Morris Bunn

Friday, June 6, 2008

Jackson Giants Tie in Close One as the Lights Go Out on Bear Lake JACKSON, Wy. (JHYB) By, Chris Moulder Giants Line-up1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Charlie Wild Charlie Keegan Grant Smith Sky Garnick Colter Huhn Bryn Windle Lucas Moulder Patrick Renz Cam O’Donahue

Catcher Shortstop 1st Base Center Field 3rd Base Pitcher Right Field Left Field 2nd Base

SubstitutesRobbie Caesar Carlos Toledo Bryan Weber

Ethan Moulder Ian Chapman

Charlie Keegan zeros in on a pitch at his first at bat since returning to the Giants

Our Hometown Hero Jackson Giants played in their first game of their home tournament against the Bear Lake Bears of Montpelier, Idaho. The 8:00pm game started out cold and windy with cloud cover and eventually the conditions became colder and windier along with dark. Bryn Windle took the mound for the Giants in the 1st and immediately got rocked for a first pitch solo homerun over the left-center field fence. The Bears Trent Alleman stepped in and crushed a 370 foot shot that looked for a moment to bring rain. Windle regained his composure though and worked his way through the first, forcing his opponents to ground out to Grant Smith for an unassisted force at 1st, Nate Crane reached base by Starting pitcher Bryn Windle

way of a walk and was forced out at second by a routine grounder to returning veteran shortstop Charlie Keegan who threw to the waiting Cameron O’Donahue at second for the second out. Morris Bunn reached first on the fielder’s choice and the steal was on. The Giants were ready though as Bunn has been long remembered by our men as a stellar base runner and athlete from years past in Little League and Babe Ruth. Windle’s quick step to home and Charlie Wild’s laser throw to Keegan busted Bunn for the 3rd out before the Bears could get anything else going in the first.

Veteran catcher Charlie Wild captained the infield by throwing out 2 runners and stopping an in-the-park homerun in its tracks

The bottom of the 1st had the Bears pitcher Nate Crane dealing strikes and although the Giants leading offense comprised of Charlie Wild and Charlie Keegan all hit the ball, they just hit to a waiting defense. Grant Smith smacked a sharply hit ball the other way and while the Bears 1st baseman Jordan Crane knocked down the ball, he couldn’t recover in time to beat the smoking Smith. Garnick grounded into another routine grounder to short who converted the out to 2nd nabbing Smith. The second inning was a bit of a yawn for both sides as Colter Huhn tried to bunt and wound up getting trumped by the pitcher, Crane and Windle grounded out to 1st for the unassisted put-out.

Lucas Moulder on 2nd and Patrick Renz leading off first

Lucas Moulder and Patrick Renz both reached base on errors, but Cam O’Donahue hit a grounder to 2nd baseman, Bailey Thomas who threw to the 1st baseman Crane to retire the side. The same was true for the Bears offense in spite of a lead-off double from Jordan Crane, the following Bears could not convert. With the Giants down 1-0 going into the 3rd, Charlie Wild got things moving with a leadoff single to left. Charlie Keegan was up and was allowed to swing away but as luck would have it, he ripped the ball to a waiting Colby Dixon at shortstop who threw to get the lead runner Wild at second. With the powerhouse, Grant Smith at the plate, Keegan stole second in a close play. Keegan must have been eating his Wheaties while away at school this year as he seems to grown a couple of inches and has more speed in his legs. Grant Smith followed with a rocket to center and while it scored a base hit, he reached 2nd on a throwing error by the Bear Lake centerfielder Trent Alleman thereby scoring Keegan who had a good jump on the ball as the mastermind, Coach Pat Euart had the hit and run on. Smith reached 3rd on a fielder’s choice throw to 1st to get Sky Garnick and the Mighty Huhn again with an almighty blow, dribbled another one back to the pitcher for the easy out to first. As the game progressed into the evening, the newly installed lights provided by and funded by the joint powers board of Jackson, Wyoming and Teton County, Wyoming were in full night game mode. The scene was becoming a peaceful, tranquil one even though a great conflict was in full force beneath its illuminated dome. More on that later…. Bryn Windle, the 6’-4” right-handed pitcher was still on the mound dealing from the bottom of the deck to lead-off Smith making his way to second after Bear batsman, Trent Alleman who hit a ground ball to Grant hitting a single turned double due to an error in 3rd baseman Colter Huhn who misplayed it and did not the field get Alleman at 1st. The next batter, Dixon sacrificed himself with a bunt to advance Alleman to 2nd and with a man in scoring position, Bailey Thomas drilled a base hit single to right center scoring Alleman for the go ahead run. Nate Crane followed with a double to left but did not score Thomas who only advanced to 3rd. Morris Bunn grounded to Windle who gave Thomas the hairy eyeball at third and threw Bunn out. The next batter Jordan Crane whiffed on a well placed fastball on the inside corner, crossing Crane up. The Giants struggled defensively with errors at the top of the 4th as lead-off hitter, Trent Michel reached base on an error by first baseman Grant Smith, then Windle walked Justin Saxton. With men on 1st and 2nd, leftfielder Sage Arnell popped up to Cam O’Donahue at 2nd

