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Thursday Apr. 16, 2009

Green Hope beats Apex 4-1, remains on top of Tri-9

In 1st - Joe Pistacchio doubles to drive in Brady Followed by Michael Sondag's single to drive in Pistacchio In 4th - David Josam turns an Apex double into an out In 5th - Grant Shambley leads off with a hit to right Which turns into a hustle triple And Shambley scores on Brady's sac fly to make it GH 3-0 In 6th - Matt Nusbaum scores on wild pitch for a GH 4-1 lead Green Hope beats Apex !!!

Green Hope was coming off playing two good teams in the Hilltop Tourney, which really helped tonight against Apex, who threw everything they had against GH. This was a very intense and well played game by both teams, where Apex played with some desperation, not wanting to lose another conference game, and their hustle even on routine ground outs was unsurpassed. But GH also played at a high intensity, and the difference in the game was that GH just did slightly better in all aspects of the game - pitching, hitting, and defense - to earn a hard fought conference victory.

Max Povse started for GH against Apex's Houston Hawley, and Max turned in a really impressive performance, not because he had great stuff, but because he didn't have his best stuff, yet hung in there against all the pressure Apex could muster. Max struggled somewhat with his control, walking 6 batters in the 6 plus innings he pitched, and only struckout 3. Yet he only allowed 4 hits, and was in his 20th scoreless inning when Apex scored a run to break his streak on a trick play. That was in the 5th inning with GH up 3-0, and 2 outs with a runner on third, as Max was about to pitch, the runner ran towards home as Apex head coach Mike Valder (coaching 3rd) pretended that the runner was screwing up, shouting so Max would notice the runner and balk, which he did. It was a well designed and well executed play, but wasn't enough to beat GH tonight.

Neither team made an error tonight, but GH made a few better plays than Apex, really every GH player deserves mention, so Joe Pistacchio and Adam Boghosian made routine flys look routine, David Josam did them one better by making a running catch which probably only he could catch look routine, Michael Sondag was more than solid at first fighting the early sun on throws to first, Grant Shambley - Eric Brady - Nolan Poythress - Jonathan Grudee had 10 flawless combined assists and really won the game for GH, along with Anthony Colantino behind the plate who is a real difference maker there this season.

So while GH was getting out of innings by solid defense, Apex was getting out of innings by getting key strikeouts. Credit needs to be given to Apex pitchers Hawley and Ryne Frankoff as they pitched their ways out of several troublespots via the strikeout. But GH had a decided advantage on hard hit balls, and luckily seemed to get those hits in the same inning. In the 1st, Brady got a 1-out walk, and scored on Pistacchio's double down the left field line. Joe was knocked in by a hard single from Sondag, and GH led 2-0 right from the start.

In the top of the 5th, Shambley ripped a hit to right which got past the Apex RF as he slipped, giving Grant a leadoff triple. Brady almost put one out, but the sacrifice fly scored Shambley to give GH a 3-0 lead. After Apex scored on the trick play in the bottom of the inning, GH came back in the 6th as Matt Nusbaum was hit by a pitch, went to 2nd on Poythress' single, advanced to 3rd on a past ball, and scored on a wild pitch to make the score 4-1.

In the 7th, GH head coach Mike Miragliuolo wanted to save Boghosian for tomorrow's game, but with Povse tired, he brought in Bogo to get the final out of the game, his 3rd save this season, Povse moves to 6-0 this year, GH is 5-0 in conference and 12-2 overall.

Shambley to Brady ends Apex's 4th inning threat

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