Great Barrington Millers Game Journal 2008.
Sunday, June 29th: Yankees 6, Millers 5.
What a game. We strike first on a Jason Gappa single, wild pitch, error, and a Sac Fly from Jamie. Billy Paul answers the short notice call when Andy's arm doesn't feel right at game time. The Yanks greeted him with small ball...single, bunt, a balk, and a Sac Fly of their own. We added three in the 3rd on singles from Billy and Bob, a fielder's choice and stolen bases from Brian J. and Sam. Jason drove in the 3rd run with another Sac Fly to center. Billy scattered 8 hits, walked 7. We led 1-0, 4-1, and 5-4 after a 6th inning rally capped by a pinch-hit single to right by Jesse on a ball that was about eye-high (nice piece, Carp!). We went into the bottom of the 7th fired up, but the Yanks managed a run on 4 errors. Then with a runner on 3rd and none out, we intentionally walked the bases loaded and brought an outfielder in to play for the force at home and possible double play. The Yanks' clenaup man Dave Ames dropped one into the unmanned spot in left, but deep enough that it didn't matter. Walk-off single. Ouch.
Sunday, June 22nd: Yankees 4, Millers 1.
Ezra, Jamie, Cal and Scott managed the only hits, but Asa and Andy combined to scatter 8 hits. The Yanks did their damage in the 2nd, when they plated 3 and Asa took a line drive to his open throwing hand. He left and Andy came in to finish the game--striking out 5 and walking only 2 in the 7th. The Millers bats just couldn't get it going. We're starting to realize that Jesse's reputation precedes him...his OBP will be great, but we're starting to worry if he's get something good to hit.
Sunday, June 15th (Game 2): Brewers 10, Millers 0.
Ouch. Not pretty. We managed 4 hits, but couldn't string anything together. We were sat down 1-2-3 twice, and didn't make it past the 5th, when the Brewers scored their tenth unanswered run. Ezra, Cal, and Sam singled, and Jamie added a double to stay among the league leaders in hitting.
Sunday, June 15th: Brewers 8, Millers 5.
We traveled to Schenectady's B Diamond and played the Brewers for a double header. We were the home team for game 1. The Brewers struck first by drawing four walks in the first and pushing one across, but we answered with 4 runs on 2 hits and 3 walks in the bottom of the frame. Andy Cook helped himself with a 2-run single. After that, it got quiet. We led through the middle innings until the Brewers tied it in the 4th. We regained the lead briefly in the bottom of the 6th when the BRewers made 4 fielding miscues, but they stormed back with 4 in the top of the 7th on 5 runs and 2 walks. The final was 8-5.
Sunday, June 8th:
Our game with the Pirates was rained out and will be made up on July 20th.
Sun., June 1st: Angels 15, Millers 2.
Well, we hit the field with our brand-new uniform jerseys and looked SHARP. Steve Donaldson took more photos.
As for the game: Well...Ouch. These guys are flat out GOOD. They can MASH, to use a technical term, and they teed off on Asa and Scott pretty good. We finally figured out they don't love the off-speed stuff and got a few outs late. Jesse hit one out in the 4th--solo. Ezra, Asa, Andy and Chris B. had hits--Chris continued to get on base pretty much every time he goes to the plate. The Angels, including league Commissioner Quentin "Q" Jensen, hit 5 home runs as a team. They went back-to-back twice. We must have gone through a case of ball!
Biff eased our pain at The Well afterwards...Q and a few others were our guests and a good time was had.
Game 2 was.....better: Angels 7, Millers 3.
Carpenter went deep in the top of the first, Joyce led off the 2nd by doing the same. But the battled right back in the bottom of the first with 4 and never looked back. Our book says that Andy threw a 2-hitter. Angels' book says 3 hits. Either way, he done good...again. Just gotta lay off the walks next time.
Sat., 5/24: Cardinals 16, Miller 11 (Game One), Millers 15, Cardinals 3 (Game Two).
Game I was the makeup for the rainout in Great Barrington on 5/4. We had our one big inning again, but unfortunately allowed the Cards one too. Not a pretty game, but Asa was strong and went into the 5th for his longest outing yet. Jamie Law came in on short notice to put out a fire, but we quickly decided he'd have more fun back at short (he was busy going 3-3 at the plate, afterall). Scott MacFarland came in and through strikes for two innings. He also hit two doubles at the plate. Welcome Big Mac! Jesse Carpenter picked up where he left off, homering and driving in three.
