The Start of a New Season

Chillicothe 8, Richmond 2

Now I may be a bit rusty when it comes to writing articles such as this one because I have been busy with other things during the offseason and there has been some new developments since I last reported news on this blog. I hope that for those who still want some baseball news from this blog will be reading this latest installment. It gives me such good pleasure to write these articles for your enjoyment.

Now without further a do, let's get this article up and running. Welcome to the 2010 baseball season for the Chillicothe Paints of the Prospect League. This will be the second year in the Prospect League for the Paints, and to recap what happened for last year, the Paints made it to the Prospect League Championship Series but only to lose to the eventual PL Champions, and a very classy and respected baseball organization as a whole, the Quincy Gems. However, everything went pretty smooth for baseball in Chillicothe in year one of the Prospect League. That leads one to wonder how well will the Paints do in year two of the Prospect League era.

June 3, 2010 marked the beginning of the second year and it didn't take long at all for the Paints to make some noise and to give their community something to cheer for. Opening Night at the friendly FieldTurf confines of V.A. Memorial Stadium was a blast to put it in a nutshell. Infielder Torsten Boss, a newcomer to Ross County, went deep on the very third pitch of the game (and I somehow kept track of that fact even though I'm not very good at catching those details), and Torsten's solo home run shot pretty much set the tone for the rest of the night, and that tone was definitely a positive tone.

Before I forget, I do have to note that the Chillicothe Paints organization, led by team owner Chris Hanners of course, have given V.A. Memorial Stadium some improvements such as a brand new roof for the stadium. For those of you who have been to the V.A., you probably know why we needed a new roof to be installed. The thing was that the old roof was starting to fall apart for the diehard Paints fans. The old roof has been leaking water for some time now whenever there has been heavy rainfall, and take it from me, who has been sitting near the most direct spot of the leaking, I believe a new roof was definitely needed. The old roof didn't make it feel like Niagra Falls, but sometimes outsiders could have gotten that impression. I love the new roof. It's very sturdy and strong. It's just what the doctor ordered. Oh wait...

As for the game itself, the tone had been set already within the first three pitches, and the hometown team didn't look back after that first solo home run shot. Infielder Ian Nielson had a single for the night. Infielder Jeff Holm had a single and a stolen base. Outfielder Anthony Wieber and an infield RBI single. Catcher Payton Bieker had a great game. He hustled his way to third base for an RBI triple and he would also get an infield single. Returning outfielder Brandon White had an RBI single. The largest amount of what I guess I would like to call "Bat Thunder" would be made from shortstop Ryan McMillan. In the bottom of the sixth inning, McMillin would hit a well hit ball over to the scoreboard in left center field, clearing the official yellow line for a 3-run home run, and it was this home run shot that further separated the Paints from their opponents the Richmond Riverrats and cemented the victory for the Paints.

Of course, while you do need runs from your offense to get you the win, you also need a solid contribution from the guy who's on the bump pitching for you, and for the Chillicothe Paints on Opening Night, they got a solid contribution from the youngster from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Matt Barnes. Barnes, who is also a newcomer to Ross County, pitched a dandy of a game to start his Paints stint. He went six innings deep in his start and he would only give up one run while also giving up just three hits and three walks. Barnes had four impressive looking strikeouts in this first start.

Returning pitcher Blake Mascarello pitched two innings of relief and he would give up just one run off of four hits. He struck out a batter and he did a good job of basically holding down the opposing offense, and that's all you could ask from a relief pitcher in a situation like this. The game is well in hand, so there are no worries. If only I had that one word from the movie The Lion King to help me describe the feel of this game. I believe the character Timone said something that meant "there ain't no worries for the rest of your days."

Kyle Lindquist came in for the ninth inning and shut the Riverrats down, making quick work of the Richmond bats and sending the Paints fans home happy. I have to say that I was more than impressed with the results of this first game, and note that I said "results" and not "result." We got a good win, but I'm looking at what our players did to get us that first win. They played very well in this game and hopefully this game will help set the tone for what is to come for the rest of the Prospect League season.