Monday, October 19, 2082
KENWOOD HURLERS SHIPP AND LAFRANCE STYMIE CRYSTAL LAKE BATS IN PRO CUP FINALS OPENER
Yeah buddy, pitching is the most important thing in baseball. Kenwood got outstanding pitching from starter Casey Shipp and his relief Andre LaFrance to top the favored
Crystal Lake Shippers in the opening game of the 2082 Islandian Pro Alliance Pro Cup Series. The Wildcats shut down and stymied the Skippers by the score of 2-1 and
took the early lead in the best-of-seven series. Johnny Davidson (.345) made Kenwood the winner by easily driving Cloyce Farmer in from third base in the top of the 9th with a deep fly ball
to center field. Farmer led off the inning with a single and advanced to third on Kenny Sergeant's double.
22-year-old Shipp (2-1/1.48 ERA) sparkled with 5 scoreless innings. He held Crystal Lake to just 2 hits. LaFrance (2-1/3.86 ERA) did well, too, holding the Skippers to one run on 3 hits in his
4 innings. He struck out 6 batters and notched the victory. Crystal Lake also got solid pitching from its three hurlers. Starter Andre Hurst (1-0/3.18 ERA) gave up just one run in his 5 frames
and Angelo Marinello (1-1/2.25 ERA) blanked the Wildcats in the 6th and 7th innings. Chip Irby (0-1/1.50 ERA) lost it, yielding one run in 2 innings.
Kenwood collected 10 hits in the game. Cloyce Farmer (.286) and Ragnar Furno (.205) had 2 hits each. Crystal Lake only managed 5 hits.
The Wildcats took the lead in the top of the 2nd on two singles by John Bircher (.275) and Ragnar Furno and a wild pitch by Hurst. The Skippers bats were helpless until the 7th frame.
They tied the score on Ryan Corbin's (.302) triple and Corky Apple's (.556) pinch-hit base hit.
