Excitement at the End: Mustangs Kick Owlz 10-8

Known for late-inning explosions of hitting power, the Mustangs on Wednesday evening looked like they had ignited early, with a 5 run outburst in the bottom of the 6th, to lead the Orem Owlz 8-3. This featured back to back home runs by Juan Silva and Devin Lohman, and some thought that would be enough.

But the baseball gods laugh at such certainty: some Mustang loose play in the infield and on the mound in the top of the 8th let Orem tie the score with their own 5 run inning. There it stood until the bottom of the 10th, when Juan Silva got his 5th hit of the game and Robert Maddox, still struggling to learn where the strike zone is and how to play first base and partly responsible for the unearned runs in the 8th, made up for it with a long fly to right field, his 5th home run of the season, and tying him with team-mate Sean Buckley for Mustang leadership in that department. Both of these guys seems to hit better on the road.

Quezada looked good for 5 innings. I didn't know you could have more than one blown save in a game but that is what the box score says for Jensen and Pinckard. Allen pitched the top of the 10th, gave up two hits, but got the outs and the win when Maddox unloaded in the bottom of the inning. By the way, the box score and recap of all the games found on the Mustang website is really helpful, especially if you don't keep score, but just as helpful when you do.

When you're batting .400 with 4 home runs for the Mustangs there is a fair chance you will be promoted by the powers that be in faraway Cincinnati. That is what happened to Dayne Read.

He was sent to the Bakersfield Blaze in the Class A-Advanced California League, where he chipped in with a game-tying home run in his debut. I didn't know that Cincinnati had a farm team in that league. In any event their gain is our loss. The picture to the right is borrowed from the Gazette.