Surrey Indians 7 @ Newton Rockies 4

Indians Roll over the Rockies

We had nearly a full squad on hand for a mother’s day match up against the winless Rockies. After losing many of their talented players in the off-season, the Rockies haven’t been nearly as competitive as last year. That is, until May 11th. The Indians had the task of facing some quality pitching and a fairly good offense. After being out-hit 14-8 and having struck out more than double our opposition, we still, somehow, managed to pull out the victory.

The Indians didn’t waste any time getting on the board. With one out in the top of the first, J. Karls singled and later went to third on a failed pick off attempt at first base. C. Ratelle then struck out on a wild pitch that sailed all the way to back stop, on the catcher’s throw to first base, Karls took off for home and beat the return throw by inches.

The tribe added to their lead in the top of the third. T. Jones reached on an infield single and moved to second on the errant throw by the second baseman. C. Ren pushed Jones across with a screaming line drive double down the left field line. With two outs, Ren tried to steal third base but was patiently out-waited by the Rockies hurler; Myette, stepped off the mound and had Ren’s head served on a silver platter, luckily for Ren and the tribe, Myette’s throw was nowhere near the bag and Ren ended up scoring the Indian’s third run.

O. Matsubara made his first start on the hill and went five strong innings allowing four unearned runs, with three Ks and two walks. The Rockies got on the board in the bottom of the third as J. Peever singled and scored when B. Kennedy’s single to right managed to get past the Indian’s right fielder. The Rockies continued to apply pressure by loading the bases on consecutive free passes but Matsubara ended the threat by striking out W. Shortall.

The momentum kept going the Indians’ way in the top of the fourth. C. Ratelle and K. Neidert reached on consecutive singles and S. Sibley received a free pass to load the bases. G. Nolan then collected the Indians’ third single of the frame to score Ratelle. R. Edger followed with yet another single before K. Grace pushed two across with; you guessed it, the Indians’ fifth single in the inning. The Indians would not record another base hit in the remainder of the game.

The bottom of the fourth didn’t start too well for the Indians. Reminiscent of the days at Tamanawis Park, a grounder to short took a devilish hop over the head of A. McBoyle. Myette followed with a double and both runners would later score on J. Popov’s single. Popov moved up to second on the throw to home plate. With two outs, J. Peever grounded to second but reached base on the error. As Peever wheeled his way to second, another errant throw sailed into left field where Karls picked up the baseball and threw a rocket to home plate. Peever was DOA... for real.

K. Neidert jumped on the hill in the top of the sixth and once again gave a dominant pitching performance. Although he would allow seven hits, they were all singles and came at inopportune times for the Rockies. He would allow no runs while walking one and striking out one in four innings of relief.

The Indians thank all the Moms who came out on Sunday to watch a pretty good ball game. The Indians will enjoy their off week and get ready for a date with the always powerful Delta Tigers on May 25th.

Last week's player of the game voting saw a share of the lead between C. Ren and K. Neidert. Way to go boys. Here are this week's player of the game nominations in alphabetical order:

Chris Ren 1 for 2, 1B, 1RS, 1RBI
Kelly Grace 1 for 4, 1B, 2RBI
Kris Neidert 1 for 4, 1B, 1RS * 4IP, 0R, 7H, 1BB, 1K
Orien Matsubara 0 for 1 * 5IP, 4R 0ER, 7H, 3BB, 3K