NIGHTMEN Go For SWEEP

BUT....

These COLORS Don't RUN

PRIDE Game Faces SouthSide HITMEN

December 12 , 2005 Indoor Action Dome, Bernardston, Mass.

Box Score

This time, SouthSiders do the early DAMAGE

The Domed confines in Bernadston , MA were aglow Monday evening. With frigid temperatures outside, veteran hardcore Domers and a spate of newcomers gathered for pre-game warm-ups and greetings before getting game 2 of this third Dome season underway. With a weeks respite behind them, Duses’ Southside Hitmen looked to get on track against cross town rival and defending League champs, the Chicago NightMen. The Nighters send veteran Rick “2-Tee” Flurent to the hill against journeyman Southsider Duse. The Southsiders jump on 2-Tee quickly in the top of the first, with Hector, X-Man and Duke opening the game with three straight singles. An error, John Graves single and some X-Man hustle result in three quick runs. Brit Baker of the NightMen, who threw out the speedy X-Man at the plate to snuff a potential rally in the last game, nails Supe at home with one out to put a damper on a potential big inning.
The NightMen then jump on Duse. With two outs and two runners having reached on errors, Baker settles in at the plate and watches a few offerings before picking one to his liking and redirecting it to the right-center field netting for a hit that plates two runs. Bakers single is initially ruled a home run by base ump Pres Pieraccini. This is hotly contested, but crew chief “Pesci” quickly restores order, ruling that it is not a homerun because the ball did not hit “the Wedge”. With Baker now at second following a walk to Terminator, Joe N(eye)gro singles to right. Baker is waved around, but is nailed at the plate for the final out of the inning. Score 3-2 Hitmen. Artie and Buck

Killer Inning

Over the next three frames the NightMen slowly pull away. They tally a lone run in the second on three singles and an error. But in the third the wheels come off. A lead-off walk (always a killer) two more miscues and some infield squibbers later three runs have crossed the plate to make it 6-3 Nighters. They apply the coup de grace to Duse in the fourth, an inning that….seems…..to……take…..forever…. to……..end. Ten men come to plate and produce four more runs to make the score 10-4.
That fourth Hitmen run comes in the third off 2-Tee, X-Man scoring his second of three runs for the game on Duke’s second hit of the game. In the fifth, with Terminator pitching for the Nighters, the Southsiders parlay a Duse lead-off walk and singles by X-Man and Supe into two runs. After stealing second, Duse gets hung up for a moment when X-Man’s drive to center falls in front of Nightman. Not sure if the ball is going to drop in or be caught, Duse hesitates. He then makes a try for third and goes in standing up just as the ball arrives. Third sacker Harchik is certain that Duse is out. Duse says he had the foot on the bag when the tag was made. Umpires Pres and Pesci say their view was blocked. They make the only call they can – safe. Duke then plates Duse when his grounder is mishandled, and X-Man scores on Supe’s second safety of the game, the score now 10-6.

SouthSiders Hoping for a change of LUCK!!

The last Hitmen run comes in the eighth off Al Harchik. With one out, Supe singles, steals second, moves to third on a ground out and then with John Graves batting, steals home. That would be the last gasp, the Southsiders going quietly in the nineth for a 10-7 final. Duke and Supe pitched two innings each for the Hitmen and kept their team in it by hurling shut out ball over the final four frames. Ice advice

Duke gave up a hit and a walk, striking out two while Supe yielded two singles and struck out one. At the bat, Hector went 2-3 with a walk and a run, and Steve Chapman had two hits with a walk. For the Nighters, newcomer Pete Miller reached base five times, scoring twice and stealing four bases, two of them of third. So the defending Dome Cup champs take a commanding two games to none lead on their Southside rivals in this inaugural series of 2005/06. With Hitmen attempting to save face, there should be plenty of “gunfire” on the fields of “gangland” come the 26th. See ya’ at the ballfield!

December 12 'Replacement Pictures'

Due to the photographers strike, Domeball management has used 'Replacement Pictures' for the Story

Recap of November 28 Game