May
31

Offense Officially “Missing” as Spirits (18+) Drop Third Straight

(May 30, 2018 – Dallas, TX) The next time you see the Dallas Spirits logo, you may find it on the side of a milk carton with the word, “missing.” A late-game rally made the box score respectable for the Spirits (18+) squad this past Wednesday night, however you need to have more runs than the other team to win the game. Hits and runs were few and far between but the ghosts scrambled for a few late game hits, falling short to the Blue Jays by a score of 7 to 3 at Reverchon Park in Uptown, Dallas.

Zachary Freeman and Jerry Anderson combined to strike out 11 Spirits hitters, allowing just 2 earned runs on 6 hits. The loss is the third straight for the Spirits and in that span, the squad has been outscored 19-4.

“I’m not sure what to even say about it,” commented John Showalter. “We were hot out of the gates and now we’re in a bit of a rut. Nobody said the Open National League was going to hand us a trophy, so we better recognize that. There are four teams in this league. They’ve seen us enough that they are learning and figuring us out. We just need to return the favor. The bottom line is, our guys need to step up. Our leaders on this team need to step up. If we compete against the game and play hard, we can compete with anyone. We just have to get back to believing that.”

The game played out in the manner of the cliche, pitcher’s duel once again with both teams struggling to get hits. Cliff Brade and Kyle Redinger drew walks to start the game and after Eric Goetz flew out, Holden Novak loaded the bases after reaching on an error. Showalter went down swinging and Carl Suverkrop grounded out before the Spirts could plate a run.

Novak handled pitching duties for the Spirits and was able to set the Blue Jays in order in the first, after initially walking Jerry Anderson. The infield spun two on Matt Garrabrants and Novak was able to get Freeman on swings.

Mike Werner added a single in the second, but after that things were quiet until Goetz beat out a dropped third strike and later scored after advancing on a ground out by Novak and then an RBI single by Showalter. Showalter swiped second to get into scoring position, but Suverkrop was thrown out on a dropped third strike to end the top half of the fourth.

The ghosts took their 1 to 0 lead into the bottom half of the inning and Freeman led the birds portion of the frame with a single. Freeman reached second after a Spirits fielding error allowed Jordan Hebert to reach base and a free pass to Xander Anderson loaded the bases. Novak recovered to strike out Evan Jeaniee, but then walked Ben Carey to tie the game at 1 each. Ben Gilman flew out and it appeared the Spirits might get out of the inning, but Hebert was able to score on a wild pitch from Novak and the Blue Jays led game, 2 to 1.

Three straight doubles by the Blue Jays in the fifth made it 5 to 1, but the Spirits rallied to make it 5 to 2 after Justin Anderson singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch from Jerry Anderson. Justin later scored on a single by Brade. The Blue Jays plated another pair of runs in the sixth to make it 7 to 2 and a double by Teddy Croft was good enough to score Novak in the Spirits seventh, but it was all the ghouls had left before the Blue Jays sealed the 7 to 3 victory.

Novak went 4 innings, allowing one earned run on 2 hits after walking and striking out 5. Newcomer, Ethan Webb pitched the final two for the Spirits, giving up 5 earned on 6 hits, while striking out 3.

The Spirits return to action on Sunday, June 3 as they host the Outlaws at John Paul II High School at 6:00PM. Click here for schedule details, directions to the game, or to download the iScore Central app to watch and listen to the game live!

Game Box Score

Dallas Spirits Players of the Game

John Showalter (1-3, RBI)

Justin Anderson (1-2, R)

Teddy Croft (1-3, 2B, RBI)