Cards Squeeze Out Late Night Tie Versus A's

On a sunny Wednesday evening the bats came alive on Mavericks Field again as the Legends Cardinals took on the Sopranos Athletics in a make-up game from back in June. In the first of two consecutive games between these teams the umpires were on the hotseat as many calls were questioned and argued in this heated affair. In the end, the night sky was a factor and the teams ended deadlocked at 5-5.

Starting off an astonishing run of four games in five days, the Cards went with ptiching ace Luke Lampard to face equally difficult A's ace Adam Kerr. Looking to take care of business early on, the Cards' jumped on a slow start from Kerr and the A's to take a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Back-to-back lead off singles from Matt Smith and Josh Byers would get some help from a pair of infield errors to put the home side out front.

After a scoreless second inning, the Athletics would answer back as an RBI double to the fence from Joe Leghorn would score Adam Splawski to knot the game 1-1. From there the Athletics would take the lead in the top of the fourth inning as Scott Vickers would score after reaching on an error to put the A's up 2-1.

A single from Sean Pollitt in the bottom of the fourth would serve as the tying run for the Cardinals, scoring on a single from Matt Smith, who finished the night 3-for-3, with 3 RBI. Controversial calls on close plays in both fifth and sixth innings would add even more peculiarity to the evening as Russell Taylor and pitcher Luke Lampard would eventually score to put the Cardinals up 4-2. However, the Athletics would tally three times on three hits in the top of the sixth to step into the driver's seat with a 5-4 lead. With the sun well out of the evening sky, and darkness approaching quickly at Lambrick Park, Shane Roberts' double to the wall in the seventh inning gave the Cards some final hope. He would later provide the tying run as a bloop single fell between the infielders and outfielders. The final out was barely caught due to darkness is left field and Victoria Mavericks Baseball has learned from this incident, changing all future evening games to a start-time of 6:15 p.m.

The Cards play host to the A's again on Friday night, and continue onto Saturday facing the Astros and then the Dodgers on Sunday. Come out and enjoy some August baseball as the Mavericks 2007 season rounds down.