Reading Bulldogs

After a rain out of Saturday’s game vs the Andre Chiefs, the Reading Bulldogs were host to the Melrose Americans on Sunday night. With great pitching and timely hitting the Bulldogs won the matchup 3-2, recording their 2nd win in a row.

On the hill for Reading was pitcher Colby Morris who was out there dealing all night. Pounding the zone with his fastball and mixing it up with his off-speed pitch in any count, Morris went 6 strong innings allowing only 4 hits and 2 runs, one of which was unearned. Throughout 6 frames Morris also tallied up 6 strikeouts while only surrendering 1 walk.

The Bulldogs offense cooled down a bit since last week’s 14 run outburst, but last night were able to come through in key spots and manufacture runs with stolen bases and situational hitting. It started in the 3rd inning when Johnny Hayes, Rosario Missiti, and Darren Hartwell all singled to load the bases. Then with two outs, Ryan Wolfsberg came up clutch with a two RBI single down the left field line to give Reading a 2-0 lead.

After Melrose fought back to tie the game in the 4th, Reading used their speed and aggressiveness to take back the lead. Having pinch hitter Nick Berno lead off the bottom of the 5th inning, he roped a single to center field to get it going. After Berno stole both second and third base still with no outs, catcher Chris Bosco came up big with a sacrifice fly to right field, allowing Berno to score the go ahead run making it 3-2 Reading.

Morris put up another 0 on the boards in the 6th and was then relieved of his duties in the 7th by closer Max Mardeny who shut the door on Melrose. Colby Morris was the winning pitcher, while Max Mardeny chalked up another save out of the bullpen. The losing pitcher for Melrose was Autilio.

The Reading Bulldogs will travel to again play the Melrose American’s on Monday night looking to win three in a row.

All photos can be found at: http://shartwell.zenfolio.com/bulldogs17