Cal Lowell May 6 Recap

Today, the Scots hosted the Lowell Red Arrows in the first game of the biggest series of the season, with the winner of the series taking control of the OK White heading into the final week. The first game of the series is always important, the 1-0 series lead is always huge, but today was probably the most anticipated game of the year to date. Caleb Sleeman, the ace of the Scots, and Jared Melle, the top hurler for Lowell were set to face off. For everyone in attendance today, they got to watch the top 2 pitchers in the OK White face off against each other, and wow neither disappointed. No bullpen was necessary today as Melle went a complete 6 and Sleeman went a complete 7 on 79 pitches. The pitchers duel meant that runs were going to be tough to come by and whoever could claw them out would come out on top. Logan Hudson drove in both runs for the Scots on a triple and a single, and those 2 runs were all Sleeman would need. Sleeman went the distance, striking out 9 and only allowing 4 hits. Zero Lowell runners would cross the plate, as the complete game shutout gave the Scots a 2-0 win. Lowell had their fair share of opportunities with runners in scoring position twice, but the Scots got the outs when they needed them and that was the pivotal reason for winning. One huge play was early in the game when the Red Arrows had runners on the corners and two outs. As the first base runner dashed toward second, catcher Chris Clark fired one to second and Trent Foreman cut it off and fired it back to Clark who tagged the runner and got a huge third out to keep the game scoreless. Going into this series, every player and coach knew that there was going to be an emphasis on pitching, defense and timely hitting and the pitching today on both sides was superb. Fortunately for the Scots, the timely hitting came at the bat of Logan Hudson and with 2 runs, the Scots are now tied with Lowell for first in the OK White. These two teams will meet again at 4:30 tomorrow in Caledonia, before concluding the series at Lowell Friday night. Come out and watch two of the top teams in West Michigan duel it out for two more competitive ball games.

Game Thoughts:

1) Due to Sleeman's love of rap music (and his ability to rap songs that nobody ever saw coming), todays performance can be summed up in one of the 90's most memorable rap songs, MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This". Sleeman was pitching out of his mind today and I am sure he knows all of the lyrics to this one too.
2) Huge crowd today, shoutout to everyone that came out and supported. I love seeing the usual fans, but all the new faces today were great. As my boy John Nise said in football, "More Fans, More Touchdowns"..well it almost applies. Either way, love the support and keep on bringing new faces to the games.
3) That honestly may have been the quickest 7 inning baseball game I have ever seen. It ended in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Compared to that 4 hour marathon against EGR, I will take this any day of the week.
4) The dugout was rocking today, and I think the fan energy was at a fever pitch level. It honestly felt like a playoff game with all of the at bats being so crucial and having everyone in the park being so engaged in the ball game.
5) I know that there is a lot of baseball to be played still, but honestly this is exactly how I wanted my final baseball year to go so far (Sorry for the shocking announcement, I will accept farewell gifts on my final road trips to stadiums, so Lowell better have something Friday..) Hopefully, we keep playing important ball games all throughout the year, because the huge games are so much fun to be a part of.