory!
Trojans Game Highlight: Catcher Paul Mason picking off a runner at 3 rd after a failed bunt attempt in the bottom of the 6 th to keep the game tied probably just beat what proved to be Shaun Manning's game winning RBI shot in the top of the 7 th .
Game 2
Game 2 Summary :
The Trojans got off to a good start when Harry Wren took advantage of his lead off walk and scored after a well executed bunt from Paul Mason was converted by Smith's sacrifice ground out. However, things soon started to go wrong for the Trojans. Stand in manager Blease, had sent out Smith to pitch the remaining 2 innings he thought he was allowed. However a protest was lodged by ROD manager, and BBF Northern Commissioner , Matt Norburn. Norburn claimed Smith was ineligible to pitch due to a pre-season change in the BBF Bye Laws. Blease was unclear on these laws, as was the umpire, but surely someone protesting so strongly couldn't be wrong. Could they?
Smith was replaced on the mound by Harry Wren, who made his first start in 4 years. Wren persevered, but the lack of practise led to numerous walks and the Trojans soon found themselves behind.
ROD pitcher Jamie Sherlock also struggled on the mound giving up plenty of walks but, as has happened all too often of late, the Trojans bats went to sleep and failed to convert their base runners into runs.
In the 4 th inning Wren was replaced on the mound by Damian Mullen, and backed up his replacement with some excellent play at shortstop. The runs stopped piling up against the Trojans and they just needed a few hits to get back on track.
Short rallies followed in both the top of the 6 th and 7 th in which the Trojans pulled 4 back. However, each rally was short lived and the Trojans went down 8 – 5 and suffered their second loss of the season.
Trojans Game Highlight: Harry Wren's solid work at short stop was probably slightly outshone by the return of Damian Mullen to the mound after 7 long years!
Thanks to Ian Blease for the report |
