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ND Prep sneaks by Stratford
Following some valuable pre-game time well spent on our team’s charitable cause for Ed Randall’s FANS For The CURE foundation & raising prostate cancer awareness, Stratford hit the field donned in light blue hats, sleeves & belt special for the occasion & cause. Neither team really never got going with the bats, the teams traded zeros through 6 innings, & the tension throughout the game’s battle had fans at the edge of their seats. Junior Blake Merfalen got the start, had a hand in keeping ND scoreless, but ran into trouble with an elevated pitch-count & the bases-on-balls bug. Senior Josh Tiberio relieved Merfalen & proved to be effective getting out of jams as was Stratford’s team defense through excellent executions of relays & cutoffs, 1st & 3rd defense, throwing out stealing runners, being in the right place at the right time, etc. ND finally scored in the top of the 7th with a 1 out sac fly to CF. Stratford needs a bit of attention going forward on two things - reducing & eliminating walks issued by our pitchers (there were 10 walks & 2 HBPs today) and reducing & eliminating the amount of strikeouts on offense (there were 9 strikeouts today, 5 of them looking). Stratford will be back at it on Monday at 4:30 at Penders Field vs SWC league opponent Newtown.