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Roger Morse reporting: We started out hot and easily defeated the Ham Fighters in the first game by a score of 22-12 after 4½ innings. In the second game we ham and egged our way to a 13-13 tie to earn a Kessler Split (a win and a tie) in the doubleheader. With four lefties in the Ham Fighters lineup, they kept Kelvin Foreman busy in right field all night long. Fortunately for us, solid hitting throughout the U.S. Exporters lineup led to our scoring runs in bunches. We also turned a double play in each game. In game 2 we battled back and forth the entire game. The umpire made several questionable calls, but they appeared to be split evenly between the two teams. The call that seemed to have the most impact on us was in our final at bat. With runners on first and third, Drew Thompson hit a ground ball to the second baseman, who flipped it to the shortstop to get the out at second. The throw to first was too late to double up Drew, so Max Wagenblast scampered home from third base. After the umpire initially called Drew safe at first, he then called him out for hitting the ball out of the batter’s box and claimed that the two outs ended the inning! I calmly pointed out that it was impossible for there to be two outs if Drew was called out at the plate. If Drew was out upon hitting the ball, the ball is dead and no force out exists in the infield. The ump relented and sent the runners back. Unfortunately, we could not get that run home again which would have broken the tie.
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