no bacon on those bananas, gabe!

It was the second inning and the Banana bats had been scorching the Bacon bases!
After three runs, my boys of summer had the bases filled with Bananas and no outs - time for a grand slam, y'all!
Each of the men on - Bill LeRoy, Justin McConnell, and Bryan Encarnacion, on third, second, and first, respectively - had brought a man in - Trenton Nash, Langston Provitt, and Dan Oberst, respectively.
That was some sweet pinball action, it was!

Then the Macon Bacon changed pitchers, from the acquiescent Josh Farmer to the returning strong arm of Braxton Kelly.
Gabe Howell tried for the grand slam - nope.
Out number one for the second inning.
Mike Williams and Austin Schultz followed in his footsteps, to the same sad results.
Out two! Out three! Drats, that pitcher was hard!

But even strong arms eventually tire, especially when it's their first game of the summer.
In the fourth inning, our first hitter was back for the third time and smacked that baseball over the left field wall!!!
Way to go, Gabe!
That tied up the score.
Our pitcher, Jordan Merritt, had begun to flag, too, and gave up four runs earlier that inning, until Dalton Ross relieved him.

By the top of the eighth inning, the score was again tied.
Did I say "again" and mean "still"?
Nope, I said and meant "again".
The home team had scored another three in the bottom of the sixth; the visitors ran in a matching trio for their next at-bat.
When the dust had cleared and #7 took his place to hit in the 8th, the score was locked at 7 to 7, as it had become in the 7th.
Sounds like a joke, right?

All of that changed in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Justin McConnell was on base, with me encouraging someone to "bring him home", as I do.
Then, Gabe stepped up to bat.
"Hit another home run, Gabe",
I shouted as loud as I could...
and that's exactly what he did!!!
Woowsie wow wow!!!
Those two runs cemented the win!
Thanks, Gabe, for making my night!
(smile!)