| rookies vs. upperclassmen game august 14, 2005 ass clown outdoor arena SOPHOMORES 24 ROOKIES 19 with neither team fielding the squad they were supposed to, the change seemed to affect the more experienced sophomore squad less, and as a result they were able to pull out a huge win after dropping one to the rooks one year ago. the soph team, captained by dank elly, was missing billy picciotto, aryn christman and brandon mckendry. in fact, so few sophs actually showed up for the contest, that big ando (who is actually in his rookie season) was added to the sophomore team based solely on his college year. greg lackey batted leadoff for the sophs, while katie kelly fell into the two-hole (which is a joke just waiting to happen). the rookie team, captained by erin hayden, was also playing without a few key elements. mike frankovich let his squad down with a no-show, as did jamie fabian. still, erin was joinned in the rookie lineup by 2-hitter terry hally, 3-hitter jeff knight, cleanup man terry shernisky and 5-hitter patrick nespor. in the early stages, the sophs found runs easy to come by. four straight hits gave them 3 runs before the sophs recored an out, a psyche-out by terry sherinsky in the second and third, the second-year squad tallied 4 and 5, respectively, each time being capped by a big ando 3-run homer. the rookies had a homerun bombed of their own in terry shernisky, and rode his big stick (sigh) to nine of their own over the first 3 frames, with terry draining 2-run jacks in each inning. after 3, the score stood at 12-9 in the favor of the sophomores, and the count remained virtually unchanged in the middle innings. the only soph run came when dank elly tipped in a glackey miss to plate himself, and the rooks got a solo shot from teryr to answer. both team had plenty in the tank for their final three at-bats, but unfortunately for the rookies they weren't able to overcome the balanced sophomore attack. shernisky's 5th and 6th homers of the game were countered by 16 hits in the last third of the game, only two of which were from beyond the double line. rook captain erin hayden made the final out of the contest, missing a single that would have drawn her team to within a grand slam of the sophs. ando earned game mvp honors with his 7 for 13, 2 homer, 8 rbi, 3 double play outing. elly added 7 hits and 5 rbi, katie kelly 8 hits and 4 rbi, and greg lackey 10 for 14 marksmanship. the rookies got 11 runs from shernisky's 6 longballs, as well as 2 double plays and an assist. jeff knight added 6 hits and 5 rbi, and patrick nespor a 5 for 9 showing. the sophomores also beat the rookies 26-5 in 2003, when the game was first played. due to an unusually low number of second year players in 2004, the game was changed to a rookie vs. upperclassman contest, which the rookies won 11-9. in the first ever-sbl rookie game, the american team (s. goodpastor, m. moroco, s. lynn, and k. corbett) topped the world squad (j. clayton, s. hazlett, l. nespor, k. burger) 8-4 in '02. BACK |