Portland, Or.  9/6/08 – The Portland River Hawks

Saturday was a great day for baseball and the Portland River Hawks came together for their first win of the fall season.  Playing excellent baseball yesterday with great defense and solid base hits against the new Wichita  Nationals another team using metal bats in our wood bat league.

The Hawks started the game with solid hits up the first base line by Joshua and Wally getting the Hawks  on the score board (operated by The Hawks Mike Austin), 2 walks and Stephen Harper (who was crowding the plate) getting hit produced another run.  The Nationals started with a walk and a hit and then the Hawks got a 6-4-3 double play for the first 2 outs of the inning, the next batter reached on an error but the Hawks catcher Chris Nelson caught him napping off first with a quick throw for 2-3 inning ending out to shut down the Nationals allowing just 1 run.

The second inning saw the Hawks start with strikeout, a walk by Russell, who then stole 2 bases, another strikeout and the with 2 outs the Hawks hitters reawakened to score 4 runs (using aggressive base stealing with 5 stolen bases got the rally going).  The Nationals picked up their second hit but ended the inning with Joshua getting 2 strikeouts.

The Hawks came back again in the third to score 2 more runs on 4 walks and 4 stolen bases.  Chris Nelson changed from catcher to pitcher and and after the Hawks played a game of catch with the Nationals first batter who ended up at third.  Not knowing that the Hawks have great depth with catchers Beau nailed the runner at third, Chris ending the bottom of the inning with 2 of his 5 strike outs

The Hawks top of the forth saw 2 more runs on a walk, a balk, a force, a stolen base and an error by the nationals second baseman. The bottom of the forth saw Chris strike out 3 of the 5 batters he faced. Brent replace Russell at short giving him a much need rest after stealing 3 bases for the day. Sad note as Mike Wood broke the second bat in as many games

The top of the fifth saw the Hawks score their 11^TH run of the day when Beau smashed an inside pitch hard down the third base line, Chris Nelson came in to run and quickly was standing on third when Jesse got his second hit of the game allowing Chris to come home.

Bobby got his first chance of the season to pitch and quickly gave up 2 runs on 2 hits, a hit batter, and 2 walks. He then settled down to retire the next 6 batters in row. With out Dwight's great mind boggling stretches at fist base the Nationals might have scored a few more runs.

The sixth inning ended and the  2 hour 30 minute rule was applied.

Recap: Hawks 11 runs 10 hits 7 walks 9 left on base with 5 striking out

          Nationals 3 runs 4 hits 7 walks and 9 men left on base with 8 striking out

(the Nationals used metal bats to the wood bats of the Hawks)

This was the third game that the Hawks had played and we are now be a team to be contended with.

After the game the team went over to our new sponsor's establishment (Alameda Brew House) to hoist a few brews, eat, and reminisce about the days game.

As the evening wore on and a few more brews were downed, nick names started to replace our given one.  Starting with Mike Wood (Splinter), Mike Walogorsky (Wally), Mike Austin (Texas Mike), Duane (Waggy), Stephen (Wooly), Dwight Nelson (Stretch),

Joshua (Rocky), Yett (Whitey), with the rest of the team to be decided sooner than latter.

Great game,  great night...thanks to all you Hawks and your families......