Arrival and First Night Scrimmage

Once again we made it to San Juan. After getting off the plane we bumped into the Emanuelson's and Will Ramos down in baggage claim. Rick DeMatties, Angel, Steve Eavans, Christian Colon and Carlito Arroyo had already come down earlier in the week.

After settling in, Rick called to let us know that Angel had arranged a night-time scrimmage against a team we'll probably be facing on Saturday. The field was in Carolina but the ride was a bit of an adventure. We missed the exit off of Rt-26 going east and had to turn around. We missed again coming back heading west and had to turn around again. But the third time was a charm. We made the exit and after a few minutes on local roads we found the field.

To avoid subjecting our pitchers to overuse the Carolina team gave us three pitchers, each of which pitched two innings. The first was a kid who's now in the Twins organization, pitching at the Class-A level. I didn't catch the kids name last night but after a little research on MLB.com I'm thinking it might have been Josue Montanez. Dallas Mickey was behind the dish to complete the battery at the start of the game.

The Carolina pitcher shut down the GAB to start the game. The Carolina team didn't do much better watching their first three men go down in order. The first few innings were a pitchers duel on both sides. The GAB had Buddha Blake on 1B, Larry Pagano at 2B, Ron Emanuelson at SS and Steve Eavans at 3B in the infield. Christian Colon, Carlito Arroyo and Will Ramos patrolled the outfield. In the fourth inning we switched things up a bit, moving Christian behind the dish, Dallas to 1B, Buddha to 3B, Steve to 2B, and Larry to RF.

The GAB was able to squeak out a run on a combination of walks, fielders choice (Ron Emanuelson) and hits (Steve Eavans). This limited offense held until the 5th inning when the Carolina team scored a run to make it 1-1. The Carolina team brough on their closer in the 6th who really had some good cheddar. Ron, Dallas and Steve went 1-2-3 to close that inning. The GAB took the field and got their three outs to finish the scrimmage at 1-1.

Thursday brings us a day in Caguas to play one of the PRBAHS teams. Hopefully the rust is off the swings a bit. We've been practicing in the cage but nothing beat picking up the ball coming out of the pitchers hand and trying to see if you're looking at a fastball, changeup, or duece before swinging.