The story of the day was Andy Cook, who started game two and quietly pitched a NO HITTER. I grabbed him the game ball because he had pitched a complete game victory, then as we were packing up, Brian Ketchen barked "Hey, Andy pitched a no-hitter!" Wow, Andy. Nurse that arm! We are glad to have you in the rotation. Andy struck out nine, walked 5, and allowed just 2 earned runs in his first start this season.
At the plate, the Millers pulled it together and pulled away from a 5-2 pitcher's duel with our big inning in the bottom of the 6th.
Jesse homered, doubled, singled and drove in 2 while scoring twice. Jamie Law, Ezra Small, Andy Cook and Chris Joyce each added two hits. Tom Ingersoll and Scott MacFarland drove in two runs each.
Sat., 5/17: Millers @ A's. A's 7, Millers 4.
We traveled to the Schenectady A Diamond and faced a gamer of a lefty throwing for the A's. We strung a few together, but the A's bats got to us late. Bob went 2-3 to lead the way, but got a little beat up on the mound in relief of Asa, who settled in nicely after a rocky 1st.
Sat, 5/10: Pirates @ Millers. Millers 14, Pirates 9.
The home opener!!!! Manager barely slept, and was glad to find that teammates were equally fired up!! Skipper went to the field the previous night to make sure Friday's rain was not going to stop us this time. Field was in GREAT shape--Tom got a few compliments Saturday. Guys--this is a credit to us. We have at least 60 hours of field care under our belts at this point!
The Pirates had a reputation of being one of the better hitting teams in the league, and they came out swinging, scoring three times in the first. Asa was nursing a back injury, but stuck it out and held the Pirates to 2 more over his three innings of work. It was nice to hand him a lead after the bottom of the 2nd--we bounced back with 7 runs on 6 hits and a hit batter. Chris Joyce led off the 2nd with the first Great Barrington Millers home run--a shot over the left center fence. Tom Ingersoll doubled, George Rand, Billy Paul and Asa Hardcastle singled, then Jesse Carpenter enjoyed his first Millers at-bat with a three-run dinger to left. 7-3 Millers, and we never looked back.
We piled on 4 more with one swing in the 3rd. Tom Ingersoll made the Pirates pay for three walks with none out and drilled a 2-2 pitch into the friendly trees in right for the first Millers Grand Slam. 11-4 Millers.
We were tight in the field. We killed rallies with George Rand's nice catch against the fence in the 4th to set the tone, and an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play in the 5th.
The Pirates managed 5 more runs, including a top-of-7th rally that gave us a little scare, but we were in charge and felt it.
A nice little crowd of 12-15 people turned out to watch. Steve Donaldson took photos, Derek Gentile from the Berkshire Eagle came to check in.
We're off and running! 1-1 and 18 to go! TI
Sun, 5/4: Cardinals @ Millers. POSTPONED. Date: TBD
The weather looked real bad and turned out to be be decent, of course. Meanwhile the Cardinals manager really didn't want to make the trip for naught this eary in the season, so I called it....spending most of Saturday night on the phone or dial pad texting! (handy!) A few of us practiced Sunday instead. We'll play a double-header with them on 5/24, I think.
Sat, 4/26 @ Nationals. Schenectady 13, Millers 6.
The Millers met at 8:00 AM at our home field parking lot and made the convoy to Schenectady's B Diamond for the first game in our history.
The weather was dicey, we were a little behind and barely had time to warm up.
Meanwhile, we played very well. We have a team here! Wow, we actually did it.
We scored first--in the top of the 2nd. DH Chris Joyce doubled to lead off. Jamie Law followed two batters later with a double of his own, and scored himself on an infield error on Chris Brady's batted ball.
Asa Hardcastle held the Nationals scoreless for the first three innings, striking out 3 and allowing just 2 hits, each of which were eliminated promptly--one was caugunned down attempting to steal by stealing by catcher Cal Turner, and the other erased by the first 6-4-3 Double Play in Miller's history ("Law to Paul...to Ingersaul". Catchy?)
Asa sat after the 3rd to rest his golden arm, and lefty Andy Cook took over for the 4th but struggled to find the strike zone. Jamie Law took over and the two shared some bruising.
But we fell apart as a team, fortunately for only one inning, allowing the Nationals all 13 of their runs in that one frame!
We walked 9 batters, hit another, and made 3 errors in the field.
Yep--good to get that behind us in game 1, I say!
We lifted up our heads and scored 4 more times, but fell short 13-6.
Humble beginnings, but we all agree, we outplayed them for 5-1/2 innings! TI