It was grey, overcast skies on the first day in August of 2020. Gametime temp was 79 degrees as the Reigning Champions took the field at the beloved MSBL home, Hazel Park. Dodgers were the home team donning their legendary Dodger Blues. Jared Pingitore took the hill for the Dodgers for his very first start of the 2020 season. Ping started the affair perfect through 3 inning before the pesky Expo bats scratched 1 in the 4th. Light rain rolled into the game around 4th inning. The rain was much needed at the dust bowl of Hazel Park. The rain gave Ping a few fits on the mound with the ball in the 6th inning as the mound began to clump up with horse manure and clay chunks but the kid found a way to work out of it and finished with a dominating performance scattering 6 hits over 6 Innings pitched, giving up 2 earned runs on 2 walks and an IMPRESSIVE 11 K's on the afternoon. The game was called after 6 innings due to rain.
On the hitting side, the Dodgers didn't wake up until the 2nd inning from their Friday night escapade when they added 3 runs to jump out to an early lead. The boys in blue added run(s) in the next 3 out of 4 innings before the game was called due to rain. Hitting was lead by MSBL veteran, Tyler Shiber with 2 LOUD doubles and also Zach Parran and MSBL rookie, Kyle Yinger each added 2 hits. The Dodgers also welcomed back their captain from their 2019 Championship team, JerJuan Hammond. Juan, with speckles of grey in his beard, added a 2 RBI single in the bottom half of the 5th in his 2020 MSBL debute. Great to have the big fella back in the lineup.
Dodgers ended the game in the bottom of the 6th when the rain had not stopped and began to get sloppy. Jared Pingitore swung and missed at 2 launching the bat first over the first basemans head and again on the very next pitch into the chest of on-deck man, Zach Parran. Parran walked away with minor injury and umpires Mark and Deion pulled the plug on the game with 2 outs in the 6th and the bases loaded due to player safety! Dodgers win 8-3.
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