11-8 Win Pushes Rez Life to .500

Resurrection Life utilized a good crop of substitutes to gain an 11-8 victory over Immanuel to even its season record at 2-2. The Warriors were missing five regular players and were forced to get three substitutes to make sure they had 10 players. Thankfully, the substitutes paid off in a big way, earning a conglomerate Player of the Game by producing more than half of the offensive production and playing very solid defense.

Rez Life started off well and it looked like it was going to be a blowout, but the bats quickly died down and completely vanished in the late innings as Immanuel erased an early 8-0 deficit to bring the winning run up to plate in the last inning before ending the game on a flyout.

The Warrior bats got on the board in the first inning after Austin Colby singled but was forced out on a Jamy Antoine groundout. With one out, Eric Johnson singled to move Jamy to second and Jeff Johnson followed with a fielder's choice that forced Eric at second but moved Jamy to third. With two outs Jon Engbrecht singled to score Jamy but Jeff was caught leaning around second a little too much and was picked off the base. That was the first of three base-running miscues by the Warrior runners in the game.

In the bottom of the first, the Rez Life defense turned its 6th doubleplay of the year as sub AJ Larson fed Eric at second who turned the doubleplay nicely.

Leading 1-0, Rez padded that lead with five runs in the top of the second. With one out, Jordan Schumack - fresh off his college graduation - walked and jogged home as another sub, Jeff Tenney, launched a two-run homer. Chris Wold, the final sub, singled and moved to second on AJ's single. With two on, Austin singled to score Chris and Jamy walked to load the bases. Eric lofted a flyball to score AJ and Jeff Johnson singled to plate Austin for the fifth run of the inning.

The defense held strong again in the second and Immanuel was shutout. The Warriors took a 6-0 advantage into the third inning. The team managed more one-out offense in the third as Jordan singled and watched Jeff Tenney destroy his second two-run homer of the game to dead center. Those two runs pushed Rez Life's lead to 8-0.

Immanuel didn't score in its half and Rez had a chance to put the game away for good, but faltered in the fourth, scoring no runs on one hit.

Immanuel took advantage of the little window and scored two runs in the bottom half on three hits. It would have been more but after consecutive singles started the inning, Eric made a dynamite defensive play at second for the first out which prevented a potentially huge inning.

Leading 8-2, Rez added one run in the top of the fifth, using singles from Jon, Tenney, and Chris. The Warriors had their second base-running blunder in the inning that prevented Austin from batting with the bases loaded in the inning. Thankfully, it didn't end up hurting the team.

Immanuel refused to go away, chipping away some more by adding two runs of its own in the bottom half. Three singles and a walk made it 9-4 Rez after five innings.

In the sixth inning, the Warriors were held scoreless as another base-running mistake caused an out instead of having runners at first and second with no outs. Live and learn, right team?

Immanuel added another run to make it 9-5 going into the final frame. Thankfully the Rez Life defense was strong, allowing only the one run while stranding two runners.

Rez Life was able to push two insurance runs across in the top of the seventh on four singles but stranded two more runners. Jon ripped his third single of the game to lead off the inning. With one out, Jordan singled for his second hit which put runners at first and second for Tenney's hot stick. Tenney delivered driving one off the wall in center, scoring Jon. Chris followed with an RBI-single to score Jordan and make it 11-5. A force-out brought Austin up with two on and two outs, but he hit a lazy flyball to left-center to end the inning.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the seventh. Immanuel started the inning with a single, double, RBI-single, and an RBI-groundout to make it 11-7 with a runner on first and one out. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases with one out and a sacrifice fly made it 11-8 with runners on first and second and two outs. A single loaded the bases again and brought the winning run up to bat with two outs. Thankfully, a routine flyball to left ended the game.

The team managed 20 hits on the night but the subs went a combined 8-11 with four runs scored and seven RBI to earn the collective Player of the Game. Austin and Jon each added three hits.

The Warriors now play Wooddale who they handled easily last season. However, Wooddale has a revamped lineup and should be a much tougher opponent. The game is at 7:50 on field 2. I predict a 20-run game and a victory for the Warriors. Also, look for at least one homerun from Austin, but don't rule out two. Rumor has it, Jason Merritt has promised a homerun also. Everyone will have to show up to see what happens.