I have to tell you, it was my first time pitching in a professional baseball game in front of lots of fans and under the lights. I played in the Gulf Coast League for 2 and a half seasons and we played day games and there really weren’t any fans. It was very exhilarating and I had a lot of fun out there today. We lost 12-9 tonight though, and that wasn’t fun, but being there with the pressure on was great.
Jeff Vincent, who was DH’ing today, was the Player of the Game, with 3 hits in 4 AB’s, 3 runs, and an RBI. He did an excellent job today.
I didn’t do too bad for my first outting coming in the 8th and 9th inning of the game. I touched 95mph and threw a lot of strikes. A little too many. In the 2 innings of the game, I had 4 K’s, 1 walk, 3 hits, and I allowed 2 runs on a 2 run homer just over the fence. I stayed composed, bounced back, and finished the inning. At that time the score was 10-8 and it went to 12-8. We ended up scoring 1 run in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit over the Southern Illinois Miners. Our offense was great, but so was theirs.
Even though we didn’t win our opener, our team is awesome and we have a great group of guys who can get the job done day in and day out. We are going to win a lot of ball games this year and I am looking forward to this season and my road to the Major Leagues.
- Alex Merricks
