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The 1,2,3 punch reunited!
On Saturday, May 24th 1999, the infamous 1,2,3 punch of NDG fame was reunited. When the starting lineup was announced, the first 3 batters read as the following:
Batting first, and playing shortstop, Adam Ferguson
Batting second and playing center field, Bradley Thomas
Batting third and playing left field, Zan Symonds.
Now if anyone has followed NDG minor baseball, they should well know that this was the very first three batters that headed the lineup in the 1997 season, which ended with a poorly played ball in right field, but now departed Mike Gentile. The lineup was without their 4,5,6, of Graeme Thomas, Jonah Lewis Van-Wyck and Michael Gentile, of 1997 fame, but it just might be for the better as their combined defense nullified their offensive prowess. This year's team has much more defense and scores more speed. As all coaches say, you can't teach speed.
The team played the team of Verdun, who last year failed to win a game. And their ways continued again to start of this year. Even though it's just exhibition, many exhibition games forecast for the rest of the season. NDG massacred the Verdun White Sox by a score of 15-4. Towards the end of the game, it was just getting ugly.
But the real story of the game was the production of the top three. With Symonds still trying to find his groove at the beginning of the season, Ferguson and Thomas more than picked up the slack. The two combined to appear on base 8 times out of 8 possibilities, score 5 runs, and drive in 4. Let's just say that they had a productive day. Everyone knows that Thomas is most productive when batting behind the dependable Ferguson leading off. Last year, he struggled batting first and was then bumped down to hit sixth. But back in his house of batting second, he was productive with a personal line of 2 runs, 3 RBI's, a triple and a walk. Ferguson was walked twice, and had 2 hits, and scored 3 runs, and had 1 RBI. Symonds did have a few RBI's, but not as many as he has previously seen.
The rest of the lineup had a great game, as the Verdun pitching wasn't too much of a match for the NDG hitters.
The starting pitcher, Ryan Cauldrey went 2 innings, and was followed by Jason Doucet for 2 innings of his own. Robert Dias went 1 inning, then Bradley Thomas went another, while Adam Ferguson closed it out with a strong showing in the seventh inning.
By popular demand, the bonehead play of the game has been brought back into existence. This game's play goes to the home plate umpire, who during a long at bat by third baseman Brock Bradley, he botched a clearly obvious call. Bradley grounded the ball towards third base, and with the third baseman waiting to see if it would go foul, the ball struck the base, popped up into the air, and the third baseman caught it. Now according to rule, the base is in fair territory, if any ball is to strike a base, the ball is fair. But the home plate umpire, called the ball foul. This of course brought head coach Bob Ferguson running out to argue, because he knows his stuff. Also another botched call was that of, with Brad Thomas pitching, he attempted to come inside, and hit the batter and the ball ricocheted onto the bat. The base umpire called dead ball, and started to point to first base, but the plate umpire has the final say, and ruled that it touched the bat first and then hit the batter. And all was well after that. Well, mostly.
But a reminder to all, that this is still exhibition, as the team has a real test of facing Dollard's Junior "AA" Team next Saturday in a doubleheader. Last Saturday, they demolished the Lachine Junior "AA" team by a score of 20-10. Insider's scouting the game say that Dollard has excellent hitting, but their pitching lacks somewhat.
We'll see if the Lynx pass the test on Saturday.
Till next time.
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