Rain, cats, dogs and a doubleheader

Thursday saw the Portland Sea Dogs come to New Britain and we were looking to take it to them early and often. We jumped out to three early runs in the 1st inning and it looked like we were on the right track.  That is until the Sea Dogs shut us down for the rest of the game.  After scoring three in the first, we never crossed the plate again and barely got anyone on base.  We only got three more hits and each of those was in separate innings.  Meanwhile, Portland woke up and tied the game in the fifth before taking a one run lead in the 7th.  They went on to a 6-3 lead in the 8th and that turned out to be the final score.  

Friday's game saw a rain out as a pretty bad storm system blew through New Britain.  After holding out for a couple of hours, it was decided we weren't playing and that the game would be made up Saturday in day night double header.  

Saturday morning rolled around and there were hardly any signs of the storms from the night before.  The sun was shining, a cool breeze blowing across the field and a buzz in the air as people filed into the stadium.  It was perfect baseball weather and everyone seemed to know it.  In the early game, the Cats jumped out to another quick 3-run lead in the 2nd inning and managed to hold on 3-1 with some great defense and very stingy defense. The late game started out the same way with the Cats scoring three in the 2nd on their way to another 3-1 win.  So after taking both games on Saturday, we had a 2-1 series lead and were looking for a series win on Sunday.  

Sunday's game didn't start out well for us as we gave up two in the 1st and two more in the 2nd.  Then we gave one more in the 3rd inning to trail 5-0.  But that's when everyone came alive and we started putting the ball in play.  Playing small ball, we scored one in the 4th, two in the 5th, three in the sixth, two in the 7th and our final run in the 8th as we went on to win the game 9-5 and the series 3-1. 

An update on the ankle, I passed my first real test Thursday.  I was taking some infield practice and went to try and roll two but all I rolled was the damn ankle.  I hit the ground quick thinking that I had really screwed it up but it turned out to be okay.  Just rolled it and had a little swelling but nothing unusual. By game time Thursday night, it was nearly a distant memory.