Coming off a frustrating Game 1 resumption that saw Team Lox let a first-half championship slip through their grasp, Ricky Lefton gathered the troops in the dugout before Game 2 and got the juices flowing once again. There were plenty of words shared, but the only one I’m able to repeat on the blog was something along the lines of, “beat the f*** out of them.” The message was clearly received.
After a clean top of the first inning, tensions rose quickly on the field. Between a not-so-bang-bang play at first base being improperly called, a questionable strike zone, and the heat of the beaming sun, both teams were feeling the pressure of a second-half game with major implications.
The most divisive play of the evening came in the middle innings, when a Brad Wagner ground ball resulted in a rugby-like scrum at first base that left Keith Kombrinck pancaked on the ground by the base runner. Credit to James Swan in right field, who immediately made it known that the contact was incidental, but the force of the collision was enough to send both benches onto the field and raise the stakes for the remainder of the game. Brad attempted to make amends with the Team Solomon dugout after going chest-to-chest with catcher Alex Kraus, but that only led to more screaming and tension between the squads. Back to the action…
A pair, trio, or possibly quartet of Kade Carlyle home runs, I genuinely lost count, kept Team Solomon within striking distance as Team Lox attempted to pull away on multiple occasions. Credit to the Team Solomon bats, all the way down the order, for squaring up some tough pitches and refusing to go away, but the game finally broke open in the sixth inning.
With the bases loaded, Mark Franklin stepped to the plate and promptly destroyed the best ball he has hit all season, sending a deep drive to center field fence that cleared the bases and sparked the onslaught that followed. The extra-base hit blew the game wide open, and the top of the order followed by stringing together a few more hits and piling on runs to the dismay of opposing pitcher, captain, and future first-round draft pick Stu Solomon.
Team Lox capped off a 12-4 regular season with an exclamation-point victory, setting the stage for what lies ahead in the postseason tournament. For the record book: Team Lox finished 12-0 in games that were not resumed in the third inning, were not played without pitcher Jimmy Lefton, or featured the presence of El Capitán. From my perspective, that qualifies as a history-book season.