LOUISVILLE - GAME RECAP

The Syracuse Sky Chiefs, AAA affiliate of my team, the Toronto Blue Jays were in town to take on the Riverbats. For me, it was good to see future Jays stars such as Vernon Wells, Felipe Lopez, and Joe Lawrence. The pitching matchup also looked good as Pascual Coco, one of the Jays' best pitching prospects, was starting for Syracuse.

The game was scoreless after 2, but in the third, Coco ran into trouble, giving up two singles and a walk to start the frame. A sacrifice fly by Marty Malloy plated the first run of the game, and after Chris Latham robbed Tommy Sexton of extra bases, D.T. Cromer doubled to make the score 3-0. Another single and it was suddenly 4-0 Bats and the end of the road for Coco. But the Chiefs were not out of this one yet - in the the top of the 4th, a walk to Luis Lopez was followed by a Latham double and a Ryan Balfe single cutting the Louisville lead in half. 

In the 5th, Syracuse took a 6-4 lead on 3 hits, a walk, and an error, but Louisville responded with a run of their own in the bottom of the 6th. After the stretch, Louisville came to bat in the 7th as the rains started. A lead-off walk to Malloy and Sexton getting hit by the pitch brought Cromer to the plate with a chance to tie the game. But by this time, the rain was too heavy to continue and the tarp was brought out.

Most fans left at this time, but only 51 minutes later, the rain was gone and the game continued, with about 100 fans left to watch. Although Cromer grounded out, clean-up hitter Chris Sheff singled in the tying run. With the score 6-6, both teams had baserunners in the 8th and 9th innings, but nothing was decided and we entered extra innings.

Matt Walbeck strikes out in the 11th	John Frascatore returns to the dugout

Louisville had runners on 1st and 2nd in the 11th, but Adam Dunn grounded out. In the 12th, Syracuse went 3 up, 3 down, and they brought in Mark Hendrickson to relieve John Frascatore, who had pitched well for two innings. Hendrickson faced Raul Gonzalez, and after throwing a strike on the first pitch, grooved a fastball and the Louisville slugger crushed the ball over the left field fence. A sayonara homer for Gonzalez and the Bats won 7-6, with the game ending just 3 minutes before midnight.

This was a great game with lead changes, extra innings, and a fantastic park. Really, a major-league quality game in a major-league quality park, it gets 8/10.