Nationals win!
I certainly wish that it had not taken until the last game of the season, but the Nationals defeated the Pirates Black, 11-10 in 5 innings.
The Nationals fought back from a 10-4 deficit in the third inning with a multi-hit game by James Kurtti, a multi-RBI game from Alex Galloway, and two innings of masterful shutout pitching by Cole Schmanke.
Cole pitched the last inning with the knowledge that not only could he allow NO runs, but he had to complete the inning in 8 minutes. (Plano has a rule that any baseball game must end at the 2:00 mark, and that any incomplete innings will not count in the final result.)
If that’s not pressure, I don’t know what is. Not only… â??You gotta strike ‘em outâ? but â??you gotta strike ‘em out, and FAST.â?
Even the defense got into the act. Tyler Eggers and Michael Shaw both had nice catches for putouts in the last two innings.
In related news, it is believed that upon Michael catching the fly ball for the final out, a certain coach set a world record by jumping about 19 feet into the air, immediately before doing his Jim Valvano impression and hugging any player who ventured near him on the field.