Hagan’s Funeral Home    12
Gardner-Fox    11

On a picture-perfect April evening, Hagan’s and Gardner-Fox kicked off their seasons in a game that you had to see to believe. Hagan’s bats were held in check through two innings of strong pitching by G-F’s Eric McGough. McGough was aided in the top of the first by second baseman Phil Kotcamp’s over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field that triggered a double play. Meanwhile, G-F got on the board in the bottom of the first on the strength of a single hit and some heads-up baserunning.

The score remained at 1-0 until the top of the 3rd inning when Hagan’s bats came alive, stringing together six consecutive hits and scoring five runs. G-F responded with 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Hagan’s tacked on two more in the 4th and five in the 6th to take what looked like an insurmountable lead into the bottom of the last inning. G-F had other ideas. They exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the inning and had two more runners on base before reliever John Owens was able to put out the fire and preserve the win for Hagan’s.

Hunter Tierney (7 strikeouts in three strong innings) got the win. Brian Gross (6 strikeouts) followed with 2+ strong innings before giving way to Owens who sealed the deal. Hagan’s offensive attack was keyed by Gross, Julian Heller and Beau DiFiore with three hits each.

Eric McGough (5 K’s), Jeremy Davis (5 K’s), and Kevin McGarvey (4 K’s) split the pitching duties for G-F. The offense was also led by McGough (2 hits, 1 walk), Davis (2 hits, 1 walk) and McGarvey (1 hit, 2 walks).