May 30, 2017
AL Game 46

Coldwell Banker Preferred    13
Quotations Restaurant    7

Coldwell Banker defeated Quotations 13-7 on a damp – chilly Tuesday night in front of a sell-out crowd at the AL field. It was the final game of the regular season for CB as they finished with a 13-3 record and locked up a first place finish with the victory.

Big Blue was unable to score in the top half of the first. Jack Gill reached on an error and moved over to second on a ground-out by Sean Gorman. But with Avi Patel at the plate – Gill was caught trying to steal home as Jeffrey Cropper flipped to Colin Eckels who applied the tag to end the inning. Quotes put up two in the home half. Colin Hefferan singled and tried to take second on an overthrow but was thrown out when Patel threw a strike to Gorman at short who tug out Hefferan. Jonathan Hoole and Jeffrey Cropper both walked and stole second – third – and home. Matt Halpin struck out two of the next three batters he faced and it was 2-0 Quotes after one.

In the second – Coldwell sent 7 batters to the plate but only managed to score one. Patel walked – moved to second – on a Jason DiRita grounder – and stole third. But he was caught trying to steal home as Cropper connected with Eckels again. Joe Arizin walked and scored the first run for the Realtors. He moved over to second on a Halpin single – stole third – and then walked home when Anders Kristiansen and Shawn Welsh both earned free passes. In the bottom half – Quotes added another run. Eli Komarnicki-Randall walked and stole second – third – and home. Mike Phillips then struck out the next three batters he faced and it was 3-1 Quotes after 2.

Coldwell tied it up in the third. Tristan McLean was hit by a pitch to start things off. He stole second – third – and home. Gorman walked and stole second and third and scored on a sacrifice grounder to shortstop off the bat of Avi Patel. DiRita came on to pitch in the bottom half of the third and was extremely efficient. He struck out the first two batters he faced and got Cropper to fly out to Halpin in center and the teams were locked at 3 after three.
The Royal and White took the lead for good in the fourth. Arizin walked to lead off the inning. He advanced to second on a Halpin ground-out. Kristiansen then drove in Arizin with an RBI single to right. After Kristiansen stole second and third – he scored on a Welsh sacrifice grounder to first. In their half – Quotes added one more. Ryan Killeen walked and stole second – third – and home. Avi Patel hit a batter and walked the next two to load the bases. But he pitched out of the bases-loaded jam and struck out the next three and it was 5-4 Coldwell after 4.

Coldwell took a commanding lead in the 5th. Gill was hit in the foot with a pitch and took first. Gorman then walked. After a double steal on a passed ball – Patel drove in Gill with an RBI single to left. DiRita followed with an RBI single of his own to score Gorman. Arizin singled and picked up an RBI as Patel scored and DiRita also came around to score on the play as he took advantage of an overthrow to take home. Arizin rolled his ankle on first base so DiRita came back onto the base paths to run for him. He stole second – third – and home. Kristiansen laid down a perfect bunt single. Welsh worked a walk. McLean also walked. And Phillips drove in 2 with an RBI single. Coldwell hung 7 runs on the board in the inning. In the bottom half – Quotes stole three runs. Colin Heff walked and stole three bases. Cropper and Killeen did the same. Eckels and Komarnicki-Randall also walked in the inning but were stranded as Gorman recorded three strikeouts in the inning and it was 12-7 Coldwell after 5.

Big Blue added an insurance run in the top of the 6th. Gorman hit a hard grounder up the middle for a single to lead things off. Patel moved him over with a grounder back to the mound. Gorman then stole third. After a DiRita walked – Arizin hit a dribbler and was safe at first as Gorman came around to score. In the bottom half – Gorman struck out the first two batters he faced. He then walked Colin Heff and Hoole. But when Heff tried to score on the passed ball 4 to Hoole – Arizin quickly recovered and flipped the ball to Gorman who tug out Hefferan to end the game.

Quotes has one regular season game with Murtaugh Brother remaining. Coldwell Banker’s next game will be in the playoffs with the time and opponent TBD.


Pitch counts:
Coldwell:
    Halpin – 28
    Phillips – 18
    DiRita – 12
    Patel – 27
    Gorman – 62

Quotations:
    Eckels – 50
    Killeen – 38
    Hoole – 53