Meridians Baseball

Sub Mark Hebbeler from the Roy Hobbs' Cubs and CRC Devil Dogs drives in our first two runs in the 1st inning and the final one in the bottom of the 7th to break a 5-5 tie with the Chiefs. Meridians fight from 2-0 and 5-2 down for the win! Cutter returns from vacation & injury to relieve Rack with Bush making his 2006 mound debut earning the win with 2 solid innings of his own. Cutter, Hebbeler with multiple hits and Soto scored twice including the winning run.

Strong pitching from Meridians' newcomers Dizzy Peyton (NKU) and Frank Engoglia (Thomas More) along with veterans Rack and Kamm hold the Cincinnati Storm offense to a light breeze, but Meridians' bats don't do any better with only two runs of their own to win Game one 2-1, but nothing to contest their 1 run in Game two. Meridians only field nine for the double dip, with 2 pitchers hitting for the first time since 2005. Soto continues his hot hitting from the morning's Roy Hobbs game (3-3, HR, Sac fly, 5 RBI) with a single and double in Game one. In his first games back this year, Bush finally finds his stroke after swearing off the game after his first few at-bats. Fread continues to erase runners off the basepaths and be a rock behind the dish.

Starting off like last year with a pitching duel to start the season and a split DH. Hall threw 6 strong for the win (3-2) and Lewis threw maybe 5 pitches for the save (5/28). Clutch hitting from McClung, Fread and Cutter to get us the lead in the 6th. We got through their strong arms in the first game, but we gave away the second despite strong pitching from Cutter and McClung and key hits from Moore. Rack makes his way back to the Meridians & hit the ball hard all day with Fread gunning down a few runners.

3rd Annual Crawfish Boil at Allyn's Cafe began with 4 veterans bellying up for all-you-can-eat crawfish 5/9. Without Percy's direct help, we re-learned the technical process (Cutter did too, eventually) of getting to those little suckers. Everyone came away with injuries, but nothing that should prevent us from hitting the playing field. Rack made it out and ordered one of everything, Cutter had a fine showing with 4 plates, Bush pushed it to 5 and Soto may have the juiced baseball era record of 6 plates!

2006 was our team’s 5th full year in the Cincinnati Recreation Commission’s (CRC) Men’s "Major Division" (18+). The core of our initial lineup formed from 3 other teams in the league as we saw the chance to improve our collective competitiveness.

We are in the upper tier of our league with a 70-44-1 overall record earning a #3 seed in the 2006 CRC City Tournament on the heels of a 7-game win streak and with our best AABC (American Amateur Baseball Congress) tournament showing in 2004 by knocking off both a perennial nationally ranked rival (Cheviot Patriots) and the 2004 NABF champions (Montgomery Inn).