Five-O's Earn Split Over The Weekend

The Five-O's must have made a deal with the devil to have to play back-to-back games in the Heat Wave of 2008. They were able to scratch out a win Saturday morning against the staff of Our Lady of Mercy, but wouldn't be as lucky on Sunday when they faced the softball team from the SUNY Police Department.



-Saturday-

It has been written many times in the past, but the Five-O's found themselves in familiar territory Saturday when they trailed Our Lady of Mercy in the first inning. Tylor Stevens who was missing in action last week put the Five-O's on the board with a sacrifice fly in the bottom half of the first inning. First basemen John Ginder would put the Five-O's on top with an RBI single. "All I wanted to do was just put the bat on the ball" Ginder said.

The Five-O's would squander their lead by giving up three runs in consecutive innings and would trail Our Lady of Mercy 4-3 going into the bottom half of the fifth inning. Then something clicked. Maybe it was the heat. Maybe it was finally stability at work where the day before the game Carol Lawlor was officially sworn in as Chief of the Guilderland Police Departrment. Whatever it was the Five-O's looked impressive. They scored seven runs in their half of the inning to take a 10-4 lead. "It is kind of like Scrabulous. Sometimes the tiles just fall your way. That inning the pitches fell our way and we were knocking them down" leftfielder Todd Roberts said who contributed two RBI's in the inning. "I think it was just that the team was focused. Everyone was seeing the ball well and were finally hitting it to where people weren't" catcher Kyle Haines would add on the inning.

Jenna Govel pitched again and didn't let the heat slow her down. "It was a nice change to see batters from the other team actually swinging at pitches." Govel remarked on teams in the past just standing there taking pitches. "It made the game go by alot quciker" she added.

The Five-O's could have won this game by forfeit because Our Lady of Mercy didn't have enough players. Manager J.J. Mazzone didn't want to take a win that way although they should take one whenever they can. "We were lucky enough to have more players then we needed so I didn't see a problem lending them a couple to ROUND out their team...no offense Travis" Mazzone said on lending Our Lady of Mercy two players. "It is never easy to decide who should stay or go in an event like that" John Ginder said, "Without hurting any feelings of the regular Five-O players, it made sense to send over two players we didn't want playing with us" Ginder added. It almost came back to bite both of them because both players they sent over had good games for the opposing team which almost sent the Five-O's to the loss column yet again. Lady Luck must have been on their side because they left Strawberry Park with smiles on their faces after a much needed and much deserved victory.

I have been getting way too much grief for my selections for the CapitalRegionSports.com player of the game. I have battled with the players of the Five-O's every single game trying to justify my decisions. Some are saying I am playing favorites because I am: sports writer/ player/ manager. Leaving that out I will let the statistics make the decision for me. Oh look at that.....going 3-4 with two doubles, two runs scored, and three runs batted in......John Ginder has been named player of the game for Saturday against Our Lady of Mercy. That is his well deserved third player of the game honor.


-Sunday-
Fresh off their 10-4 victory Saturday against the team from Our Lady of Mercy, the Five-O's looked to take their momentum into an exhibition game against the State University of New York at Albany's Police Department. They wouldn't fare well dropping the game 20-10 in the sweltering heat.

The Five-O's would get off to a slow start and would front the underdog UPD team a 12-0 lead after the second inning. They would push their first run of the game across in the third inning on a double by manager J.J. Mazzone scoring recently exiled Travis Stevens. "It was good to have him (Travis) back in the lineup after opting to play for the other team yesterday" Mazzone said. "ROUNDING out the lineup is always a good thing......sorry Travis that never gets old" Mazzone added.

The Five-O's would be on the business end of an offensive onslaught by UPD all afternoon. And UPD would be the benefactors of horrific fielding by the Five-O's. Ground balls were finding their way to the outfield, flyballs were finding their way over the outfielders heads, there was even one instance where starting pitcher Kyle Haines was able to stop a groundball in enough time to throw the runner out at first, but first basemen John Ginder was in the middle of a conversation with his brother Roger who was playing second base at the time and wasn't covering the bag. "In all honesty I didn't think any of us were actually going to stop a groundball from going into the outfield so it kind of caught me off guard" John Ginder said. At one point I actually lost count of how many popups the Five-O's dropped. Third basemen Mike Deso struggled at the hot corner dropping multiple popups in foul territory. One time while being locked on to one to end an inning, Deso's teammates were shouting at him not to drop it and the ball found its way out of his glove and kept the inning alive.

One popup would leave a lasting impression not only on all in attendance but for the ground he fell on. In one of the lengthy innings Kyle Haines tracked down a popup in foul territory and caught it moments before he would end up with a mouthfull of dirt. "Ouch" Haines would say of his early game heroics. Haines is not usually a man of few words but he is in this event because I don't want to ask him anymore questions.

As in most of the games the Five-O's would struggle in the field and not make up for it at the plate. "It is frustrating" John Ginder would say, "I don't know what else to do. I would like to blame the heat for the loss, but 90 degrees or higher doesn't make flyballs go over heads or ground balls go under legs" he added. "I just hope we can get it together next week".

What people need to remember is that the Five-O's are an expansion team. With the exception of the 1997 Florida Marlins, no expansion team has achieved success early. "It is a process" Todd Roberts said "Rome wasn't built in a day" he would add.

It is hard to want to pick a player of the game when the team is embarrassed, but it has to be done. Going 3-4 with a triple, two runs scored, and three runs batted in, Roger Ginder is the CapitalRegionSports.com player of the game. Maybe that will take some of the slack off of me in the future but I am sure it won't.

The Five-O's are back in action this Saturday at Strawberry Park against Howard's Hoopers. It would be nice to get it all together again and win back to back league games.