Stripes drop opening series to tough Breeze

Last week in our season-opening games, we faced Caribbean Breeze, who had added several new players to an already formidable lineup. In the first game, we held our won for all but one inning, and ended up losing 18-10. In the second game, we jumped out to an early lead, but then allowed them to catch and pass us late in the game, giving up four runs in the top of the last inning to put them ahead by 2 runs. In the bottom of the inning, we punched across a run and loaded the bases with two outs. Unfortunately, we couldn't get that second run and ended with a 15-14 loss.

One of the highlights of the evening was the return of Mike Mattoon to active play. Mike hit amazingly well, to the point that the Breeze were only able to get him out once on the night [Ed. Note for the record they never got me out!!!]. Another highlight was the performance of Mike Chapman and Lee at the top of the order. They filled in excellently in the absence of the injured David and Chris, getting on base consistently and scoring repeatedly. One of the lowlights was Greg Spears learning that the surest way to turn a drive off of the left-centerfield fence into a long single was to have me on first in front of him.