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Mighty Mussels Split on Opening Day

By Kendal Anthony, 09/11/22, 2:30PM CDT

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Mighty Mussels - 15 vs. 66ers – 6

It was a beautiful morning for opening day of Shalom softball.  One might compare it to a child’s first day of school as Captain Kendal “Keke” Anthony had a hard time catching any snoozies in anticipation of his first week as a Shalom captain.

Ryan Prim set the tone in the top of the 1st inning with a leadoff triple that was driven in by Reese Leonard via sac fly to plate our first run. A Donald Prim ewok, Brad Earls single, and Tony Martin ewok loaded the bases for Danny “El Tractor” Cortez who smashed a grand slam in his first at bat of the season to take the score to 5-0.

After a quiet 2nd inning, Donald Prim did what Donald Prim do in the 3rd inning smashing a “Han Solo” shot for the 6th run of the game.  Captain Grant Carver’s troopers would come storming back with 5 runs of their own with the help of a couple no doubt home runs from Heath Jones and Timmmay Jamieson.

After both teams put up a goose egg in the 4th it was anybody’s game heading to the top of the 5th.  Brooke Prim led the inning off with a clutch single which Lil Prim followed up with a double.  Reese Leonard singled to drive in one run and another came across via defensive miscue.  Mussels up 8-5.  Donald hit a triple to drive in another and B-Rad Earls smacked his first home run of the season to run the score up to 11-5.  Some more stuffs happened to score another run and then Big Game James Keller came up to the plate and lived up to his nickname with an RBI single.  Ray Hebbeler drove in one of his own with a line drive to left and Brooke Prim put the icing on the cake with a sac fly to take the score to 15-5.

Carver’s 66ers would answer with a "Han Solo" shot from Timmmay, but that would be it as the Mussels got the dub 15-6.

Don’t let the final score fool you, this game was much closer than the scoreboard showed.  If it weren’t the un-shellfishness of players taking ewoks and trusting the next man (or woman) behind them to produce and some great hustle plays that forced defensive miscues this game very well could have gone the other way.  Don’t sleep on Carver’s 66ers, if you do they very well may execute order 66 on that peach emoji.

 

Blue Rocks – 12 vs. Mighty Mussels – 1

Welp…the “Winnys” must have worn off for the Mighty Mussels in game 2 (see above score).  Reigning Fall Champion Captain Jon Banta always fields a strong team and this year is no different.

Outside of a Donald Prim solo shot in the bottom of the 1st there really isn’t too much to taco bout in terms of offense for the Mussels in this game. 

Did the Mighty Mussels play our best game, clearly no.  But simply leaving it at that would be doing our opponent a disservice.  Banta pitched a heck of a game and the no doubt best SS/3B combo in the league, Luke Morgan and Brian Babbitt, were absolutely electrifying on defense.

These games happen in this league, but even in convincing losses there are almost always silver linings you can take away from them.  What this captain is very proud of is that despite the score, every single player on the team remained positive and supportive of one another.  Every single player sprinted the bases on ground balls and fly outs, and the same next man/woman up mentality from game 1was there (his/hers for our preferred pronouns perhaps?)

 

Get Your Flex on Standouts of the Week:

Danny “El Tractor” Cortez- 2 for 2 with a Grand Salami, single, 3 BB, 4 RBI, 2 runs scored.  Danny was a perfect 1.000 OBP on the day and was very un-shellfish taking what the pitchers gave him and trusting his teammates.  No doubt he deserves to be in the Shalom POW conversation.

Brad Earls- 2 for 3 with a HR, single, 2BB, 3 RBI, 2 runs scored.  Not only did Brad have a great day at the plate, he was also phenomenal on defense transitioning from SS to 3B seamlessly.  His positive attitude spilled over into the dugout, helping to build the type of culture that the Mighty Mussels are all about.

Brooke Prim- 2 for 3 with 2 singles, sac fly, 1 RBI, 1 run scored.  Brooke embraced and flourished in her role as 2nd leadoff and was the catalyst for the monster 5th inning that led to the Mighty Mussels first win of the season.