| rookies vs. upperclassmen game august 15, 2004 ass clown outdoor arena UPPERCLASSMEN 9 ROOKIES 11 the upperclassmen squad, perhaps intimidated by a strong cast of rookies heading into the game, failed to register a hit until 2 outs in the third inning, and by the time they crossed the plate for the first time, were already in a 6-run hole. because no rookie was able to crack the all-star roster, a first in sbl history, the frosh team was unusually strong for the contest. also as a result of the lack of rookie representation in the main event, the upperclassmen had no real superstar to lean on for this big showdown, setting the stage for an epic battle between up-an-coming youth and old-school experience. in the early stages of the game, the rookie d dominated the contest as dank elly and brandon mckendry tapped in double plays in the first 2 innings to prevent any type of rally. offensively, the rooks were able to find baserunners, but the veteran's relied on psyche outs from teddy ballgame and lenny crist to keep the score tied at 0 until mckendry's solo homer broke the game open in the 4th. xdx's billy picciotto and the sj2b's ben smith each reached base, allowing b.mac to drive them in with his second homer of the inning for a 4-0 lead. after another scoreless inning for the upperclassmen in the top of the fifth, mckendry nailed naother homer, this tiome of the two-run variety, and the rookies had their 6-run lead before a jason biddle double play ended the bleeding. needing a spark, the upperclassman team was called into the garage for a very important mid-game pow-wow with all of the sbl's upperclassmen roster. the pow-wow involved yelling and collar-grabbing, and quite a bit of swearing. motivated by the screaming, the upperclassman emerged from the confines of mrs. schliep's garage and rattled off 5 consecutive hits and 6 run in the innings to tie the game up. danielle hennon tallied three hits in the inning and jason biddle and lenny crist each collected a pair of base-knocks. the rookies, not about to drop the ball just yet, got 5 runs the very next inning thanks in large part to the deadly outside shooting of billy picciotto, who nailed two longballs and drove in 3 in the frame. seth salcedo, coming off the bench, hit his second homer of the game to cap the rook scoring at 9. the vets responded with a pair of scores in the bottom of the ninth to make a small run at the lead, but billy picciotto's double play of hennon ended the game and gave to rookies their first win in the annual challenge. hennon hit 5 of 6 for the losing upperclassman squad, while jamie moroco and lenny cristy each drove in 3. jason biddle provided life off the bench with a 4 for 7, 2 rbi line. mckendry garnered rookie/upperclassman game mvp honore with his 4 for 9, 3 homer, 7 rbi, 2 double play line. salcedo and picciotto each buried 2 homers for the remainder of the rookie runs. BACK |