Meridians Baseball

With a berth in the NABF tournament, coach spent most of the time scrounging for players to help support the few committed that kept trudging along. Despite playing with 9, 9, 8 (and only 8) and 7 of their own players (picking up long-lost acquaintances to field a team today) in the four tournament games, we managed to compete and scare some of the other teams even with key players missing. My apologies to Cutter, Netherly, Parkhurst, Lewis and McClung for their commitments with special mention to Moore who had to call off a work engagement to keep us from forfeiting Saturday. Great performances on the mound from Cutter and McClung gutting out complete games with limited lineups behind them. Moore and Netherly sprung into action when called upon as well. Web gems to Netherly up the middle, McClung to the backstop from the mound, Koppenhafer's gun to the plate and a few squibbers to Lewis charging hard at second with buggy-whip throws along with the double-leather assist in short right field. Meridians surprise the Patriots by competing to the end with our 8-man lineup falling just 2 runs short and single-handedly costing the Stogies a shot at advancing by scoring 11 off their lefties. Our tourney MVP goes to Cutter with his complete game on a sore arm and showing off the bat by hitting tough pitching himself. Thanks again to those that showed and the subs that were called into action!

Great additions in Dizzy Peyton (NKU), Matt Netherly (Urbana) and Zach Cooke with spot starts from Frank Engoglia (both @ TMC). Jim Rack earns summer Silver Slugger honors with his full-time return to the team he helped start! We lose Casey Hall this year to Florida and his arm on the hill, but good news as we look forward to having Kevin McClung back locally full-time.

Behind Peyton's first CG of the year, the Meridians win (14-2) easily over the C&C Allstars in 5 innings (7/31). Web gem mirror replica from 2005 with Hall going into the hole at 2nd and shooting an ankle ball at Bush leaving him lying across the bag for the put out. 1st inning starts with a Rack triple and ends with a bases-loaded triple by Diz to help himself. Bush and Cutter each take 3 walks and score 3 times. Rack, Netherly and Fread each with 2 runs each. Meridians bat through the lineup in the 1st and 2nd innings.

Team takes the first innings of each game off offensively before deciding to start scoring the second time through the lineup against a new Arsenal team. McClung takes a no-hitter into the 5th and finishes with a CG 1-hitter. Rack gets the win in Game 2 with Cutter getting his work in for the Close. Soto again decides that a glove isn't needed on an infield backspinner. Every Meridian hits with McClung abusing the 3rd base line, Cooke punishing the ball all day, good wood from Rack and Cutter triples.

Best team lineup on paper so far this year against the scrappy Swingers. Peyton and Netherly provide late web gems with diving/sliding snags (along with an honorable mention on the pop-up recovery by McClung). Hall gets the CG win thanks to Cutter's walk-off hit in the bottom of the 7th. Netherly scores both the 1st and winning (8th) run. Meridians come from 4-0 and 5-2 deficits thanks to multi-hit days from Netherly, Bush, McClung, Parkhurst and Soto.