bringing up the top of the order, Alleman who was whiffed by Windle. Colby Dixon then stepped to the plate and drove one up the middle scoring off of a throwing error by the shortstop, Keegan. The home half of the 4th was another sleepy inning for the Giants offensively as Bryn Windle couldn’t hit the ball squarely and popped up to 1st and Lucas Moulder fanned. Everyone held their breath as Patrick Renz was hit in the numbers by a fastball that got away from pitcher, Nate Crane. Renz doesn’t have a whole bunch of meat on his bones and the fear was that one of those bones could break, something his parents do not want to have as Patrick’s younger brother Andy was watching the game from a wheelchair after breaking his ankle while helping to move a piece of football equipment. After collecting himself at the plate, walking slowly to first and then taking some more time to regroup, he thankfully seemed well enough to continue on. Needless to say, he’ll have the stitches of the ball clearly imprinted on his back for awhile. Unfortunately, the pain was in vain as O’Donahue only managed a squib back to the pitcher who threw to 1st to retire the side. The 5th was rough on Windle as he continued throwing strong but the Bears came on hard with a leadoff hit by Nate Crane and followed by a perfectly executed bunt by the speedy Morris Bunn who beat the throw for an infield hit. Before succumbing to one of Windle’s devastating curveballs retiring Jordan Crane, Nate Crane stole 3rd advancing the threat. Trent Michel stepped in and drove one to the fence to score both Crane easily and Bunn from 1st. Saxton went down swinging and Arnell grounded out to Windle to end it for Bear Lake. The bottom of the 5th was a wild one as the leadCharlie Keegan slaps a ball to first causing an off batter for our Hometown Heroes, Charlie Wild was error hit by a pitch bringing up Chucklin’ Charlie Keegan but Keegan was all business as he drove a hard hit ball the other way forcing an error on the Bear Lake first baseman. With men on 1st and 2nd, Grant Smith put down a textbook sacrifice bunt advancing the runners. Now with Sky Garnick at the plate, he unloaded and hit a 2 RBI single to right scoring Wild and Keegan. With 1 out and Garnick on first, Colter Huhn again proved that he could not hit the ball past the pitcher as

Center fielder Sky Garnick drives in 2 with a base hit

he grounded out but advanced Garnick to 2nd. Bryn Windle then slashed one to right field for an easy out but the right fielder misjudged the ball getting Windle on base by way of an error and allowing Garnick to score for the RBI bringing the Giants within 1 run of the Bears lead. Bryn Windle continued into th the 6 striking out the lead-off hitter Alleman and walking the next batter Dixon before hanging a pumpkin for Bailey Thomas who hit it to the fence for a triple. Nate Crane followed with a sharply hit ball to 3rd baseman Colter Huhn who threw a strike to first for the 3rd out. The bottom of the 6th was somewhat lack-luster as Renz struck out looking, O’Donahue grounded out to 2nd and Wild popped out to 1st. 3rd baseman Colter Huhn scoops and fires a strike to first baseman Grant Smith getting the Bears pitcher +ate Crane out by a mile With our Heroes down by 1 th going into the 7 inning of the game, Coach Euart relieved Windle with Grant Smith, a surprise as it was thought that he would not return as a pitcher this year due to his shoulder injury. But Smith pitched well, real well although he was tagged for 3 hits before the Bears sat down after a nifty 6-4-3 double play combination of Keegan to O’Donahue to Windle, holding the Bears scoreless. The Giants were now faced with a do or die situation heading into the bottom of the 7th as Charlie Keegan promptly grounded out to 2nd, Grant Smith reached base on an error at short, Sky Garnick scorched a base hit advancing Smith to 3rd which brought up long ball hitter Colter Huhn. Huhn in true fashion creased another one back to the pitcher, who after checking Smith at 3rd threw to get Garnick out at 2nd . But the perfect timing and speed of Grant Smith was too much for the Bears as he scored to tie the game. Extra Innings…… Smith continued to pitch spectacularly through the 8th and 9th innings as offensively our Giants must have been up past their bedtimes as they fell asleep, when in the top of the 10th Justin Saxton hit a base hit single, Sage Arnell gets on base by way of an error by 3rd baseman Colter Huhn, Trent Alleman hits a huge double scoring Saxton and then……….THE LIGHTS GO OUT! 11:00 o’clock, the Parks and Rec bewitching hour. Those beautiful, brand new, high-tech lights that the Jackson Youth Baseball program had been working on getting with the Teton County Parks and Recreation Dept. in order to replace the much older failing lights of the past, in an ironic twist of fate, went out. Perhaps mercifully for our Hometown Heroes as the game was ruled a tie.

