Warriors Open Second Half with Dominating Win

The Resurrection Life Warriors opened the second half of the season in fine fashion cruising to a 22-9 thumping over St. Andrew Blue. The team erupted for a season-high 13 runs in the second inning en route to the 10-run rule victory.

Bryan Christensen started the second half in style with a perfect game, going 2-2 at the plate with two walks and four runs scored. He drove home one run in the game and earned his first career Player of the Game honor. Well deserved Bryan.

'I've been practicing a lot,' stated a beaming Bryan in a post-game interview. 'Practice works. I gotta say, it was good out there.'

Bryan led a balanced offensive attack as nine players reached base two or more times and seven players reached three or more times. Tim Jandro and Eric Johnson each had four hits while Adam Hey, Austin Colby, and Jeff Tenney added three apiece.

The team scored twice in the first using a single from Tim and a one-out triple from Austin. Eric singled home Austin and after a Tenney walk and a Logan Brincefield single, the team stranded the bases loaded with just one out.

Blue came out charging with a lead-off single and a mis-played double to start the game. However, Austin recovered from his mis-read and fired the ball from the fence to Tenney who hosed the runner at home for the first out. Consecutive outs ended the inning with no runs scored.

In the second inning, Rez had its best one-inning output of the season with 13 runs. Lee Valle and Bryan walked to start the inning and Tim scored Lee with his second single of the game. Adam roped a single to score Bryan and Austin walked to load the bases for Eric. Eric lined a single to score two runs to make it 6-0, still with no outs. Tenney walked to again fill the bases before Logan doubled to push home Austin and Eric. Jeff Johnson singled to score Tenney and Aaron Beintema followed with a knock to plate Logan and give Rez a 10-0 lead and nobody out. Lee and Bryan again walked, both tying team records for most walks in an inning, with Bryan's walk scoring Jeff. After 12 straight batters reached with no outs, Rez finally hit into a forceout, scoring Aaron. Adam flew out for the second out and Austin then sliced one right down the right-field line for an inside-the-park three-run homerun to end the scoring at 13, making it 15-0.

Blue used three singles and a sac fly to score two runs in the bottom half. Rez was up 15-2 going into the third inning.

The Warriors added three more runs to make it 18-2. With one out, Aaron singled and with two outs Bryan singled to put runners at the corners. Tim singled to plate Aaron and make it first and second with two outs. Adam lined a single to scored Bryan and Austin laced one off the wall to score Tim. Eric's first out in two weeks ended the threat, leaving two on.

Blue again tried to chip away with two runs. The team utilized back-to-back Rez Life errors to start inning and added a single and another Rez Life error to plate the runners.

Leading 18-4, Rez was shutout in the fourth inning. Tenney singled but a couple of lineouts and a hard-hit grounder made for a quick inning.

Blue also went down without scoring, hitting three straight flyouts including an amazing diving catch from Logan along the left-field line to end the inning.

In the fifth and final inning, Rez added four runs for a little insurance to cap its scoring at 22 for the game. Lee walked for the third time in the game and Bryan pushed his second hit through the infield to start things well. Tim singled to load the bases and Adam singled to score Lee and keep them loaded for Austin. Austin took a chance but hit a liner to left-center for a sacrifice fly and the first out. With two on, Eric hit his fourth single of the game to score Tim. Tenney followed with his third hit to plate Adam and end the scoring.

Blue made a mediocre charge in the last half of the fifth inning, using some lazy defense by the Warriors to post five runs. Blue had four hits, used two errors and drew two walks in the inning.

Rez is now 7-3 on the year while Blue falls to 4-8. Next week starts three straight weeks of double-headers for the Warriors. The team plays at 5:50 and 6:50 on field #3 against Pax Christi and Redeemer.