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A Wild Night in Salt Lake City Ends with the Blues

An early battle between cross-division contenders resulted in the wildest nights of baseball so far in this 2038 season, as the Blues defeated the Gulls 16-12 in a nine inning affair that still took over four hours to complete.

It was a rainy, cold night in Salt Lake City, but the balls still flew out of Smith's Ballpark as the clubs combined for seven homers, including the first two of the season for Salt Lake right fielder Brian Cannon.

Salt Lake starter Barry Voit had been stellar in his first outing of the season, shutting down St. Louis over eight innings in an eventual 11-2 win. But tonight he ran into trouble almost immediately, as Memphis greeted him with a single and a double before he'd thrown his fourth pitch. With 2B Bill King on third and RF Josh Morgan - the eventual Player of the Game - on second, 1B David Washington grounded out to first, scoring King and advancing Morgan. Eric Olson brought Morgan home with a sacrifice fly to complete scoring in the first for Memphis.

Salt Lake was lucky to escape the second with just a single run scored, as Memphis opened with back to back singles by Izzy Villanueva and Matt Rispoli before a double play erased Rispoli and put Vispoli on third. Bill King, who scored the first run for the Blues in the first, singled home the third run of the night.

Salt Lake got one back in the bottom of the inning with a Brian Cannon solo shot, his first of the season, off Blues starter John Wade. Wade's previous start had been a disaster, as he was tagged for five runs in just two and two thirds. This start would prove equally rough, as Salt Lake would take the lead in the third: a single and a walk brought RF Jerry Easter to the plate, and Easter deposited a 1-2 pitch into the right field stands for a three-run, go-ahead homer that made it 4-3 Gulls.

It stayed there until the top of the fifth, when Memphis leadoff batter Washington drilled a homer into nearly the same spot as Easter's, tying it up at 4; Voit escaped the inning, though, and headed to the bench to watch his team erupt.

After a Paul Geisler fly out, DH Nate Madden drilled a single into right to set up young 2B Ralph Keough. Keough had come into the game hot, hitting .371/.421/.571 with four doubles in the early going; he added his first homer of the season on what proved to be Wade's final pitch, a 2-1 offering that he made disappear into the twilight in right-center. Wade was replaced by RP Joey Dulin, who immediately caused his own mess by allowing a single to Easter and then issuing four straight walks to hand the Gulls two more. He finally got Chris Jones on strikes and the got to 2-2 on Geisler, but the star 1B pulled the ball past Bill King and into right, scoring two more. Just like that, it was 10-4, and Voit headed back out with some breathing room.

The Blues took that room away from him quick. Voit was chased by three singles from Rispoli, C Juan Mungia, and Doug Jacobs, and though he got King on strikes manager Jeff Thornton had seen enough; he had Jim Landers warm, and brought him in to face Josh Morgan with the bases loaded. Morgan was ready, though, and jumped all over Landers' first pitch, drilling it on a line to right. Cannon gave chase thinking it might bang off the wall, but it carried just enough to clear by inches for a grand slam. Then things fell apart further for Salt Lake: Washington doubled, and a passed ball by C Mark Blakely put him on third. He scored on an Eric Olson groundout to bring the Blues within one, though Salt Lake survived a two-out double by Sam Hughes as Villanueva struck out, mercifully ending the top of the sixth.

Keough announced Salt Lake's intentions to keep going immediately, as he rifled a single into center to open the bottom of the inning, but he got too aggressive and was gunned down stealing second before Matt Wieland doubled and Brian Cannon hit his second homer, a two run shot that made it 12-9.

Just as they'd done before, though, Memphis answered back, constructing a rally out of a walk, an error, and a pair of singles, the second of which gave Josh Morgan his fifth and sixth RBI of the game. Landers exited to bring on Mike Williams, who finished the inning to preserve Salt Lake's narrow one run lead.

The previous two and a half innings had seen sixteen runs cross the plate - eight Gulls and eight Blues. So a scoreless bottom of the seventh was a revelation, as Salt Lake sent up the minimum, getting a single from Geisler only to have it erased on an inning-ending double play. But Memphis was uninterested in scoreless innings. Sam Hughes walked to open the eighth, and Adam Long put him on third with a double. Another walk to Rispoli loaded them up for the catcher Mungia, who turned on a 1-2 pitch and pulled it over the wall, delivering another souvenir to the fans in the right field bleachers. It was a go-ahead grand slam, the second slam of the game. For good measure, Memphis scored another as Jacobs and Morgan singled and Jacobs came home on a fielder's choice. When the dust settled after the eighth, it was 16-12 Memphis.

Salt Lake was clearly spent after that, and went quietly, without a baserunner for the remainder of the game as Memphis took this one 16-12, the highest-scoring game in the NABF so far on the young season. Morgan, who went 4-6 with a homer and six RBI, was named Player of the Game, while reliever Dave Wheeler got the win despite allowing two runs over three and a third. Mike Williams, who surrendered Mungia's slam in the 8th, was the loser.

The win puts Memphis into second place in the D3 East, a game back of Nashville; despite the loss, Salt Lake remains in first in the West, a game up on Portland, San Francisco, and Austin.