May 10, 2017
AL Game 36

Coldwell Banker Preferred    7
Plush Mills    6

The Cardiac Kids of MLL ended their second consecutive extra-inning game in dramatic fashion when Mike Phillips dashed for home after a passed ball and slid across the dish for the game-winner as Coldwell Banker defeated Plush Mills 7-6 on Wednesday night.

Plush Mills slowly built a 5-0 lead while the Coldwell bats rested peacefully through the first three innings. The orange and blue plated their first run in the first when Nicolas Fox walked and stole second, third, and home. Jacey Fox also doubled in the inning. Sean Gorman and Avi Patel singled in the first but were stood up and it was 1-0 Plush Mills after one. Plush Mills stole another run, literally, in the same fashion they did in the first as Sam Ramsey walked and stole three bags to make it 2-0. Coldwell went down in an orderly fashion, 1-2-3 in the second.

In the third, the Retirees added another run when Mason Messina reached on an error, stole second, was knocked to third on a Felix Gusic single, and then stole home to make it 3-0. The Coldwell bats remained comatose as the blue and white went down in order again in the third. In the top of the fourth Shaun Fernandes singled and advanced to third on a Ramsey single. Dante Cholmeley-Jones drove in Fernandes with an RBI single and Ramsey stole home on a passed ball and it was 5-0 Plush Mills. But after hitting the snooze button three times, the Coldwell bats finally rolled out of bed in the bottom half of the fourth. Phillips singled for Big Blue and wound up on third after two throwing errors. Jack Gill hit a hard grounder back through the middle to score Phillips. Gill stole second and moved to third on a Gorman single. Patel knocked in Gill and then Jason DiRita reached on a fielder's choice that scored Gorman. DiRita moved to second on a Joe Arizin single and both players advanced one base on a passed ball. Shawn Welsh then knocked in DiRita with a low-lining single that found the turf between three orange shirts. Tristan McLean knocked in Arizin with a sacrifice grounder and suddenly it was 5-5 after 4.

Gill singled and stole second and third in the fifth but neither team scored in the inning and we were headed to the sixth with the game knotted at 5. Fernandes singled and stole second, third, and home to make it 6-5 heading to the last of the sixth. But Big Blue responded with a run of their own. Patel doubled to the left-centerfield gap to start off the inning and DiRita knocked him in with a single to tie it up. Arizin doubled in the inning as well but was stranded as the next three batters went down in order. Patel walked one batter but struck out the other three he faced in the top half of the 7th and the teams were still locked at 6. After Ryan Gauffreau walked to lead off the inning, he was thrown out at second when Phillips' liner was quickly recovered by the center-fielder. Phillips managed to go from first to third on a Gill single. And then when the 1-0 pitch to Gorman squirted through to the backstop, Phillips' swiped home for the walk-off win.

Coldwell improved to 8-3 and will face Plush Mills again on Saturday at 2:30.


Pitch counts:
Coldwell:
    Gorman – 70
    DiRita – 24
    Patel – 50

Plush Mills:
    Salazar – 61
    Cholmeley-Jones – 19
    N Fox – 30