Surrey Indians 10 @ North Delta Dodgers 7

Indians dodge North Delta comeback

The homeless Indians continued their season on the road. Partly cloudy skies covered the vast grass at Mackie park… perfect baseball conditions if it weren’t only for the artic breeze felt all the way down our spines.

We quickly found out we had a problem. Key members of the team were not going to be present, especially, members that make up the pitching staff. C. Ratelle was there, but unavailable to pitch. A decision was made to start E. Roblero and K. Neidert would follow.

Both teams were sat down quietly in the first two innings, but all hell broke lose for the Dodgers in the top of the third. C. Edger started the attack with a single and J. Karls followed with one of his own. C. Ratelle then clubbed his second double of the game with a gapper to left centre scoring Edger and moving Karls to third. K. Neidert then hit a come backer to the pitcher who lobbed the ball to the first baseman. Alertly, speedy Karls took off for home and avoided the tag with a sensational overstretched slide. A. McBoyle, S. Sibley and G. Nolan followed with 3 consecutive singles making the score 4-0. With two outs and runners on first and third, E. Roblero sent a line drive into the left centre gap scoring Sibley and Nolan to cap the max number of runs allowed per inning.

As if all the running from hitting a two bagger appeared to take the life out of Roblero, he promptly allowed the first five Dodgers hitters to reach base. It all started with an infield dribbler down the third base line followed by a deep fly ball to centre. J. Ubeda appeared to have a bead on it; however, the ball went off the tip of his glove for a double. A walk was followed by another double and a single making the score 6-4 at the end of the third frame. The Dodgers tied the score at 6 in the bottom of the fifth inning and had a chance to do more damage, but Neidert came in to put out the fire. With runners on second and third, and one out, Neidert produced an infield fly out and a strike out to end the inning.

The Indians put their sticks to work in the top of the sixth. Nolan led off the inning with a moon shot down the left field fence. Up stepped Grace and everyone jumped to their feet when we saw the ball sailing towards the fence in left centre. We had come to within a few inches from hitting back-to-back jacks but we were content with the double. Roblero followed with a single to left scoring Grace. Egder reached on an error by the second baseman and went to third on Karls single. Ratelle then collected his third hit of the game and second RBI with a single. When the sixth frame was in the books, the Indians had a 10-6 lead.

Neidert would take care of the rest as the Dodgers were baffled by Neidert’s curveball and could only get one base hit against him in three and two thirds. Only a couple of miscues by the Indians defense allowed one more Dodger run to cross the plate.

The Indians were able to cut down on their strike outs and look forward to putting bat on ball in the coming games.
Up next for the nomads, a date with the Aldergrove Giants at South Aldergrove Park.

Here are your player of the game nominations in alphabetical order:
Chris Ratelle 3 for 4, 2RBI, (1B, 2B (2), 1RS)
Enrique Roblero 2 for 4, 3RBI, (1B, 2B) * 4 1/3 IP, 6R 5ER, 6H, 6BB
Greg Nolan 2 for 4, 2RBI (1B, 1HR)
Josh Karls 2 for 5 (2 RS)
Kris Neidert 1 for 4, 2RBI * 3 2/3 IP, 1R 0ER, 1H, 2BB