Sight & Sound drop close game

In a battle for first place in Rainy River District Fastball League action last night at VanJura Stadium here, the local Sight & Sound team gave up two runs in the final inning en route to a 5-3 loss to the visiting Big Grassy Lightning.
With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the sixth, Big Grassy’s Brian Hook stepped to the plate with a man on and promptly delivered a double to the gap in centre, scoring the go-ahead run.
But Sight & Sound wasn’t about to concede defeat, tying the game in their half of the inning.
Derek McKinnon stroked a double to the opposite field, then scored on a Joe Sinclair bloop single to centre to knot the game at 3-3 going to the seventh and final inning.
But the Lightning responded when they came to bat, scoring two runs—the first on a wild pitch and then the insurance marker on an RBI single by pitcher Jeff Morrison.
The Wolves did threaten in the bottom of the seventh, putting two runners on for Bob Andy.
He torched a Morrison offering deep to the gap in centre, but what might have been a walk-off home run instead simply went as a loud out as the Lightning outfielder tracked it down just before the fence.
Morrison and Andy both pitched superbly, proving their collective dominance in the RRDFL as the top two hurlers, but someone had to lose this one.
Hook got things going early for the visitors in the second, depositing Andy’s riser over the centrefield fence for a two-run bomb—his third in two games this week.
“It’s been a good week, I just seem to be seeing the ball well,” Hook noted.
The Wolves manufactured a run of their own in the bottom half of the second on a wild pitch, then tied it at 2-2 in the third on a passed ball.
The Lightning threatened to break the game wide open in the fourth, loading the bases with one out. But Andy’s experience showed through as he induced a soft ground ball, allowing the Wolves to turn a 1-2-3 double-play to end the threat.
Wolves’ shortstop Marcel Pagee nearly produced a run of his own in the fifth. After beating out an infield single, he stole second and then got to third on a groundout.
Then, hoping to catch Morrison sleeping, he tried to steal home with two outs and nearly did—if not for the expert plate blocking of Big Grassy’s catcher (Hook).
Sight & Sound dropped to 9-3 on the season with the loss and next travel to Big Grassy for a re-match this coming Tuesday night.