ROLLINSFORD -- Two teams came into Sunday afternoon's game with identical 0-5 records and a share of last place in the Dover Co-Rec League, but one team would climb out of the cellar with a win.
Unfortunately, that team was not the Beacons, who lost to BL Limey, 22-9.
What is so remarkable is that the Beacons actually led this one, 5-0, after putting together a string of hits in the top of the first inning. They held the lead for two more innings before BL Limey put together a dazzling array of offense and scored a whopping 13 runs to take a 16-5 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Beacons Starting pitcher Phil Fernald was devastated and Beacons Coach Bob Cook was in a state of disbelief. BL Limey hitters batted around their order twice in one inning and refused to make an out for the first seven batters.
Beacons shortstop Steve Cleff and outfielder Jason Claffey helped stopped the bleeding with some strong plays in the field, but BL Limey hitters kept dropping hits all over the field.
In relief, BL Limey capped their day with a two-run blast off Cook in the bottom of the sixth inning that cleared the left field fence.
The Beacons just didn't have any answers for BL Limey, that was a last place club until they registered their first win Sunday.
"You just have to give them credit for that inning. We didn't make bad plays, we didn't walk anybody, they just hit the ball well all over the field and we couldn't stop their momentum," Cook said following the game at GoldStar Park.
"We had the line-up we wanted and the defensive scheme we wanted to help us win this game and we started out well, but somehow it just got away from us," Cook said.
"Frustrating" was the word that Beacons shortstop and utility man Todd Young used in the clubhouse after the game.
Cook said that work also summed up the umpiring.
He said he wasn't pleased when first the umpire allowed the BL Limey hitter who stroked the homerun to forego running around the bases because technically that would disallow any run scored.
"You have to touch them all or it doesn't count," Cook said.
He also took issue with how the umpire forgot about the league's 15-run mercy rule that states a game can only be ended after five innings if one team is beating the other by at least 15 runs. The Beacons were done by 13 runs at the end of the 5th inning and the umpire wanted the Beacons to end the game.
Finally, the exclamation point of the team's frustrations came when a BL Limey hitter tried to hit Cook with a scorching line drive back through the pitcher's mound. Cook snared it and spiked the ball on the mound in defiance as the third out of the sixth inning was recorded.
Veteran Beacons third baseman Bob Dawber tried to make his coach feel better after the game with some words of encouragement.
"Don't worry, we'll get them next time."
Last season it took the Beacons 10 games before they registered the first win in franchise history. Hopefully, history will not repeat itself when the team takes on P. Hussey again on Wednesday night at 6 p.m.
In their first meeting this year, P. Hussey handed the Beacons a 20-8 loss.
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