We made it to Sunday! We all felt great getting to the ballpark knowing we had one game to play and we were in a sense playing for a championship. We live to play another day! It has been five long years since the Untouchables have made it out of the first round of the playoffs, with the last two years losing to Mannheim. We wanted to get over that hump. Danny and I wanted to be the American players to help them get over that hump! Mannheim had a tough day on Saturday, and like a bad Friday the 13th sequel we planned on making Sunday a nightmare for the men in black and red.
Call it ego, but we did not expect was for them to come out battling. After two really tough losses we did not expect them to come out so alive. We thought that after they had no place to stay, and no confidence after losing two of their most important games of the season, that they would come out with their tails between their legs. I knew if we got on them early and often we might be done by the 7th.
Mannheim proved early that they were going to play hard by scoring in the top of the first. Like the day before, Aulga (Eugene) was not backing up strike after strike. He was throwing a lot of pitches early in the game and was getting a lot of hitters into 3-2 counts which was hurting his already delicate pitch count. We did not have much pitching in the fifth and vital game 5 so it was important for him to go as long as he could although he had thrown over 100 pitches the day before. Like the old days of major league baseball, the reason Aulga is so effective is because he can literally throw 2 and even 3 days in a row. The mad Russian never came around though, and I could tell he was tired. We responded in the bottom of the first with an RBI double by myself followed by an RBI single by the unreal "Hot" Bjorn Schonlau. Bjorn was no doubt our best hitter of the series as he kept taking the responsibility of picking up the team when needed. Every time a pitcher got past Danny they relaxed, and Bjorn hitting right after him in the lineup attacked like you wouldn't believe.
Once we were up 2-1 Mannheim kept battling, and kept scoring runs. Baseball is such a funny game and the only thing you can count on is that you might not expect the outcome when you are in the middle of it all. Everything changes, and the game is so unpredictable. In essence, baseball is just like weather. Mannheim preceded to score 5 unanswered runs and by the bottom of the fifth we were down 6-2. Honestly, they were raking! At one point I heard our American friend and once upon a time teammate from the Regensburg tournament, Dennis Kelly, say to his team in the dugout with conviction, "Let's go boys, 6 more easy runs and 6 more easy outs and this game is over!" I felt really aware of what was going on, however, so out of control. I had no idea how to maintain the score where it was from a catching standpoint because everything I put down as a sign was a crap shoot. I had no idea what to expect.
As the game went on we bounced back and eventually tied it up only to give the lead back in the top of the 7th. As the top of the 7th came around we were literally out of pitching and in a last ditch effort to keep the game within reach our manager, "Red," had entered himself in the game to pitch. To be completely honest I thought he was going to get blasted. He hadn't pitched in one of our games for the past 5 months and although he throws really tough batting practice I had no idea what to expect. He gave up an RBI single on the first pitch he threw and I thought the wheels were about to fall off. In the next few moments I saw a light switch flip and he was so dialed in that he was no longer our coach, instead a guy who came in to shut down the opposing offense. He really stepped up and did a great job flustering hitters with a lot of movement and off speed pitches
Down by a run in the bottom of the 8th inning, the bottom of our order came up big and started a big rally. Once the top of our order came up the table was set for a big inning. After our 2 hitter Jendrick walked to load the bases I came up in a big spot and took two big swings in the first two pitches. "Too big," I thought to myself. I shortened up and fouled off a few pitches in order to stay alive and with a 1-2 count I found the barrel and hit a deep fly to right field for an RBI sacrifice fly. Tie ball game!
Danny came up with 1 out and walked to load the bases again. Our big hitter, Bjorn Schonlau, came up with the bases loaded and hit a bases clearing double which put us up by 3 in the bottom of the 8th. Talk about a big time hit, and a big time series, Bjorn had 12 hits in the five game series, with 10 RBI's and a .571 average. Unreal and Untouchable! This kid can swing it and he got hot at the right time!
With a three run lead in the 9th Red came back out to face the top of Mannheim's order and I wasn't worried about him, except for the fact that it was pouring rain. Our field was in delicate shape to begin with and it started to rain pretty steadily in the 8th and continued to the point where any other day or circumstance, the umpires would call the game, or take a rain delay. Not this time. Mannheim's hitters were literally standing in a puddle of water where the batters boxes had been dug out, and I myself was in a sloop of dirty puddle water were I had created holes from catching. It was hilarious! After Red drilled the first hitter because of a wet, slippery ball, I began to wonder what would happen on a ground ball. Would anyone be able to grip the ball and make a decent throw? It turned out that it didn't mater. Red got two fly balls to left and struck the last guy out to seal the deal! Game over, series over, and we get to come back next weekend to play Regensburg in the Semi-Finals.
The three game comeback was the first time in Untouchables history that a team came back from a 0-2 deficit and won three games in a row. It was also the first time that they had been out of the quarter finals since 2005, the last time the team won the German Championship.
It was a really fun weekend, and I was really proud and excited to get two more weeks to play ball!
No comments:
Post a Comment