By: JMU, Staff Writer
August 17, 2010
Fullerton, California.
The Monkeys came into Tuesday night’s game riding the wave of a four game winning streak, brimming with confidence and eager to avenge their opening day loss to the Wheelchair Bandits. They scored four quick runs in the top of the first inning, took the field in the bottom of the first, and then everything fell apart.
“Against a team like that, we don’t have much of a margin for error,” commented Manager John Upton. “We made a couple of key errors in the bottom of the first which lead to a bunch of unearned runs. When we finally recorded the third out in that inning we were just down by seven runs, but tonight, for whatever reason, we seemed to lack the spirit to bounce back.”
Lack of timely hitting resulted in the Monkeys putting runners on base, but failing to score them in the second, third and fourth innings. At times, they seemed on the verge of starting a rally only to have their hopes dashed by a line drive hit right at a defender or a ground ball into a double play. In all, they stranded 8 baserunners over five innings.
The Monkeys defense tightened up in the middle innings, but their lack of offense put the game out of reach, and by the end of 5, the Wheelchair Bandits plated enough runs to mercy the Monkeys.
“I hate to lose like that, but the way we played tonight, we would have had a hard time beating anyone,” said Upton. “ We got a but unlucky with the bats, but we have no excuses for how we played in the field. We need to get better as a team backing each other up on every play, hustling after every ball, and refusing to concede easy runs. We just didn’t execute well on defense, mentally and physically, and though the box score reads just four errors, I feel as if that was one of our poorer defensive efforts of the season.”
Left center fielder Matt Beighley should be back with the team for next week’s game, which will allow the Moneys outfielders to return to their natural positions and hopefully solidify the team’s outfield defense. They will need a strong effort from everyone as next week’s match-up with the second place Hackers carries major playoff implications.
Monkey Notes:
Shortstop Daniel Quinones’s recovery from his dislocated knee is ahead of schedule. Though he remains doubtful for a return this season, Monkeys management hopes to have him back in uniform for the start of the Fall, 2010 campaign.
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