🍀 Father's Day Game -- Sanford Spinners @ Reidsville Luckies 🍀
Luckies lose close one to the Central Division leaders
REIDSVILLE, NC — The Sanford Spinners got their revenge on the Reidsville Luckies with an 11-9 victory at Jaycee Park.
The top of the first inning was something that the Luckies definitely wanted to forget about. They started it off with two quick outs, but Sanford wouldn’t go down that easy. They proceeded to make it all the way through their lineup, and the two who had gotten out were able to bat again in the same inning. They scored six runs in the first.
Reidsville refused to go down without a fight, and crawled back in very fast. The Luckies brought in five runs over the course of the first two innings, cutting the deficit to one run.
The bats continued to crack for both teams, and, after six innings, the Luckies were down, 7-10. The seventh inning went by in the blink of an eye, and it was the same score after seven.
Travis Hammond busted one into the gap in right field, knocking in Gavin Groppuso, and Andrews Opata would follow with an RBI of his own. The Luckies didn’t do anything else in the bottom of the eighth, but it was now a 10-9 ballgame, and the Luckies were in reach of a fourth comeback win at Jaycee Park this season.
The Spinners put one on the board, but the Luckies held them to just that run. They headed into the bottom of the ninth, down by two, hoping for a victory that would help them get closer to playoff position.
Cole McClain and Kristian Amaro both struck out, and, with Edwin Bowman IV on second base, Groppuso stepped into the left batter’s box. With a full count, Groppuso swung hard, and it went down the right line into the first baseman’s glove to end the game.
Lucky of the Game: Edwin Bowman IV — Bowman IV had a double, a triple, an RBI, and got home once, and has been nothing but consistent ever since joining the Luckies. His first “Lucky of the Game” honor is well-deserved.
Moment of the Game: Ryne Rodrigues delivers on a two-RBI single in the first to put the Luckies on the board — Initially, Ryne’s hit didn’t seem to mean much, since the Luckies were in a 6-0 hole. But just imagine that he doesn’t connect on that. The next three batters got out immediately, and the Luckies wouldn’t have put anything on the board in the first. Ryne started the comeback that didn’t ultimately come full circle, but it could’ve been a blowout with absolutely no momentum had it not been for his hit.
Fun Events — The Reidsville Luckies honored all of the dads of the players for this special Father’s Day game. The fathers were able to run out onto the field alongside their sons and be introduced, and, throughout the game, we brought fathers into the booth for interviews.
Notes — Special thanks to the High Point Hushpuppies for losing. The Luckies are still a game ahead of them in the standings, and have a small grasp on third place in the Central Division. The difficult thing is that they are a few games behind the top two teams in the division, and it’ll be difficult for them to crawl into the postseason if they don’t knock off the top two tandems in the division.
On-Deck — After four games in a row, there’s a three-day rest before four consecutive games next week.