Orioles forfeit

It was a hot and hazy, lazy Sunday in the late afternoon when the 4-0 visiting Sand Crabs squared off against the 0-4 Orioles in a Father’s Day party at the parched patch known as EMLL Stadium.  A capacity crowd of families and friends came out for a fantastic feel-good fiesta.  On the bump for the Crabs was Randy Gaber, and for the Orange Birds, Steve Waugh.

Gaber went 5, Waugh went 4, relieved by Mike Wallace for 4 and Phil James for 5, respectively. The Orioles were held to 7 hits, the Crabs held to 13, but the Crustaceans reached base on 10 miscues by the Birds, while the O’s were only able to take advantage of 3 gaffs by the Crabs.

Rookie phenom Tom Scalissi led the Crabs at the dish with a 3 for 4 performance, including a 3 run ding-dong to left, and a 2 run ground rule double to center. Chris McGill, Steve Hill, Gaber, and Mike Kauffman had a couple hits each.  Kauffman showed his WTP while trying to wrestle the offensive SPOG from Scalissi, but the slight breeze in from RF said nay, nay.  The defensive SPOG went to pitchers Gaber and Wallace for keeping quiet the potent avian lineup.

For the Orioles, SS Gabe Park collected 3 hits and a stolen base.

The Crabs went straight home, except for those who didn’t.  Both teams are back in action next Sunday, when the Orioles face the Crawfords at noon, and the Crabs battle the 4-1 Rangers at 3 PM.  Its sure to be a great day of baseball at EMLL.  Come on out, tickets are still available at Ticketmaster, StubHub, and Goodwill.  Next week is Kurt Bevacqua bobblehead day.  Each fan in attendance who brings a Kurt Bevacqua bobblehead will be given free admission.

The Rangers jumped out to an early lead and held on to defeat the Crawfords 9-7.  Jeff Kunkle pitched 6 clean innings and Jason Witt picked up the save with 2 innings of relief and 4 strikeouts.

Lou Rodriguez had 4 hits and Sean Finnell had two 2 hits including a home run with 3 rbis.