TOADS BATTER HAMELS

Eight innings, six hits, two runs allowed...and a heart attack of his bullpen's doing?

September 30: The opening game of this first-round playoff series saw the Casselton offense bat around in the first inning and put the game seemingly out of reach by the third.

The Frostbite Falls Flying Squirrels had to have confidence going into the first game of their best-of-five matchup with the Casselton Horned Toads. The offense was starting to heat up at the right time and their rotation was finally turning things around. The Game One starter, Cole Hamels, had finished the regular season with a 4.67 ERA, but his final start was a solid seven-inning, two-run victory over dangerous Nor Cal. The team had hope he would be his usual “ace” self in the postseason.

It didn’t happen. Hamels didn’t make it out of the third inning against host Casselton, the team with BARB’s best won-loss record during the season.

Landon Bolt’s Horned Toads were facing somewhat of the opposite with their starter, Bartolo Colon. The aging veteran had turned his season around after a trade to Casselton, going 7-3 with a 2.60 ERA and three shutouts after posting a 3.70 ERA with New England. His final start of the regular season, however, was a dud: four innings, eight hits and four runs allowed to the Carolina Wildcats.

Colon started the game by allowing a single to Mike Trout, but after Jose Reyes flew out Victor Martinez grounded into an inning-ending double play. The next pitch Colon threw would have a lot less pressure behind it.

Jean Segura led off the bottom half of the frame against Hamels and grounded out. Carlos Gomez was next and laced a base hit to left field. Adrian Beltre walked and the Horned Toads aggressively attempted a double steal. Frostbite catcher Wilin Rosario, not known for his defense, slung a perfect throw to Evan Longoria to catch Gomez for the second out.

After that attempt, Hamels lost his control. He threw four consecutive balls to Justin Upton after being ahead in the count, 0-1. He then hit the corner for a first-pitch strike to Adrian Gonzalez before grooving a pitch the slugger hit just hard enough to skip by Jason Kipnis and into right field, scoring Beltre. Edwin Encarnacion’s at-bat happened the same way: first pitch strike, second pitch seeing-eye RBI single to right field. After a walk and two more singles the Horned Toads held a 5-0 lead. They completed batting around with Segura grounding into another out.

The Flying Squirrels hardly gave Hamels a chance to catch his breath and stop his head from spinning, as they saw only eight pitches against Colon in the second. Frostbite manager Mike Noakes allowed Hamels a few more hitters, and the disastrous results continued. A single, double, single and double play plated three more runs, and after finishing the second strong. The lefty was mercifully pulled after giving up a couple more line drives in the third, and with a third of the game down the Horned Toads held an 8-0 lead.

Tim Lincecum was brought in to mop up and save the bullpen, and he did his job with four and one-third innings. Two more runs crossed, however, to give Casselton a 10-0 lead into the eighth.

Colon was still under 100 pitches when he trotted back up the hill to face the bottom of the Frostbite order in the eighth, and they finally put a dent in his armor (though, to be fair, “bottom of the order” hitters aren’t typically named Albert Pujols and Wilin Rosario). Pujols pulled a single through the left side to lead off, and Rosario launched a rocket that still might be rising over the left-field bleachers.

It came down to the top of the ninth, Toads with an 8-run lead. Tom Milone was called on to replace Colon at the start of the inning…and he failed to record a single out. Bryce Harper lined a single. Evan Longoria walked. Jason Kipnis singled to load the bases and Craig Gentry earned an RBI and a bruise when Milone nailed him in the leg. After Pujols dumped a single to left for another run Craig Stammen was brought in. He was greeted by Rosario’s line-drive single to plate Kipnis, drawing the first boos from the home crowd. Many of the crunch-time veterans in the visiting dugout were smelling blood, having cut the lead to 10-5 and having the bases loaded with, still, nobody out and the lineup turning over for Trout.

The star outfielder failed to come through, however, watching a called third strike go by in a full count. Reyes, though, picked up for him and re-started the merry-go-round with an infield single to pull the Squirrels within “slam range” at 10-6. Martinez, the ninth batter of the inning, pulled the ball down the line, but not very hard, and Gonzalez stabbed the ball and trotted to the base for the second out as the Flying Squirrels’ seventh run crossed the plate. Now down by three and with two on the basepaths, Noakes was confident his boys could tie it—or more. Harper drew a walk to load the bases and bring up Longoria. The third baseman fouled off two pitches, took a ball and fouled another…then watched as a Stammen fastball caught the black on the inside. STRIKE THREE, CASSELTON HOLDS ON!

The 10-7 victory allowed their fans and ownership to exhale with relief. In their second-ever playoff appearance, the Horned Toads had rushed out to a big lead en route to a 1-0 series lead. Could they extend their lead in Game Two with #5 starter Dillon Gee facing newly minted ace Jake Arrieta? Stay tuned!