Just impossible to figure out this year's Green Hope baseball team, they play good or bad seemingly at will. In today's game, they managed to do both, and actually had more good innings than bad, but when they were bad, they were very bad, and lost to Durham Jordan 10-6. Take away the 3rd and 7th innings, and they win 4-2.

Gilbert (left) was pitching well before hurting his arm and Jordan's Welsh (right) home run

Injuries have played some part in this year's performance, today Luca Scelsi could not play and Adam Boghosian was feeling pain but played with the help of some Advil. (Must have been "extra strength") Green Hope started Will Gilbert, who was pitching another very good game, but in the 2nd inning, he felt a tear in his pitching arm, and tried to continue, but a pitch or two later he obviously couldn't go any further as he lobbed in a pitch which Jordan's Brendan Welsh hit over the right field wall for a home run, and a 1-0 Jordan lead after 2 innings.

Shambley scores from second on Boghosian's single to left to tie the game 1-1

But Green Hope immediately responded in the top of the third, Grant Shambley doubled and with 2 outs and Advill kicking in, Boghosian singled to tie the game, with Adam taking second on the throw home. Joe Pistacchio followed with a double to give Green Hope a 2-1 lead in the middle of the third inning.

But the bottom of third had a Green Hope team not playing within themselves, but instead trying to make great plays, which resulted in poor plays (one could easily say "dumb" plays). Jonathan Grudee had come into pitch for Gilbert, and although he gave up some legitimate hits in the inning, unfortunately he was not helped at all by the defense behind him.

Clark makes a nice play, but the result was no outs and the return throw going into left field

The inning began with Grudee hitting the leadoff batter in the head, a wild pitch moving the runner to second, followed by a single for runners on 1st and 3rd. Another single through the infield to right scored 1, and the throw from the outfield to third was too high to cut, short hopped the 3rd baseman, got away, scoring a second run (error #1 of the inning), with the batter going to second. The next batter hit a hard grounder towards the hole, which 3rd baseman Wesley Clark fielded (a nice play), looked the runner at 2nd back, and fired to first to easily get the batter (or so it seemed). Instead, Green Hope's 1st baseman, seeing the runner at 2nd trying to take 3rd on the throw, cheated slightly and was ruled to have caught the throw while off the bag (for error #2), then threw wildly to third (for error #3), the ball going into left field, the runner from second scoring, and the batter ending up at second. Jordan up 4-2 and still batting in the 3rd inning.

Continuing the inning that never seem to end for Green Hope, the next batter singled sharply to left for runners at 1st and 3rd, with no outs. The next batter hit to 3rd, fielded by Clark, runner at 3rd had to hold, Clark threw to second for 1 out, but the relay throw to 1st was wild (for error #4) allowing the runner from 3rd to score and the batter going to second. A single to left resulted in an off balanced wild throw home which had no chance to get the runner from second, but did allow the batter to go to second as it bounded to the backstop (for error #5). Daniel Sondag was brought into pitch, was greeted with a single to score the runner from second, but got 2 fly outs to end the inning, Jordan up 7-2 after 3 innings.

Boghosian's second home run of the game was ripped over the left centerfield wall to make it 8-6 Jordan

The teams traded solo home runs in the 5th inning, Alex Raburn for Jordan and Advill enhanced Boghosian for Green Hope, Jordan up 8-3 after 5 innings. Green Hope got back into the game in the 6th, Max Povse singled to left which got by the left fielder, putting Max on second. Two outs later, Will Yoder hit a fly to left which should have ended the inning, but was misjudged and dropped for a single, scoring Povse. Advill, excuse me Boghosian, then just roped one over the left field wall, to make the score 8-6 Jordan in the middle of the 6th inning. (Bogo now with 5 home runs without Advill and 2 with for a total of 7 on the year)

Unfortunately, Green Hope made a critical error in the bottom for the 6th, with Povse pitching, a leadoff walk and a sacrifice bunt, had a runner at 2nd and 1 out. A single had runners at 1st and 3rd, and an intentional walk loaded the bases. Povse got the crucial strikeout for the second out, but a routine grounder to 2nd which should have ended the inning, ended up in the outfield (for error #6), and 2 base runners scored. The game ended Jordan 10-6, as Green Hope failed to score in the 7th.

Munz (left) at short, and Sondag (right) on the mound, both made excellent plays to rob Jordan of hits

Grudee (0-1) takes the loss, as Green Hope goes to 7-8 on the season. This loss doesn't really matter, Friday's game against Lee County is a key game to making the playoffs. There was actually more good news than bad tonight, the "team" is hitting better. But defensively, Green Hope is trying too hard to make the "great" play, instead of the "smart" play. There were several "great" plays tonight, Clark made several at third, Munz at short had 2, Sondag on the mound robbed a sure hit, but crazy throws to get runners with only a slim chance to get the runner "killed" Green Hope tonight. The reason a "great" play is great is that it doesn't happen very often. Green Hope is playing the "showcase" mentality where every time you touch the ball you need to make a great play or it doesn't count. Just throw the ball to the cutoff man, that's all you really need to do if you want to win.