(April 26, 2025 – Carrollton, TX) It was a tough day defensively and despite trying to bat a long lineup of players, hits proved to be far and few between in a game that featured what was essentially a pitcher’s duel. One on the Spirits end, pitcher Mike Sopocy pitched a complete game gem, allowing just 5 hits and one earned while walking zero and striking out a pair of hitters as the Spirits (50+) squad fell to the Diabolos by a score of 3 to 2. On the other side, Rick Oden seemed to have the right stuff, allowing 2 earned off of just 4 hits, while walking 5 and striking out 6.
Kirk Sipila walked once and picked up one of those 4 hits, with Kevin Simmons also following suit with a single, walk, and run scored. Stacy Scott finished 1 for 2 with a run scored, and Dee Mauldin picked up the fourth and last hit on the day. Chris Allen was hit once and added a sacrifice fly that scored a run, and Eric McPherson picked up the Spirits only other run batted in. Jimmy Campise finished with 2 hits for the Diabolos.
“This was a tough one to give away,” Shawn Lee mentioned afterwards. ” We finished with 5 errors and they finished with zero. That was absolutely the difference. But that’s baseball unfortunately. We very easily and should have won that game. Mike (Sopocy) pitches a great game like that but then we have zero offense to support him. You had a few egregious calls on the field by the umpires and it’s the perfect recipe for losing. More times than not, we simply do not control our own destiny and I don’t know why we do that. But it’s early in the season. This will cost us in seeding near the end of the year but if we want to be the best, we’ll have to prove it.”
Five Star Ford Players of the Game
Mike Sopocy (6 IP, 5 H, ER, 0 BB, 2 K)
Kirk Sipila (1-1, BB)
Kevin Simmons (1-1, R, BB)