Cardinals Continue to Dominate Spirits (42+)

(June 26, 2023 – Coppell, TX) At this point it appears to be turning into a written rule. The Dallas Cardinals officially own the Dallas Spirits (42+) squad. In another contest that appeared to bore the red birds as they swapped positions each inning, the only the thing the Spirits could do was attempt a few wise comments from a dugout that was more quiet than prepared to win a baseball game. Despite a few solid hits by a number of Spirits hitters, the remainder of the lineup laid eggs with the team finishing with more errors on the field than it did hits.

In Little League fashion, the squad walked away with 7 fielding errors, errors that were recorded anyway, and watched as a 3 to 3 tie in the third inning disappeared after handing over 6 runs in the fourth to only go on and drop the game by a score of 11 to 3.

“I’m not even sure what to say anymore,” Shawn Lee mentioned after the game. “I stink, so I’m not going to sit and blame this on anyone specifically but a lot of us stink on offense and on defense. I’m not having fun. I hope my players read this and take it to heart because it’s obvious to me that a bunch of them aren’t having any fun either. Try as we may, sometimes it looks like we’re faking it. I think of the work I put in to rehab my shoulder, running the league, running our organization, and trying to make things fun and some of our guys just seem not to give a rat’s ass. That’s the hardest pill to swallow. I also know I’m more emotional than most, but if you’re not gathering after games to grab a beer and building camaraderie, then it’s just a job. I’d still rather lose and play with this group of guys than play with anyone else, but we stink right now. Anyone can beat us.”

There’s a bright side to Lee’s dismal look on his team. They still hold the second seed in the league with an opportunity to chase a championship although the wall in the form of the Cardinals mae be a tall one to climb. Eric McPherson, Kirk Sipila and Travis Hitzeman continued to carry the team offensively and in tonight’s contest, David Tipton also shined in the order with the remainder of the Spirits hitters finishing hitless. McPherson added a triple, hit-by-pitch, run scored and knocked in a pair of runs while Sipila added a single and an RBI sacrifice fly. Hitzeman finished with a pair of hits including a double, and Tipton doubled, tripled, and scored once.

Down 3 to 0 in the top half of the third inning, Tipton led off the inning with a double. Lester Bedford drew a walk and Cardinals starter, Billy McDaniel was able to strike out Jonathan Duran to record the first out. A triple by McPherson scored both Tipton and Bedford and a sacrifice fly by Sipila scored Tipton to tie the game.

Outside of a few other solid hits by the aforementioned Spirits in this story, the Spirits could then only watch as they assisted in handing an easy win to the Cardinals. Four Spirits errors in the bottom half of the fourth inning alongside two singles and a double took the game out of reach as the Cardinals added 6 runs and later picked up another pair to cruise to an easy victory. The Cardinals finished with 14 hits on the night, with the all-time Spirits opponent batting average leader, Jerry Anderson finishing with 3 of those hits, including a double. Anderson scored twice and added 3 RBIs. John Mahalik also finished with 3 hits on the night including a triple.

The Spirits return to action on Monday, July 10th following the Fourth of July holiday when they visit the Caddo Reds in a game that will have some implications on who finishes in the second spot in the NTABL Masters (42+) Division. Fans can click here for schedule details or to download the iScore Central app to listen live.

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