Knights Pull Away Late

-Prospect League news-
North Coast 9, Chillicothe 3

Returning to the friendly confines of V.A. Memorial Stadium after their first road trip of the year, the Paints were in a tough battle against the now visiting North Coast Knights, a ball club that has gotten their first two wins in franchise history against the young men of Southern Ohio. To basicall describe the way this game went would be something like this; the game was close for a little while until the Knights pulled away in the later innings, and the Paints weren't able to respond to the North Coast offense.

Eric Heckaman made his first start as a Paint in this game. He went 4+ innings deep, giving up 4 runs off of three hits, two walks and by throwing two wild picthes in the process. Heckaman's outing shouldn't fool you all that much because he was hanging in there in tight situations until the very end of at bats. The game just got out of hand, and those things will happen to a starting pitcher when it's pretty early in the season. Consider that the Prospect League is a whole different animal than the Frontier League at least when it comes to rules and unwritten rules. Players need to get the work in because they are still collegiate athletes and any time out on the field is valuable for them.

Blake Mascarello was the only other pitcher who took the mound for the Paints, and he pitched the other five innings of this game. He gave up 5 runs off of four hits and he beaned a batter to boot. Still, he put on an otherwise good performance as he did record 6 K's. You can just say that this was an off night for the pitching. All you can do is shrug it off and move on. These nights will happen, so just prepare for it when it does become an off night. Work your way through all of the traffic jams in a ballgame and everything will play itself out in due time. One thing to note, I was impressed with the crowd as they applauded Heckaman as he walked off the mound. That's solid support for your own player.

The offense for the Paints did keep the team in the game for some time until things just slowly halted. Third baseman Kyle Galbraith had a single. First baseman Cory Maguire had an RBI double and got another RBI off a sacrifice fly. Andy Brouse had two doubles. Kyle Gendron had a triple. Zach Frentsos came in as a pinch hitter and got a stolen base that was uncontested. Right fielder Eian Banks had a single, but there was this one occasion where Banks got hit right on his helmet by a pitch that zoomed right into him. Don't worry, though. Eian Banks was just fine.

To sum up the offense, we scored three runs, which is a good number to have in runs for baseball, but 3 never beats 9. Oh well, I guess manager Joe Maddon of the Tampa Bay Rays can use that for part of his humorous pep rallies via math equations. That also describes how I felt about this game. I was having a fun time. The atmosphere was good at the ballpark. Even though it may have been a bit too hot early in the game, it cooled down, and it became more satisfying. I enjoyed myself, just like I always have been since my first Paints game in late 2005.

I have to give a quick tip of the cap to North Coast Knights starting pitcher Michael Fahs for what I believe was a brilliant performance. It wasn't perfect, of course, but it was methodically well played. Fahs pitched 6 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, giving up 3 runs and 5 hits, but struck out a batter and, most importantly, kept his team in the game.

At the ballpark today, I managed to talk to a few Paints players for the first time this year. I talked to Blake Mascarello, Kyle Gendron, and Steven Mirizzi. Those guys were nice, as were the rest of the team. The new Paints are a bunch of nice guys who I think I can relate too at least a little bit because they're closer to my age. You won't have any problems talking to these guys. I encourage you to chat with them because they have great personalities. I just introduced myself to the three listed players, but I plan on talking to them some more and to the other guys. It comes easy for someone like me because I think they may like some of the things that I like.

The Paints will play the Knights once again for the second game of the two game set.