Meridians Baseball

Meridians survive two no-shows and a call-off to still easily handle their Semi-Final, which was a rematch of last year's NKABL Final.   Ludlow puts their best foot forward right away in the first - plating three, but that would be about it as Mears quiets their bats the rest of the way.   Meanwhile, the Meridians only answer with 1 in the bottom half with a loud double (triple if it didn't bounce out) by Jaspers, tagging on Mears' ball and scoring on a wild pitch.   That was just the kick-start though as we plate 4 in the 2nd and 5 in the 3rd.   The production takes the 4th inning off, but we wrap it up in the 5th - scoring 4 to walk-off with the 10-run rule.  Final: 14-4

Mears with 9 K's in the 5 innings, helping himself with 2 hits, RBI, R while every Meridian contributes:  multi-hits days for Rutherford (2B), Scheffel, Bolia (2B), Biscotti and Soto - Runs from Jaspers (2), Reese, Scheffel (2), Bolia (2), Biscotti and Soto (definitely missing some here with our book in dry-erase format...) - RBI from Jaspers, Rutherford (2), Muench, Bolia, Biscotti (2) and Soto (2, including the walk-off knock).

We add another game for the final day of the NKABL regular season to help fill the gap left by a team dropping out of the league, but the team we pick up can't play so we see a double dip with the Ludlow Trojans.

We send Reese and Mears at 'em like we have all summer long and while they both take their lumps in their respective 1st innings in particular, each earn their Wins in the Sunday sweep.   Mears gets Game 1 (Final: 11-7), striking out the side in the 2nd after a long first inning (12 K's total) and by extending the definition of Major League rule 10.03 (e) (2) - we give Reese the Win (6 K's) and Kraus the Save in Game 2 (14-14 tie in between the top and bottom half of the 9th when they forfeit).

2 very long games also give us a lot of offense:

Couture - 5 runs on the afternoon, 3 walks in Game 2...  Clim - on base all 4 times in Game 1, 3 hits-4 runs-2 RBI overall...  Mears - 5 hits, 3 2B's, 3 runs, 3 RBI...  Reese - 3 hits, 2B, 4 RBI...  Humpert - on base all 3 times in Game 1, 3 runs total...  Herby - on base all 6 times in Game 2!, 2B and 6 runs overall...  Scheffel - 2 runs, 2B...  RBI by Kraus (3), Rutherford, Soto, Lee and Biscotti as well.

Web gem to Hump who dives & snares a shot down the 3rd base line and cuts down the runner at home.

Back to the NKABL after a week away, but unfortunately back to Covington #5 for hopefully the last time this year.   For some reason, some Good Samararitans actually drug the infield dirt - they must have also been environmentalists as well as they allowed the wild grassland and mini-sess pool to remain across the diamond...

Mears back at it, earning the Win with 7 K's including the Owls' side in the 3rd, switching places with Reese at SS for the 7th.   TryHard helped himself with 2 hits and Olympic-record 15th 3-bagger on the season to clear the bases.   Clim knocks in Soto (1-1, 2 BBs) with a Sac fly and Soto adds insurance in the 6th, plating two more.   Muench with 2 hits (2B) and Jaspers makes his Meridians debut, scoring our final run of the night.  Final: 6-3

The merged Meridians meet up Saturday afternoon for a tournament tune-up for the Cincinnati Cobalts.   Getting the call a few hours before game time that Sunday's NKABL game is off, this turns out to be our only weekend action.   We get a few call-offs, one attempted, but some 11th hour additions (thanks to Bolia and Shayeson for running out last minute to give us a true infield) provide a full squad for the afternoon match-up.

Mears starts off right away with his world-leading 14th triple of the season to straight-away center, scoring on Herby's ball to the right side.   Kraus later booms a double to right to score two more while Parkhurst adds 2 RBI himself, but it's a barnburner as we only score one touchdown to their two.   Mears hogs the ball on the bump with 8 K's in his 7 innings, getting stonger as he went longer.

Thanks to Dietz & the Cobalts for the game, covering umpires and game balls & Spriggs for providing UC-Clermont recruit, Humpert behind the dish all afternoon.

Now down to single, weekend games - the Meridians consolidate their roster while at the same time starting to welcome some new, full-time additions.   We also turn the mound over to the college kids until otherwise needed and they did more than their jobs Sunday afternoon.

Mears handles the first 5 innings (7 K's) giving way to Bolia for the final 2 (3 K's) and the combined shutout of the NKy Owls.   They also provide the loudest offense with Mears tripling (yet again) off the fence in right in the 3rd to score Scheffel.   Mears also singles and scores in the 5th while Bolia booms an RBI double to left in the 4th after making a great range play up the middle while still at SS.   Mears then takes over at Short and does the job there as well while Bolia adds another RBI by launching a ball into the sun in left.

Mears: 2 for 3 (3B, RBI, run), Bolia: 2 for 3 (2B, 2 RBI), Rutherford: 1 for 2 (2R) and Clim: RBI 2B - Final:  4-0