It was a beautiful day for a baseball game with the temperature hovering in the mid 60s, and the Mattoon Hit Men came away with their second consecutive road victory as they defeated Neoga 10-5 on Sunday, May 17, 2009. With the win the Hit Men's record improved to 3-4.
Damien Ferguson got things going for the Hit Men right away as he walked on a full count and immediately stole second and third base. David Johnson was issued a walk on four consecutive pitches out of the strike zone, and he went to second on a steal. Both runners moved up and scored as both Nicholas Owens and Cole Diepholz grounded out pitcher to first. Alec Raboin had a two out single and stole 2 bases to reach third, but he and Garrett Branson were both stranded as Trevor Edwards fanned to end the inning. Branson walked and got into the running game, too, stealing second. Neoga came right back and scored 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the first as Thobe had a 2 run RBI double into right following a walk to Jordan Hoedebecke and a double into left by Justin Yurs. Shortstop Alec Raboin and left fielder Trevor Edwards collided on the double by Yurs, so Damien Ferguson came in to replace Edwards who was shaken up on the play. Thobe stole third and he scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Moran into center field for out number 1. Fritcher lined out to second base for out number 2. Hill singled up the middle but he was thrown out by catcher Davis Johnson as Hill was attempting to pilfer second base, ending the inning with Neoga leading 3-2.
Mattoon tied the game in the top of the second as C. J. Sweeney scored on a groundout pitcher to first off the bat of Preston Hayes. Sweeney had singled to start the inning and he stole second and third before being plated by Hayes. Neoga did not score in the bottom half of the frame as the score stood knotted at 3 runs apiece.
Damien Ferguson got things going for the Hit Men right away as he walked on a full count and immediately stole second and third base. David Johnson was issued a walk on four consecutive pitches out of the strike zone, and he went to second on a steal. Both runners moved up and scored as both Nicholas Owens and Cole Diepholz grounded out pitcher to first. Alec Raboin had a two out single and stole 2 bases to reach third, but he and Garrett Branson were both stranded as Trevor Edwards fanned to end the inning. Branson walked and got into the running game, too, stealing second. Neoga came right back and scored 3 runs of their own in the bottom of the first as Thobe had a 2 run RBI double into right following a walk to Jordan Hoedebecke and a double into left by Justin Yurs. Shortstop Alec Raboin and left fielder Trevor Edwards collided on the double by Yurs, so Damien Ferguson came in to replace Edwards who was shaken up on the play. Thobe stole third and he scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Moran into center field for out number 1. Fritcher lined out to second base for out number 2. Hill singled up the middle but he was thrown out by catcher Davis Johnson as Hill was attempting to pilfer second base, ending the inning with Neoga leading 3-2.
Mattoon tied the game in the top of the second as C. J. Sweeney scored on a groundout pitcher to first off the bat of Preston Hayes. Sweeney had singled to start the inning and he stole second and third before being plated by Hayes. Neoga did not score in the bottom half of the frame as the score stood knotted at 3 runs apiece.
Damien Ferguson led off the top of the third for the Hit Men, and he helped pitcher Fritch by swinging at the first 2 pitches, which were out of the strike zone. He did manage to work the count full before swinging and missing to strike out, but the pitch was not handled by the catcher and Damien raced to first safely. He did not stop there, however, as he immediately swiped second and third base. Davis Johnson grounded out pitcher to first, and Damien was not able to score on the play as he was held at third base by the pitcher. Nicholas Owens, however, was able to drive in his second run of the game when he grounded out third to first as Damien crossed the plate safely and Mattoon retook the lead 4-3. Wood reached on an error by the shortstop to start the bottom of the third for Neoga. Evans walked to put runners at first and second, and Hoedebecke reached on a fielder's choice as Wood was erased pitcher to third. Justin Yurs also reached on a fielder's choice second to shortstop for out number 2 as Evans took third on the play, bringing Thobe to the plate. Thobe drove the first pitch he saw deep into left centerfield for a 2 out, 2 run triple to give Neoga the lead back at 4-3. This brought up cleanup hitter Moran. Moran took a fastball out of the strike zone for ball 1 before turning on a changeup offering and blasting it deep into left field and down the line. It appeared he was going to get extra bases himself, but Damien Ferguson made the play of the game as he came out of nowhere to spear the ball one handed while running at a full clip to take the hit away from Moran, and keeping Thobe from scoring from third, and the game stood at 5-4 Neoga. As it turned out that would be all the runs Neoga could score as Damien's play really took the wind out of their sails.
Neither team scord in the fourth but Mattoon put the game out of reach in the top of the fifth, scoring 6 runs on only 2 hits. Nathan Ray had a 1 out walk before stealing second base, bringing Damien Ferguson to the plate. Damien hit a pop up that just eluded the glove of the pitcher, who stumbled coming off the mound, most likely preventing him from catching Damien's ball. But instead of catching the ball, it fell in for an infield hit as Hayes advanced to third. Damien stole second and Davis Johnson joined his teammates on the bases by drawing a walk on a 3-2 count. Nicholas Owens recorded his third RBI of the game as he was issued a free pass on 4 pitches, as was Cole Diepholz, whose RBI walk drove in Damien from third. Garrett Branson followed a strikeout of Alec Raboin by drawing the third bases loaded walk of the inning before Trevor Edwards' bases clearing double ended the scoring, making the final 10-5.
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