Eden Prairie’s big fifth stopped Post 334 in Firecracker opener
Despite a very strong showing by right-hander Joe Brinda, Post 334 lost the opening game of the annual Rapid City Post 22-sponsored Firecracker tournament 6-1 to Eden Prairie early Tuesday morning.
Brinda was locked up in a pitchers’ duel with his Eden Prairie counterpart through the first four innings. Post 334 had scored a run in the first thanks to Jeremy Oakley’s two-out RBI single and Eden Prairie came back to tie the game with a two-out run in the third. In the fifth, however, Brinda gave up a lead-off single then a bunt single. A sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third, but Brinda got the next batter to bounce back to him for an easy second out of the inning.
Eden Prairie’s vaunted catcher and hitter, Matt Halloran, who had the RBI-single earlier in the game for his team, was intentionally walked to load the bases. It seemed, for a moment, to be a move that worked when the the next Eden Prairie batter lofted a soft fly into right center field.
But it was not caught. Instead, it found a seam and fell in for a two-run double. Another two-run double of more legitimate fashion followed and the 1-1 game was transformed into a 5-1 Eden Paririe lead. Eden Prairie added a single run in the sixth, while Post 334, which had just five hits in the game, bowed out quietly in the last of the seventh.
Posted: June 29th, 2010