Box ScoresPlayer

AB

R

H

RBI

SO

BB

E

SB

B.AVG

Wild Keegan Smith Garnick Huhn Windle Moulder Renz O’Donahue

4 5 4 5 5 4 4 3 4

1 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0

1 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 1

0 0 1 2 1 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 3 2 0

1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0

0 1 2 0 0 1 1 1 0

0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0

.250 .000 .000 .600 .000 .000 .000 .000 .250

Team Batting Average-

.135

Jackson Giants (home) Bear Lake Bears (visitors)

Game Score-

5 5

Pitcher StatisticsPitcher

W/L/S/T

IP

AB

R

H

SO

BB

HB

Windle Smith

- ( 1-1-0-0) T ( 0-0-0-1)

6 3

31 12

5 0

10 4

5 1

3 1

0 0

The View From the Cheap SeatsThe time that the Giants have had off due to weather and a schedule that gave the team a week or so off has not helped them at the plate. Offensively our Hometown Heroes hit .135 for a team average. Batting leaders for the Giants this game was Sky Garnick who went 3 for 5 with 3 singles hitting .600. Charlie Wild and Cameron O’Donahue each hit .250 going 1

Cameron O'Donahue drives an 8th inning triple to the fence

for 4 respectively. Wild had a nice base hit but O’Donahue crushed for a triple. The rest of the team hit big fat goose eggs. Defensively, Windle and Smith combined to hold an aggressive Bear Lake squad to 5 runs. Although there were not many errors by the Giants in the field, the runners reaching base on errors accounted for 2 of the runs. Defensive highlights include an enthusiastic effort by middle infielders, Charlie Keegan at shortstop and Cameron O’Donahue at 2nd in their debut game of the season combining for a snappy double play. Colter Huhn had a long running grab at 3rd, charging a bunt and throwing the runner out at 1st. Patrick Renz pulled in a couple of long running fly balls for outs. And Lucas Moulder turned a fielding goof into one of the most dramatic plays of the weekend when a hard hit ball to right got by Moulder on an errant bounce and rolled all the way to the fence. The runner, Trent Michel had visions of heroics and tried to turn the error into an in-the-park homerun. Moulder ran back to the fence and from the 350 foot mark picked up the ball, turned and fired a strike to a waiting Relief pitcher Grant Smith came in and shut down the Bear Lake team in the 7th, 8th & 9th inning before the lights went out in the top half of the 10th thereby securing a tie.

Colter Huhn hitting a scorcher back to the mound

Cameron O’Donahue as a cut-off. O’Donahue turned and launched a rocket from deep 2nd to home that seemed to take an eternity to come down to where Charlie Wild was set up about 5 feet in front of the plate waiting for the throw. The runner, Michel was committed and barreling for home when he dove for the plate when Wild wheeled and dove for Michel. The collision happened about 3 feet off of the ground and about 3 feet in up the 3rd base line. Michel lay on home plate, face down obviously exhausted while Wild casually looked up at the home plate umpire and showed him the ball. The umpire promptly punched Michel out at home to end the threat in the top of the 9th. The truly great thing about attending this game was being within earshot of Jackson sports announcing icon Danny Mayer who despite the cold temperatures and the lights going out, continued to

broadcast through the thick and the thin of the Giants innings. Danny will be on the air of the FM station KZ95 giving the play by play of all games both home and away.

Jackson Giants announcer and former Legion coach, Danny Mayer giving the play by play from his heated skybox seat

A diehard Jackson fan braving the arctic temperatures

Figure 1The Jackson Giants Booster Club cheers on our Hometown Heroes Footnote: Interestingly, the exact same thing happened some 6 or 7 years ago in Montpelier when while the 11-12 year old Jackson team was winning a game against Bear Lake in an All-Star tourney being hosted by the Bear lake club, the field we were playing on did not have lights. Although we were one out away from an official game, the umpires took their time moving the game along, they then said after much deliberation that they were going to move the game to another field for some reason, rather than letting the last out be played and all players able to get to sleep for the next days games. Long story short our team protested and pleaded to finish the last out, the other team’s coach became irate and threatened that we would forfeit if we did not go to the other field, people eerily came out of nowhere to support the Bear Lake team and we took our boys and went back to the campground to get them to bed. I am glad that this game was able to be reconciled in a mature rational manner, regardless of who may have won or not.