Games 3 and 4 vs Metro Rebels and California Cardinals

Ho- Ho-kam Park in Goodyear, Arizona

Spring training Home of Cincinnati Reds

Site of games 3 and 4 of the tourney

We journey to Goodyear, Arizona to play the Metro Rebels and send out Steve Kunken to the mound to do battle. Steve is very bit the ace he has been reputed to be and we take a 14-1 lead after 6 after getting 8 straight hit in the first to jump out to 6-0 lead. Steve comes out as we need to save his arm for later games and relax a bit. The Rebels, from the DC area , however have all listened to Yogi and offer among themselves encouragement based on the old Yogisim of "it ain't over till it's over". We get to the 9th and they start to string together a few hits and a few more and it is 14-6. Charlie sitting next to me remarks " I don't like the feeling I am getting" as we witness Metro Rebel guys who previously looked way overmatched are suddenly banging out doubles and singles . It gets to 14-9 , still no out and two guys on and manger Ed Jusino revamps his defense and shouts Charlie put the stuff on and get out there and stop this. We don't think he literally mean for Charlie to restrict them from crossing the plate but he doesn't want this to go any further. We get a couple outs in between more hits and it is 14-11 and the tying run at the plate and two outs when Eddie calls me in from the pen to close it out. We all have had enough drama and three pitches later we wrap up a 14-11 win that has shaken our confidence a bit. We hung on but the damage has been done and little seeds of doubt have been planted that we hope will wither by the time we start our second game that day.

Game 4 vs California Cardinals

Seeds of doubt grow to Jack in the Beanstalk heights as my college teammate Bruce Butterfield starts but struggles as the Cardinals strike for three runs in the first. While the warmups were perfect and a source for optimism , the game pithces were a few inches off target got hit hard and the defense was on their heels.

We fail to strike back on offense and find ourselves on the losing end and now 2-2 in the tourney