Falcons win 2 on Mother's Day

The Falcon baseball team. Yeah, do you remember them? That’s the team who, due to the excessive rain the past couple of weeks, hadn’t played in 10 days. So, with the end of the season looming, and playoffs about to begin next week, North found themselves with 5 games remaining, all of which have to get played this week. To get these games in, the Falcons chose to play two games on Sunday, followed by 3 games on consecutive days. The first was against Father Judge (10-2 win), played at 11:00am, and the second was against Cardinal O’Hara (8-6 win), scheduled for 2:00pm.

We really tried to get one of our young staffers to the early game, but being that it was Mother’s Day, everyone on our staff needed to call their moms or spend time with her. So, it was left up to the most out of shape guy on the staff to trudge down that God forsaken hill to get to LaSalle’s old varsity field to catch the second game of this twin bill. (BTW, Mom was called from the car on the way to the field.) Getting down to the field wasn’t so bad, but we seriously considered calling 911 on the way back up. If you want to see if you are in shape or not, I suggest you walk from LaSalle’s old varsity field up to the main entrance of the school. I made it, but not without about a gallon of sweat and a heart rate closing in on 200. For you young guys out there who think smoking and/or drinking is cool, check me out at the next game to see what you will look like some day. It’s not pretty.

Anyway, back to the game. The Lions from O’Hara, who are having an uncharacteristically bad season (last place as of today), jumped out early to a 1-0 lead. It stayed that way for a couple of innings until the Falcons came charging back, took the lead and it began to look like it was going to be another rout. But, this being prom season, and the team not very deep at pitching, Senior Bob Hopkins had to go the distance, despite driving back from the Poconos after his senior prom weekend. I don’t know how many pitches this kid threw, but I’m guessing it was well over 100. After 5 innings, the Falcons led by a score of 8-2, and seemed to be cruising along. Late in the game, with Hopkins looking a little fatigued (probably from walking up and down that stinking hill), the Lions mounted a comeback, scoring 4 runs in the 6th before being retired. In the 7th, Hopkins seemed to really dig deep to shut down O’Hara and persevere the win.

The Good News…..
The good news is that after playing 11 of their 14 regular season games, the Falcons find themselves a half game out of first place.

The Bad News……
Even in this final week, and unlike the Blue Division, every team in the Red Division still has a shot at making the playoffs, and almost no team has yet to clinch a spot. There is no clear cut, runaway favorite here. In this division, any one team can beat any other team on any given day.

The Ugly News…..
Including the two games yesterday, the Falcons are scheduled to play 5 games in 4 days. The way the PIAA rules are written, Ryan Etsell and Bob Hopkins cannot pitch in the remaining three games, as the rules require them to get three days rest after each pitched 7 innings yesterday. Coach, if you have a XXL uniform, I’m ready. I believe I still have some eligibility remaining. (I will require a cooler with some cold Budweiser in it).

Did You Notice……
…..the new Judge uniforms? I’m not real fond of the NC uniforms (white hats? Have I mentioned that I hate the white hats?), but the Judge uniforms look like they were color coordinated by a visually impaired person. I guess SixSmiths must have run out of the color that they officially call “Father Judge Powder Blue.”

….the NC parent, who for a time, was sitting on the hill behind the cage? While there, he jawed with the ump a bit, which is surprising, as this particular parent is usually very quiet and you rarely hear a peep out of him.

….for what is now like three home games in a row, there was no Murph sightings. But, to be fair to Tim, he checked in with the office early in the day and reported that he was heading to the Phils game. Yo Murph, the Phils lost and the Falcons won two. Maybe you’ll rethink your priorities in the future.

The remaining schedule for the season looks like this:
Today, at Bonner.
Tomorrow vs Bonner at Piccoli.
Wednesday, at Judge.

If you haven’t seen this team yet, try to get out to a game and cheer on your Falcons. It's worth the price of admission.

Blog Disclaimer
Once again, Mike Ritchie was not harmed in the writing of this blog.