Come Back Win Against Sting Seals Play-off Bid

A hot hitting, never say die MBC team came back from a 10-3 deficit to beat the Sting and clinch a play-off bid.

It did not look good early for the MBC bunch. After taking an early 2-1 lead, MBC spotted the Sting seven runs in an ugly second inning. MBC came back with one run of their own, but allowed the Sting to add two to the score before MBC got busy and decided to come back.

In the sixth inning Adam Hinthorne started the ball rolling with one of his three hits on the night. The bases were then loaded on single by David Becker, and a walk to Ethan Clements. Adam scored as the Sting botched a double play ball, cheating at second (and being caught this time!) and throwing too late to first. Nick Salle then followed with a run producing single, Spencer Hogger walked with the bases still loaded, and Tino Peleti ended our scoring for the inning with a sacrifice fly. When the dust had settled, MBC was now down just three runs.

In the seventh, Quinn Burcham led off with a scalding single up the middle. After two quick outs things looked grim for MBC, but the Sting walked David and Ethan loading the bases again. Mitchell Smith came through with an RBI single, and Nick Salle came up with runners on second and third. Nick slashed a single to left and a scampering fleet footed Alex Mitchell never stopped running from second to tie the game.

In the seventh, Tino led off by being plunked and moved to second on Stuart Fairchild's single. Quin moved Tino to third as the Sting tried unsuccessfully to turn a double play bringing Adam Hinthorne to the plate with runners on the corners. Adam wasted no time slashing a single to right to score the go ahead run.

As MBC mounted this stunning comeback the Sting hitters were kept at bay with a surprisingly effective array of little used pitchers. Cather/Pitcher extraordinaire Mitchell Smith had put our the fire in the second and got MBC through the fourth inning. He was followed by our new middle reliever David Becker who blanked the Sting in the fifth.

The greatest surprise was Adam "Wee Man" Hinthorne taking over the game with a scoreless, one hit, three inning outing that covered the crucial sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Adam stared down a pretty good swinging Sting batting order as we tied and took over control of the game.

And he did it all in front of his shocked and bewildered Varsity pitching coach from Lakeside who had come out to watch him catch. We are all familiar with this coach, and have suspected his ability to judge pitching talent for years. In fact, his inability to notice true pitching talent when he sees it (ala Mitchell Smith just last year) is one of the many reasons for his off season firing from this team.