Topic: Front Page
On any other day, the games would’ve been rained out.
The rainstorm that slammed the Northeast on April 15 certainly was enough to stop most teams in their tracks, but not the Massapequa Hitmen. Imagine the surprise owner/GM Jack Flynn must’ve felt when he got the phone call from Hitmen head honcho Jason Boland on Sunday morning, wondering why St. Jack’s Demons players hadn’t taken the field for batting practice and instead seemed ready for a rainout. “But JB, we’re getting hit with a Nor’easter today!”
“I thought it was just a little rain,” Boland told a shocked Flynn.
With the Hitmen on the field and waiting to play ball, the Demons had no choice but to suit up and take the field. By the end of the day, Boland had to have wished he had just stayed in bed. The Demons swept the three-game series on the strength on terrific pitching performances from Curt Schilling, Roy Oswalt and Carlos Zambrano to start the season 3-0. Zambrano took a no-hitter into the ninth before it was finally broken up by Derek Jeter, who was showered with boos and debris by Demons fans as he rounded the bases after a heartbreaking solo home run.
Jeter stood in against Zambrano with one out and the bases empty in the ninth. 25 of the 27 previous batters had been retired without a hit, and Zambrano had only scattered two walks to that point. A roll of 4-9 yielded a HR 1-7, flyball-B 8 -20. Boland picked up his 20-sided die, which had just missed a ballpark single with pinch-hitter Jose Reyes the batter before, and shockingly rolled a 2. The no-hitter was gone, the shutout was gone and Jeter had further cemented his place as the most hated figure in baseball among the Demons faithful.
“Of all the guys who had to do it, it had to be Jeter. I’ve always hated that prick too!” Flynn admitted after the game.
Zambrano gave up another hit, but retired the final two batters for the complete game victory in what turned out to be a 9-1 win. He was helped out early and often by his fielders – Omar Vizquel’s fielding rating of 1 saved at least three hits alone, as Boland rolled a 2 on three straight groundball SS(X) chances during the course of the game. Perhaps the scariest moment came with two outs in the seventh, when a roll of 5-11 yielded a flyball LF(X). The ball floated toward Pat Burrell (a 4e4 in LF) and it seemed the no-hitter couldn’t possibly survive. But Boland rolled a 20, Burrell made the play and the drama continued until Jeter’s at-bat.
In the earlier games, Curt Schilling opened the season with a complete game five-hitter in a 7-2 Demons win. Schilling, who holds virtually every major pitching record in franchise history, was a little wild in walking four and plunking two others. However, three hits from Nick Johnson and a home run from Grady Sizemore helped out. In Game 2, Roy Oswalt pitched into the ninth before tiring and Takashi Saito was called on to get the final out of a 6-4 win. Scott Rolen had two homers to pace the Demons attack.
