Game #2, the 7 hour game

Wow, talk about a day at the ballpark. Here's a little timeline for our team today...

6:00 - Wake up, throw on the uniform in a half-asleep haze

6:45 - Bike to the dining hall, bag dragging behind, shove some food in the ol' trap, get a coffee to go and head to the bus

7:15 - Bus leaves for Wukesong Stadium

7:45 - Arrive, get stretched and warm up soon there after

8:10 - Batting practice for 1 hour

9:00 - Sit around for and hour and 15 minutes because the US team failed to inform us they weren't taking BP, so we could have infact slept in another 45 minutes

10:30 - Game Begins

12:30ish - It's the bottom of the 6th and we still don't have a hit, a walk, but no hit, until Sharnol Adriana punches a single up the middle

12:45 - First rain delay begins, lasts about 1 hour then we play another 1 inning

1:45ish - I become an official olympian under a strange and kind of crappy circumstance. Dave Draijer had come on to pitch the 8th and 9th, but was struck in the right forearm by a line drive from the first batter he faced (he'll be ok, nothing broken, just a tennis ball sticking out of his arm it appears). So I came in with bases loaded, 1 out and got 2 grounders, letting 1 run in on the first grounder. I went back out for the 9 and gave up a leadoff hit, but got 3 straight outs after that including striking out their top prospect LaPorta looking to end the inning.

2:00 We load the bases in the bottom of the 9th with none out down by 7... and the rains come again.

4:30 Finally the game is called because of the non-stop rain. Which also erases my last inning pitched because of baseball rules. If a rainout happens during the middle of an inning, you automatically revert back to the end of the last innings score.

As usual, some pictures from todays action...



This is our 3rd base coach Jack Hubbard (also a former MLB head coach). This guy is full of stories and jokes, a really great guy to have around the team and in the clubhouse. He came up to me before the game and explained to me how his wife was informed somehow of my blog here, and has been following it somewhat, so we need to have a little photoshoot, him and I. A few minutes later I took him outside the dugout and we took a couple shots, he's cheezing like only Hubby can, and I'm just trying to keep up



This picture was taken during the announcing of our starting lineup. For some reason they don't do the national anthems in the Olympic baseball tournament, I would think this would be the main tournament to play anthems at, but what do I know, I'm just a pitcher



Kingsale batting against their starter, Stephen Strasburg. Strasburg is the only college player on te USA team, and is slated to be the #1 pick in next years MLB draft, securing himself a solid multi million dollar contract



Sidney batting, and traces of Netherlands fans throughout the stands, always good to see. There were about 1/2 the fans as yesterday, but I'd still put the total around 800, not bad. All the fans seemed to flock next door where the home team was playing on field #1



The rain started to come down pretty steady by this point, and we knew we didn't have long before they would suspend the game



The field crew putting the tarp on, the monsoon rains followed quickly after this. They had to put it on 2 times, and this was the first



Martijn, having a facial expression just like everyone else on the team. Rain rain rain...



Water, tarp with water on it, rain... consisting of water, scoreboard (probably some water on it too), and building... solid shot