The weather was perfect for today's playing of the 4th annual Matt Cossa Memorial, once again against Southeast Raleigh. Certainly a highlight of the pre-game was the singing of The National Anthem by the UNC Choir club, one of THE best renditions that I've ever heard !!!

Opening ceremonies included a beautiful singing of The National Anthem by UNC choir club

Will Gilbert started for Green Hope, and was just outstanding. The "stats" will show a 3 hit shutout, striking out 10 batters in 6 innings, but that really wasn't the story. His control today was so impressive, no walks, threw only 20 balls in 73 pitches, and just mixed up his pitches, hitting corners, great control. Also nothing seemed to upset him, when he gave up a hit, he immediately got back to work on the next batter, not a wasted frustration pitch.

Shambley steals 2nd and is driven in by Yoder to give Green Hope a 1-0 lead

Green Hope scored in the bottom of the first, a 1 out walk to Grant Shambley followed by a steal of second, setup Will Yoder who singled in Shambley, Green Hope up 1-0 after 1 inning.

The second inning saw a big momentum changer, as Southeast Raleigh had runners on 1st and 3rd with only 1 out. SER's Travis Fritz hit what looked to be a sure run scoring single up the middle, only to be caught by a diving Luca Scelsi who bounced up, tagged 2nd, and fired to 1st for an inning ending double play. It's likely that Luca, being a freshman, will struggle with consistency this year, but clearly he has what is needed in that short stop position, and gets better every game he plays.

Scelsi dives to turn an RBi single into a routine double play as Boghosian at 1st recognizes the great play

Scelsi's great defensive play in the top of the second carried over to the offense, most notably a charged up Adam Boghosian blasted a 2-run home run to give Green Hope a 3-0 lead after 2 innings.

Boghosian (left) homers and Pistacchio (right) singles, both driving in 2 runs, to give Green Hope a 5-0 lead

In the 4th, SER handle Green Hope a couple of runs as with 1 out, Shambley reached on an error, and Brendon Lynch struckout but the ball got past the catcher, runners at 1st and 3rd. Lynch stole 2nd, and Joe Pistacchio singled to drive in both runners, Green Hope 5-0 after 4 innings.

Some bad play this season has Coach Miragliuolo (left) seeing red, but Gilbert's (right) pitching soothed the "beast"

Boghosian hit another 2-run home run in 5th, his 5th on the season, to make it Green Hope 7-0, and Green Hope added 2 more in the 6th as Zach Munz drove in 2 runs with a single.

Boghosian's second 2-run home run was the clincher, putting Green Hope up 7-0

Gilbert (1-0) gets the well deserved pitching victory, Boghosian was the hitting star, and Scelsi was obviously the defensive star. Green Hope will face a much tougher week ahead, as they face league leading Middle Creek, non-conference Durham Jordan, and Lee County which is a team that Green Hope badly needs to beat and somehow get ahead of in the Tri-9 standings. The Lee County game is the most important game of the week for Green Hope.

NOTE - game pictures taken by Fred Weygandt (JV Team) and can be viewed/downloaded via this link.