July 1, 2015 at 1:28 p.m.
Snowhawks get hard-fought win over Smileys 15-12
Move to 2-0 on the season ahead of showdown with Chicago All-Stars
Snowhawks get hard-fought win over Smileys 15-12
The game was a battle to the finish and ended with the Snowhawks taking the victory, 15-12 at Snowshoe Park.
Snowhawks playing manager Jeff Smith said the game played out as expected, with a close finish. He said his team knew coming in it was facing a tough opponent.
"That was a good one. We kind of expected that. They have some good players on that team and we expected to win but it was kind of what we expected, it was close," Smith said.
The Snowhawks sent Craig Holmquist to the mound to pitch and the defense behind him started out with a bang, facing the minimum in the inning, while turning a double play.
Smith and Derek Young singled to lead off the bottom of the first inning for the Snowhawks.
Todd Niemuth was the next batter up and sent a pitch flying to left field for a double to drive in Smith.
Young and Niemuth also came around to score on singles from Cole Punches and Jack Dunbar, giving the Snowhawks a 3-0 lead after the first inning.
Smileys got one run back in the second inning when John Ottoson scored on a single from Terry Zienert and another run in the third inning when Eric Bieszk scored on a sacrifice fly by Jeff Brock.
The Snowhawks extended their lead in the bottom of the third inning, bringing the five-run rule into play.
Young, Punches, Dunbar, Donnie Moore and Gunnar Dunbar all came around to score for the Snowhawks to give the team an 8-2 lead.
The bats came alive for Smileys to start the fourth inning, invoking the five-run rule for the second time in the ball game. Smileys scored five runs on eight hits before the Snowhawks came back to bat.
The two teams traded runs in the next two at-bats before the Snowhawks plated five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning making it a 14-8 ball game with the Snowhawks holding onto the lead.
The sixth inning started off like any other inning. Terry Zienert stepped up to the plate, saw his pitch and swung for the fences. To his surprise, what Holmquist threw him wasn't a softball, rather a musk melon which exploded on impact covering Zienert in fresh fruit. The side was quickly retired.
Smileys held the Snowhawks to only one more run for the remainder of the game, but the team was unable to generate enough offense to come out with the win, despite a pair of runs in the seventh and two more in the eighth.
Smith said a crucial catch by Punches in left field, to put Smileys away when they had the bases loaded in the eighth inning was the deciding factor in the game.
"We had a couple big outs there," Smith said. "Cole Punches with a big catch out in left field, otherwise if that was a line drive in the gap, they might have scored some runs and we'd probably still be playing."
The Snowhawks now have two wins and no losses for the season, but Smith said he thinks the team still needs to work on some things.
"Better throwing. We had some throwing errors (and) we don't usually do that," he said. "We had good throws from the outfield now but we had some throws in (the infield) that were hurried and not on the mark."
The team will continue to work on the finer details and Smith thinks they will be just fine, looking ahead to the rest of the season.
The team will need to be prepared for a challenging weekend when they take on a hard-hitting Chicago All-Stars team twice, once on Saturday after the Fourth of July celebrations in town and again on Monday night.
The Snowhawks and the fans got a small dose of the challenge to be faced this weekend during Monday night's game. Chicago All-Star heavy hitter David Maze played with the Smileys team and, to put it lightly, he was a thorn in the Snowhawks side. Maze hit a triple, scored twice and made a few spectacular plays in left field.
Smith said he is certain it will be a great matchup for those two games against the Chicago All-Stars, but thinks his team may have a slight upper hand.
"They're not that bad on their snowshoes either. They have been playing a few years too, so we're kind of evenly matched," Smith explained. "We might be a little quicker but still they have some good players that run fast, too. (We saw today) how Dave (Maze) can run on them, he's got a couple guys on his team that are just as fast. They're good ball players, good hitters."
The Snowhawks will host the All-Stars Saturday night and Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk.
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