Wednesday Apr. 22, 2009

Green Hope regroups behind Pistacchio's pitching to beat Fuquay 7-4

A big game between two of the three conference leaders, winner goes to 1st, loser to 3rd. Both starting pitchers, GH's Joe Pistacchio and FV's Ross Barnett started strong, each retiring the side in order in the 1st inning, both striking out 2.

That changed in the 2nd, after a ledoff walk to Max Povse, Michael Sondag hit a 2-run HR to give GH a 2-0 lead. But the bottom of the 2nd proved to be a turning point, as FV scratched out 3 singles, but failed to score. FV started the innning with 2 ground singles to left, putting runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs. A strikeout was followed by a soft line blopper to very short RF, 2B Grant Shambley raced to the ball but couldn't catch it, yet chased after it into RF and grabbed it, turned and threw towards home, Pistacchio cut the throw and fired to C Anthony Colantino to get the FV runner from 2nd trying to score, on a very close play at the plate. A strikeout ended the inning, and that inning really was a momentum killer for FV.

GH added another run in the 3rd, with 2 outs, Pistacchio doubled down the LF line, and Jonathan Grudee (running for the pitcher) was knocked in by Povse's single to RF. FV got 1 run back in the 4th from Kyle Canfield's solo HR, making it GH 3-1 after 4 innings.

Things got a little bit exciting in the 5th. David Josam led off the inning with a HR to straight-away CF, followed by Shambley's single. A fly to CF from Eric Brady was dropped, but the CF alertly threw to 2nd to get Shambley who had started back to 1st. Pistacchio walked, a double steal advanced the runners to 2nd and 3rd, and 1 run was scored from Povse's hard single to right. GH up 5-1.

So with Pistacchio cruising, and a 4 run lead, the game looked somewhat comfortable, but somehow FV scored 3 runs without getting a hit. The bottom of 5th started with error by GH, the next batter was hit, then a flyout and strikeout, had Canfield back up with 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd. Pistacchio wanted nothing to do with Canfield, walking him on 4 straight pitches to load the bases with 2 outs. Then FV's Phillip Cotten hit a very high fly to short LF, with a strong wind blowing to LF, the ball kept drifting out farther, and eventually was dropped by GH's SS who had run out to catch it. With all the runners going on the play, all 3 runners scored, to make it GH 5-4 after 4 innings (anyone's ballgame).

In the 6th, GH again scored 2 runs, a ledoff double from Adam Boghosian (Tyler Jones running for Adam), was followed by 2 outs, then Shambley's single to right scored Jones. Brady followed with a double to right center, and Shambley scored all the way from 1st. GH up 7-4, feeling comfortable ??? The bottom of the 6th started as the 5th, a ledoff GH error put a runner on base. But Pistacchio took over the game at this point, striking out the next 3 batters, and the last 2 in the 7th (6 of the last 9 batters in the game).

Pistacchio's stats weren't his best, 12 Ks, 6 hits, 4 runs (only 1 earned), 2 walks, and a hit batter - but he really pitched one of his best games. Playing in a small ballpark with a strong wind blowing out, this was not going to be a low scoring game. Pistacchio had excellent control tonight, able to throw his curve for strikes at any count, plus his fastball had alot of zip tonight. He was the difference in the game.

For GH, a very nice positive was the contribution of the entire lineup to the offense. The negative would be the 3 errors and 11 strikeouts, but if you're scoring 7 runs, getting 2 HRs and 10 hits, you can live with the strikeouts, certainly the offense tonight looked alot more like the early season offense than recent games. GH moves to 7-1 conference, 15-3 overall.