By Ed Muniz-Photos by Jenn-Anne Gedhill
For Braves player’ Mike Musary, being underestimated was fine with him. He welcomed being overlooked or thought of as easier prey, when the Arroyo Seco baseball team of the Elgin Mens Baseball League, intentionally walked a batter to get to him.
To make matters more telling, the walk was issued with men on first and third. For Musary, that was a slap in the face that needed a response.
The two out bases loaded situation was happening in an elimination game of the EMBL 2021 playoffs on August 28 at Continental Park in Elgin. A loss would end the season for one of these teams.
For six straight innings, Braves Pitcher Jimmy Lewandowski and Arroyo Pitcher’ Ethan Laria held batters at bay, each mixing pitches well enough that neither team was able to generate much offense with the game scoreless h
eading into the seventh inning.
Laria did find him self in trouble in the first as the Braves managed to load the bases with one out, but Laria and teammates managed to escape unscathed after Laria struck out two to end the threat.
Laria would go the distance and end the game with 15 strikeouts in nine innings, twice striking-out the side in the second and the sixth inning.
For Lewandowski, his game plan was to go heavy with the fastball to begin and see what came of it. Against the first six batters he faced, he managed to get three flyball outs and struck out three.
Lewandowski gave up just four hits in nine innings, while grabbing 12 strikeouts of his own.
“I was trying to control my fastball and see what they did with it,” said Lewandowski. “I went to the off-speed stuff and began to notice they were having trouble with my fastball after that. I went out there just to do my job and that all I was doing, I was waiting for that one run, that’s all I needed.”
Inning after inning, both teams showed good defense but Arroyo began showing some defensive kinks that would result in a big Seventh iinning for the Braves.
In the sixth inning, Brave Manager Alexis Camargo added another batter to the lineup which turned out to be a wise move.
Adolfo Zavala was that player and he paid off with a single to lead off the top of the seventh inning.
Laria punched-out the next batter for the first out. Next a grounder to first was mis-played. The error saw Braves perched at first and third. Laria coaxed a flyball to center but the Braves runner at third committed a mental-mistake and didn’t tag up in what surely would have been the first run.
With two outs, Arroyo chose to walk clean-up hitter Martin Moreno to load the bases. Up stepped Mike Musary.
“I was thinking about the pressure of the situation but felt kind of good that they underestimated me. I thought ok, its awesome to be in this spot,” said Musary
The first pitch from Laria, Musary stroked through the infield, into right field which plated both Zavala and Pat Soderquist.
Laria’s defense again let him down as a booted ball to second would score both Moreno and Musary to extend the Braves lead to 4-0.
At that point, the way Lewandowski was performing, the Braves surely felt the game was in hand with just nine outs to go. Lewandowski made short work of the bottom of the seventh allowing just a single but proceeded to get the next three batter out.
Neither team was able to score in the last two innings and the game ended fittingly with Lewandowski completing the shut-out victory with a strike out and advancing his team in the playoffs.
Both pitching performances were stellar. Lewandowski was good at mixing his pitches and when he missed, it didn’t hurt him. He had batters guessing who were simply unable to do much with what he was offering.
For Laria, this might have been his best pitching of the year. He too managed to keep batters off balance but control plagued him at times, still, a 15 strikeout game is quite a feat and deserves credit, he just didn’t have his defense error-free when he needed it.
For Braves Manager Camargo, he showed patience and made the right move at the right time.
“We needed just that one inning, we needed OUR inning and we got it. Mike came through and he was due, it was time, the right time. We grabbed the momentum and that was big in this game.”
The Braves will now face the Trash Pandas in a best of three series as part of the EMBL Playoffs on Sunday September 5 at Continental Park at 3 and 6 PM.
One other playoff game managed to get a game in prior to Mother Nature cancelling all others. The Mud Dogs defeated the Dorados 8-2 in the best of three opener.
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