BOMBERS HIT LATE TO WIN LATE

BOMBERS HIT LATE TO WIN LATE

By Tom Pydeski

The Bombers won their fourth game in a row today beating The Iceman 16-15 in a thrilling come from behind victory. The game looked to be a slugfest in the first inning when the Iceman scored 5 and the Bombers roared back with 13. The Bombers batted around in the first inning, which is even more of a feat when you consider they had batted 14 players! The lineup featured almost the entire Bombers team, missing only Jeff Schneider (actually nobody really missed him).

Leading the charge for the Bombers was Chris "Mad-Dog" Ruggiero who made his first appearance after coming off of the D.L.. Ruggiero, who had not swung a bat since August 20 of last year, showed no signs of cobwebs as he went 3 for 3 with 5 Runs batted in, including a Grand Slam and the game winning hit in the bottom of the seventh.

The first inning also featured Back to back home runs by Jonathan Kennen and Roy "I may be the oldest on the team, but I can still bring it" Horowitz. Mad-Dog's aforementioned Grand Slam also occurred in the first, and coach Craig "Scooter" Ross actually went 2 for 2 in the run-happy 1st with a double and a triple.

With a 13-5 lead after one inning, it appeared that this game might have a final score in the triple digits. This was not the case, however, as after the first inning, neither team could muster any runs until the Iceman put up a 4 spot in the top of the 5th inning to close the gap to 13-9.

The top of the 6th inning saw The Iceman score 6 runs on some miscues by the Bomber defense. The highlight for the Iceman was a Grand Slam by Andy (Last name Unk), who has been a perpetual foil for the Bombers. This gave the Iceman a 15-13 lead after 6 1/2, but the Bombers answered with 2 runs in the bottom of the frame on the strength of a two run homer off the bat of Chris Illuminati to knot the score at 15 all.

Carole Tucker, who pitched much better than the score would indicate, retired the Iceman 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th inning. This set the stage for the last inning heroics, as predicted at the beginning of the 7th inning by this writer. John (don't remember his last name), in his first game for the Bombers, led off with his first hit, a bloop single to center. Ron Kaplan followed with a single on the right field line (where else?). Chris "Mad-Dog" Ruggiero then delivered a game winning double to deep right field, scoring John with the winning run and completing a come-back that should not have been as close as it was. What seemed to be a blowout in the offing after the first inning became a nail-biter in the end.