Match Report

Blue Sox Edge Cardinals In Tight Game

Written by Noah Fellman (24/3/06)

With Spring Training underway in the Southern U.S. and the eyes of the world focused on the World Baseball Classic, taking place from Asia to the South America, baseball season has officially begun.  Here in slightly colder England baseball is also getting underway this month.  The UEA Blue Sox started out their sophomore campaign by traveling to Romford to take on the Romford Cardinals, an established baseball programme.  With only two years of experience as a team, the Blue Sox hoped to look competitive against the Cardinals, but in fact gave Romford much more than they bargained for.  The Sox won the game 6-5, in what turned out to be a complete team effort.  Starting pitcher Dave Rose got the first win of the 2006 season, giving up one run in two innings.  Early in the game, UEA flashed some defense as centerfielder James Orlando made a perfectly placed throw to third baseman Chris Stone, who applied the tag on the advancing the runner, saving a potential run.  The Blue Sox struggled early against the Cardinals' pitching, but as the innings wore on, the Romford arms began to tire and the Sox took advantage.  The game opened up in the fourth inning, in which the Blue Sox put together a number of walks and hits.  Before the inning was over, Ed Clarke, Noah Fellman, Chris Bell, and James Burley had all crossed the plate.  With the Cardinals' pitching wearing down, and the momentum of the game swinging in UEA's favour,  the Blue Sox brought out their big guns.  James Orlando pitched two innings, blowing pitches by virtually all of the Cardinals and baffling hitters with his curveball; he recorded six strikeouts.  The Cardinals were, however, able to take advantage of a number of walks and answered UEA's rally with 4 runs of their own.  In the eighth, Chris Bell hit a triple to left field, which he stretched into an inside-the-park homerun after a throwing error at third base, scoring the-go ahead run.  Bell also came into the game in the Cardinals' half of the eighth to pitch in relief of the tiring Orlando.  He completed the inning and pitched a perfect ninth for the save.  The unsung heroes of the game were the Blue Sox infield, who provided very good coverage whenever Romford was able to put the ball in play, and made UEA's pitching look even better than it was.  Ben Ford and James Lockyer platooned at firstbase for most of the game and both had a very good day defensively .  The game was a very promising start for the Blue Sox, who demonstrated strong pitching, solid defense, and smart hitting and baserunning.  In the end, it took contributions of every member of the team to put UEA over Romford, and the team is prepared to continue this style of play for the remainder of the season.