Cougars Lay an Egg in Memorial Day Thriller

The Colehamer Cougars and the Averill Park Sea Bass matched up against each other in a Memorial Day game that will certainly stick in the Cougars memory for a long time. After an embarrassing game one in a Sea Bass doubleheader, the boys from Averill Park were ready to strike. Jeremy Menard took all of the anger that came from a game that showed a major lack of class from the Poestenkill Bums as they ran up the score, and took it straight into game two. The Cougars starter for that day was Scott Fitzpatrick. After giving up four runs in the first, and then the Colehamer squad getting a double play turned against them, the tide was quickly in the favor of Averill Park. Though the Cougars came up with five in the second, Jeremy Menard, Steve Powers, and rookie Jeff Hollinger each produced multi home run games, leading the Sea Bass to a 12-5 lead late. Then, Fitzpatrick was pulled for Triscari, and eight more were tacked on. The rout was on. 20-6 in the bottom of the ninth. Jeremy Menard pitching lights out. Cougars bats silent. The comeback seemed all but impossible. In the words of Earl Turner “All we need to do is take pitches, be smart and stay positive.” That’s just what happened. Nine walks or hit batsmen in a row, and soon the score was 20-9, 0 outs. 20-11, 0 outs. 20-12, 0 outs. Then, Connor Dowd was given the hit sign. With Jeremy pleading that he was “FINE!”, Dowd hit Earl into a force out. 20-13, 1 out. The drama kept building. The ghosts were out. The Cougar faithful on their feet. A few walks later and three runs later, Scott hit a sharp grounder to third that ended up in a force out. The next batter, with two outs, popped up. The Sea Bass went home happy with their first victory.