A lazy night at home

Slippery Rock 10, Chillicothe 1

The majority of this game just wasn't good at all.

That's not all I have to say about this game, but whether you were at the ballpark or if you were listening to the game on the radio, you could tell that this was going to be a long, long night for the home team as it turned out. The Chillicothe Paints weren't on their A-game here, and they were having some problems trying to get the right plays made on defense. This isn't what I would call a well managed game by the players, but after all, you do have to realize that these things are just going to happen, and you have to expect long days or nights in a summer college wooden bat league like this one.

Give credit to where credit is surely due. Let's take a moment to congratulate a player from the other team. Pitcher Andy Young pitched a wonderful game for the visiting Slippery Rock Sliders. He kept the Paints in check for most of the ballgame. He got into the ballgame only after the original starting pitcher, Corey Mazzoni, couldn't get back out to pitch the second inning for the Sliders due to an injury.

For Andy Young, from the second inning to the eighth inning, he did exactly what he had to do when he had a big lead being his cushion. He went 7 innings deep in his outing, and he would give up only 6 hits and a pair of walks, striking out four Paints batters. The most important part is that he didn't give up a single run.

On the flip side, the Paints were just hurting from the off balanced defense. This wasn't a good night to be in a white home jersey as the Paints commited three errors on defense for the game. Errors are never a good sign, no matter how many of them you commit. Having three errors on the scoreboard would be big trouble for the Paints as those errors played a part in getting the Sliders some of the ten runs that they would score.

For the offense, Ben Allen had a single. Andy Brouse was the only batter for the Paints to drive in a run, getting an RBI double in the first inning to give the Paints a very brief 1-0 lead in the ballgame, but that was all the offense that the Paints could muster, unfortunately. Zach Frentsos came off the bench to replace Eian Banks, and Frentsos had a base hit. DH Brandon White had a bunt single. Kris McDonough had a single. Tim Krofcheck legged out a bunt single. Overall, the Paints would get in 8 hits for this game, but the total number of runs are the key thing, and the Paints didn't have nearly the same amount of runs as the Sliders.

Blake Mascarello had it rough for this night. At the beginning of his start, it looked as though he would be in business, but from the third inning on, he would have a tremendous amount of problems, and it turned out that it wasn't meant to be for this game. For the record, Mascarello would go 3 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, and he would give up 6 runs while also giving up 7 hits and a walk. He would record 6 K's, as that was the only bright spot in his start. The going was too tough here, and it's understandable. You're going to have games like these, it's just that you don't know when and where these off games are going to happen for you. When it happens, it will happen, but players will pick themselves up after the bad games are done with. That's pretty much the cycle, and kind of like the anatomy, of a baseball season.

Eric Heckaman would pitch 4 and 1/3 innings of relief once Mascarello was taken out of the game, and Eric would give up a trio of runs himself, giving up four hits and two walks in the process. He would strike out a pair of batters. Brad Schnitzer would also get into the game and he would pitch for an inning, even though the damage was already done at this point in the game.

Now let's get to more positive news concerning the Paints organization. Mainstay shortstop Travis Garcia has been signed by the Seattle Mariners organization and he has reported to their Double-A team, the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx, located in Jackson, Tennessee. Travis Garcia is finally getting his second chance at affiliated ball, and he's once again on track to chase his dream of being in the big leagues. I am personally extremely happy for Travis, as you know him and I go a ways back. I wish Travis well, and Travis, if you are reading this, I have a good article planned for you, I promise. I just don't know when yet.