Friday night was without question a "must-win" for Xtreme Contracting as they played host to the Signage Source Storm on K1. Those in attendance for this one were treated to an absolute Classic!
A back-and-forth game all evening, saw Xtreme take an early 6-4 lead in the bottom of the first (including Back-to-Back-to-Back Homeruns by Jamie Allan, Chris Mace, and Andrew Ashbee), after having given up 4 runs to the Storm in the top of the inning. Storm was held scoreless in the 2nd while Xtreme put up 3 more runs in the home half of the inning, including Jamie Allan and Chris Mace again with Back-to-Back Jacks! Storm closed the gap with 3 runs in the top of the third inning and Xtreme's offence failed to answer. 2 more Storm runs in the top of the 4th tied this one at 9-9. Xtreme replied with 5 runs in the bottom of 4, making it a 14-9 lead for the 2011 WMSPL Playoff Champs. Storm scored 7 more times in the top of the 5th to take a 16-14 lead and once again, Xtreme had no answer in the bottom half of the inning. 6 more in the top of the 6th for the Storm gave them a commanding 22-14 lead however the Xtreme offence battled back and answered with 6 of their own, including Jamie Allan's 3rd Homerun of the evening (22-20 Storm after 6 innings of play).
The Xtreme defence was looking for a quick "1-2-3" 7th, but Storm would not go down easily and 4 more runs crossed the plate, leaving Xtreme trailing by 6 entering the home half of the 7th. Xtreme once again showed its' team character and continued to fight for runs, with the tying run eventually crossing the plate on a Paul Wilcox single. This was followed by a single by Jamie Allan, advancing Wilcox to 3rd. Storm then made the decision to intentionally walk Chris Mace, loading the bases for Ashbee with 1-out, who went to the plate looking for a SAC-fly to win the game. An early 2-0 count in favour of the batter forced Storm's pitcher Al to deliver a strike, which Ashbee proceeded to park over the right-field fence. The walk-off Grand Slam resulted in the 30-26 Xtreme victory over Storm (incorrectly changed to 27-26 on the WMSPL website, but whatever, the victory is what mattered).
Xtreme (now 20-8) records its 5th straight victory and moves within 1.5 games of the Storm (22-7), with one game in hand, and one more head-to-head battle scheduled for Sunday August 25th at 6:30pm (K1). Xtreme has 24 hours to enjoy the Win, but then must be prepared for a Sunday afternoon (5:00pm) contest as the team travels to K1 to visit Hanet Plastics (the first of a 3-game road trip for Xtreme), which is then followed by a Monday night 8:00pm contest at the A's.
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