Tigers Pounding Florida Southern

As I write this, the Detroit Tigers lead Florida Southern College 11-0 at the end of five innings. At this point in the game, most (if not all) of the names you’ll recognize have already done their work for the day and have been replaced in the lineup.

There is no television broadcast of this game, no radio feed, either. This report is compiled from a series of tweets from those attending the game, and from Florida Southern’s gamecast page. Reminiscent, I suppose, of a far earlier day when people would huddle around the wire waiting for an update from the ball park.

Andy Oliver worked the first two innings for the Tigers. He didn’t walk anyone and allowed two hit; one on a ground ball and the other a flare. Oliver struck out the side on swinging strikes in the second inning. Jacob Turner followed him to the mound and while he battled his command a bit, he worked two scoreless innings as well, striking our one and walking a pair while allowing one hit.

The Tigers scored in each of the first four innings. Detroit had runners on the corners and only one out when cleanup man Victor Martinez came to the plate in the first. Martinez wasn’t able to bring the runner home, however, as he struck out for the second out of the inning. The Tigers would score their first run on an error that allowed Jhonny Peralta to reach base.

The Tigers got two more in the second when Ryan Strieby opened the rally with a walk and moved up on Alex Avila‘s infield hit. Austin Jackson brought in the first run of the inning with a double to left and a Will Rhymes ground ball made it 3-0 Tigers. The big blow came an inning later when Brennan Boesch came to the plate with two on and crushed a pitch over the batter’s eye in centerfield. The three-run shot was estimated at over 450 feet. I can only hope that Jay was able to get a video clip of that one. back-to-back doubles by Avila and Clete Thomas brought home the seventh Tigers run.

Detroit added two more in the fourth when a walk and a single opened the frame. Cale Iorg brought home a run with a sacrifice fly and Casper Wells got into the act with a bloop single to bring home another run.

I as alluded to above, our own James Chipman (JAYRC) is in attendance today and he’ll have a full first-hand recap later this evening, complete with visual aids.

What can we learn from the first few innings of baseball against an NCAA Division II opponent? Not much, really. But because we haven’t had baseball for so damn long, let’s throw out some mid-game cheers, shall we?

Cheers for

• Cale Iorg– Iorg actually took a walk in his first trip to the plate today. He doesn’t do that very often, so I felt it worth a happy dance!
• Boesch– Anything that travels that far, that fast aughtta have a stewardess and an in-flight movie.
• the competing outfielders- Wells, Boesch, and Thomas are all vying for a job as the fourth outfielder this spring. They combined to go 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a homer (Boesch), a double (Thomas), and five RBI (Boesch 3, Wells and Thomas 1 each)

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