Cole Flynn watches his blast to right field The Roslyn Rangers came to Garden City this past Sunday to square off against U9 Garden City FIRE team. This was a rematch of the opening day spring season where the teams split two hotly contested games. However the improving FIRE team has been on a roll and this week was no exception. The FIRE took the opening game 10-1 behind the awesome pitching of John Griffith who threw 4 innings of no hit ball. The defense also sparked the FIRE in this all around solid game as Tom Gillespie made a fantastic diving catch in left, Rich Marooney and Patrick Iorio made stellar plays at 3rd and SS. The FIRE offense was powered by extra base hits from Quinn Walsh and Kenny McCadden and clutch 2 out hitting with the bases loaded by Cole Flynn and Jack Kenny. Andryw Nagel pitched the 5th and 6th and also handled 4 comebackers to the mound to complete the first ever combined NO hitter in the U9 FIRE history.

The backend of the double header was more of the same with the FIRE jumping out to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first behind a leadoff single and good baserunning by Christopher Kiley. Again solid defense was a key component as Kyle Ober played a fantastic firstbase and Rich Marooney, Cole Fynn, Andryw Nagel all made clutch plays to stop any of the Ranger rallies. John Schattler, Dan Salsberg and Pat Iorio all pitched extremely well and held the powerful Ranger lineup in check for the second game in a row. The 10-4 game 2 win gave the FIRE a double header sweep, 6 wins in a row and improved their record to 9-3 and enabled them to move into sole possession of 2nd place. The FIRE have 4 tough games remaining and face off against the first place Manhattan team this coming week. GO FIRE!

The FIRE dads deliver 6 well deserved pizza pies between games of the double header

Tom Gillespie hits a shot down the third base line John Griffith snares a 1 hopper at second base Richard Marooney scores ahead of the throw home The team gets some mid game strategy before they get ready to hit