May 17, 2008

Maietta 7, Willows 6

Wilkinson Park – In Ernest L. Thayer’s famous baseball poem Casey at the Bat, joy is nowhere to be found in the town of Mudville.  On this sunny Saturday however, joy ruled the day – Michael Joys that is.  Michael Joys’ single to left in the fourth inning allowed the torrid hitting Joey DiBiase to reach the plate that same inning and deliver a two run homer over the center field fence, scoring Joys and himself, with what proved to be the winning run.  DiBiase was three for three and only a double shy of the cycle.

Willows put the pressure on early as Ryan Pelletier returned from an injury without missing a beat and singled in the first and then scored along with Joey Gleason.  Pelletier added a single in the sixth as he and Gleason accounted for four of Willows’ six runs.  Maietta struck back in the bottom of the frame as Cole Lemelin singled up the middle to score DiBiase and Patrick Conley, both of whom reached on hits.  After Tristan Foley reached base, Andrew Roberts drove in Dylan Reny from third with the go ahead run.  Jon Vickers drove in a run and scored for Maietta in the second and then it was Willows turn to punch back as the two teams exchanged blows like Ali and Frazier.

Willows scored twice in the third and appeared to be rallying but strong pitching from Conley (4 IP, 1 ER, 5K) forced Willows into two ground ball outs and Roberts tracked down a solid stinger to left off the bat of Daniel Hodgkins to end the threat.  Then, in the top of the sixth, Willows clawed their way back again as Pelletier and Chris Mitchell both singled and scored and Griffin Henderson had his second hit and represented the tying run.  Vickers, however, was able to record his first save by fielding a pop fly to end the game.

Willows returns to action Tuesday against Ruby Tuesday and Maietta is back at it Thursday against NE Turf.  Come out and support the kids!