News Item: : Mariners V Hurricanes 2nd Round Playoff Game 2009
(Category: Misc)
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Saturday 03 October 2009 - 17:39:55
Corkagh Park, Clondalkin was the venue this week for round 2 of the 2009 season playoffs. The black clouds blown over the field by a strong westerly wind, threatened rain. And while some rain did arrive for a short period of time, it was only enough to spoil the scorekeeper's paperwork, and not the great game that ensued between two committed teams.
The Donnelly battery started again for the Mariners as they took on the Hurricanes in a goodbye game for the loser. And it was the Hurricanes who scored first, putting 2 quick runs on the board in the bottom half of the 1st inning.
The Mariners responded instantly, getting 1 run back as Jason Goldrick scored on Ross Graham's single in the top of the 2nd.
Keeping the Hurricanes from scoring is always tough, but the Mariners achieved this over the next few innings, due in part to some fine defense, particularly from shortstop Chuck Adams and catcher Gareth Donnelly, and some resolute pitching from Dennis Donnelly who pitched his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the 3rd.
In fact, it was the Mariners who scored next, in the 5th, and perhaps could have scored more with a bit of luck. Rob McGarry got the inning off to a great start by getting on base with a walk. Gareth then bunted his way on, and a Hurricane throwing error allowed Rob move to 3rd. Steve Stone was up next, with a sacrifice-fly enough to tie the game. While the wind my have stunted some of the power hitters, it also wrecked havoc with the fielding and so it was with Steve's RBI bloop fly-ball, that landed between 2nd base and the right-fielder. Rob scored, as did Gareth on Chuck's base hit, and the Mariners now had a 3-2 lead. Dennis got on base with an infield hit to load the bases and there were still no outs. But this healthy scenario ended up as a real opportunity lost as 2 fly-outs and a runner thrown out at home ended the Mariners offensive 5th.
Despite the Hurricanes getting 2 runners on in their half of the 5th, Dennis finished with a strike-out to preserve the lead. In fact, the Mariners added to it in the 6th when Leo Farrell scored on an error following another bunt single from Gareth, his 3rd of the day.
Now it was a matter of the team holding it's nerve. The Hurricanes deserve their reputation as a difficult team to beat and so the ball was given to Jack Fairbairn to shut them down in the 6th inning. And this he would have achieved, until an error allowed the inning continue. A couple of batters later, and the Hurricanes scored 2 unearned runs to tie the game on another fly ball that proved to difficult to catch in the wind.
And that was effectively the end of the game for the Mariners. Although the score was tied going into the 7th inning, the Mariners failed to score and despite the best efforts of new pitcher Jim Gorman, he could not prevent the Hurricanes getting the 1 run they needed to end the Mariner's season.
As disappointed as the team was at coming so close to causing an upset, and that it will be of little compensation that this was a great game to watch, there is much to cheer for with this Mariner team. The line-up is now strong 1 to 9, the defense is more than solid, and the young pitchers are starting to keep the team in every game it plays. There are plenty of available players to push the starting 9 and it was great to see the whole squad out supporting for both playoff games.
Of course there is room for improvement, there always will be, but this team is definitely moving in the right direction.
The future looks bright!
Final Score:
Greystones Mariners 4 Hurricanes 5
This news item is from Greystones Mariners Baseball Club
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