After a long flight, a training day, a two hour drive that turned into about four due to our bus breaking down and three months of anticipation it was finally time for the Black Sox North American tour of 2011 to begin on the diamond.
We were up against the GHFL All Stars and didn’t really know what to expect. We knew they would have a hard throwing young Canadian on the mound and they didn’t disappoint.
We had four debutantes (Nathan Taikato, Craig Wallace, Pita Rona and Tyron Bartorillo) in this one and there was a feeling of nervousness and excitement. After the national anthems and the exchange of gifts, we were ready to take the field.
Funny enough, we were the away team (hitting first) and we jumped straight out of the gate not recording an out for six straight batters. After the top half of the inning had concluded the boys had put up five runs including a three run homerun to Cam Makea.
Now it was time to put our much worked on defensive strategies to work. Nathan Taikato started strong, striking out the first batter and getting a ground ball for the second out. An error allowed a base runner, who eventually scored on a pair of singles. That would be all Taikato would concede in a very solid five inning debut. Our bats stayed alive for the entire game eventually posting 15 runs in seven innings including hits for all of the debutantes, another homerun for Cam Makea a homerun for Rhys Casley and a very special homerun for young Pita Rona who couldn’t help but smile while rounding the bases.
Jeremy Manlys return to the Sox came in the 6th inning and he did not disappoint, throwing hard and with great location on his pitches.
Game 2 of our double header saw the Debut of Penese Iosefo on the mound and Jerome Raemaki in right field. Both had very strong games, with Iosefo digging deep twice to escape trouble with runners on and Raemaki picking up his first hit in black.
An electrical storm caused an early end to this one with the Black Sox leading 4-0 in the 4th.
There is a great feeling within this team, and we are all enjoying being on tour and representing our wonderful country. Our games tonight will be live on
BALLPARK RADIO, so tune in to catch the action. Thanks for all the support, catch up again tommorow…..
R.C
