Baseball Review // Vernon Orioles, 2 Record-Journal Expos, 3 @ Ceppa Field, Meriden CT July 16th 2024 (GHTBL)

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Official box score ::: 

https://ghtbl.org/event/orioles-expos-4

Additional photos can be found on Facebook here :::

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This was the third time that the Orioles and Expos met this season, each of the games before this was won by the home team- the Orioles winning their first meeting in Vernon and the Expos winning the second in Meriden.   Given the home field advantage (and a huge loss the Orioles suffered the night before) it felt like the odds were in favor of the Expos, but the weather was also going to become a surprise factor.

Right away in the first inning, Zach Donahue hit a leadoff homerun over the left field fence that bounced in the street.  I've only ever seen a leadoff homerun such as this at Ceppa Field once before and it was also by a Vernon Orioles player, Jordan English.   This gave the Orioles an early 1-0 lead but with two strikeouts, JD Tyler and the Expos worked themselves out of the inning.

In the bottom of the first, Sebby Grignano drew a walk to leadoff.   After stealing second, Sebby Grignano was able to reach third on a sac fly by "Superstar" Luke DiMauro.  AJ Hendrickson would drive a shot into center field to bring in Grignano and the scored was tied 1-1 just like that.  Jon Remillard would single, followed by a single by Javon Malone who would bring in Hendrickson to make it a 2-1 ball game.

It was strange how these next events played out because you couldn't write it any better if there was a movie.  As we're going into the top of the second inning, I feel rain drops on me.  A few at first, but then more and more to the point where everyone ran for cover.   Well, everyone except for the players that is.   The game went on and the Orioles had the bases loaded but the Expos got out of it.  

I can remember at least two times that I saw baseball played in the rain- where the rain started during the game and the game kept going.  This particular rain was heavier than both of those times combined.   Why no one made the decision to pause the game is beyond me as it affected visibility, the ball, bats, et al was all slippery-- it didn't feel safe to some degree.  But yet, the umpires did what they seem to do best: nothing.

In that movie script type way, as the top of the first inning came to an end, the rain let up.  By the time the Expos were at bat in the bottom of the second, the rain was pretty much done.  They tended to the field and if you had been in the Orioles dug out and not at bat for that half inning you could still be relatively dry.  But most of the players were just playing the rest of the game in their uniforms, soaked.  

The third inning saw Will Kszywanos double in Jon Remillard to put the Expos up 3-1 and a lot of this game went by fast.  It was about an hour and forty five minutes in total, which feels like it should've been slowed down because of the rain, but it felt like after that rain inning there was an urgency to get the game over and done with.

The sixth inning saw the Vernon Orioles score one more run but that would be all she wrote.   What particularly struck me as funny was that during the top of the seventh the Vernon Orioles coach explained that their pitcher was going to move to first base, if the bottom of the seventh happened.   Their pitcher didn't hit- he had a DH for him- and so JD Tyler was arguing that since the pitcher wasn't hitting he couldn't move to first base.  

What's funny was, as JD Tyler and Orioles coach discussed this, the umpires just sat there as if they were statues.  Even people in the crowd were yelling out for the umpires to weigh in on the decision because they should know and they should be the ones making it.   But if they aren't going to pause the game for rain, thunder, lightning and a rainbow, I guess they also can't be bothered to make these decisions involving rules they should've learned at Umpire University.

JD Tyler pitched an incredible game through these seven innings and considering one half of them was in torrential downpours there has to be some kind of award for this, for braving the elements.   Jason Ray only gave up three runs and did well in his pitching outing, which made this really just feel like a good game of pitching as there were 1-2-3 innings, some exciting double plays and more than a few strike outs.

The Expos return to play on Wednesday (weather pending) at Buzzy Levin Field in Middletown, CT to take on the Middletown Mets.   They also play the Mets again on Thursday at Ceppa Field.   The Mets, who started out hot but now sit at 6-11, beat the Expos in their first meeting of the season so it should be interesting to see how this game plays out.

With this win the Expos move up to 8-7 while it also drops the Orioles down to 13-4, putting them in a distinct second place behind M&T Bank.   It is certainly a fun fact to think that the Orioles lost only four times this season but half of those losses came at the hands of the Record-Journal Expos.