EIGHT IS ENOUGH: HMA/RAMSA HOLDS ON TO WIN GAME ONE, 8-7

On the eve of the 2009 SLAM League Finals, Commissioner Robert Fuller was kind enough to pull some strings down at 350 Fifth Avenue to light up the New York City skyline to honor the all-orange match featuring the Orange & Black of SSC vs. the Orange & Blue of HMA/RAMSA. No joke, it really was orange ...

For five strong innings, SSC was able to quiet the mighty bats of the league's top scoring team thanks in part to some stellar defense and stiffling pitching by Scott Habjan. Much like the previous playoff series against FxFowle, HMA/RAMSA was silenced for much of the game; unlike that first series however, HMA/RAMSA did not wait until the 7th inning to rise to the occasion. For the thousands in attendance, it was a 6th inning rally that leaves HMA/RAMSA only one game away from the championship.

SSC jumped on the board quickly in the first inning with a pair of runs to take an early 2-0. Things could have been much worse in the inning but 2B Addie Suchorab turned a nifty doubleplay on a hard-hit line drive that helped minimize the damage. The pitchers exchanged empty frames for a couple of innings but SSC struck again in the top of the 4th with another run for a 3-0 lead. The score remained that way until the bottom of the 6th when HMA/RAMSA mounted another historic rally.

After Cara Statile and Josh Barkan got on base to start the 6th, Doug Houstoun - limited all season long by a series of injuries to his old body - delivered a rope of a single up the middle to score the first run of the game for HMA/RAMSA. After another single by Seth Burney, leadoff hitter Jon Fukutomi lined a single down the left field line to score 2 runs as HMA/RAMSA tied the game at 3-3 with one out in the inning. After a base hit by Pete Garofalo, Eric Hofmann stepped to the plate with the bases loaded.

With the second-longest tenure on the team, Hofmann recalled the "lean years" when the team regularly recorded more errors than runs scored in a game. With anger in his bat, Hofmann lined a double into the leftcenter field gap to clear the bases as HMA/RAMSA took a 6-3 lead. The inning would not end there however as Doug Neri and Mike "The Rookie" Sargent tacked on another pair of runs as the lead grew to 8-3. The 8th run seemed so innocent at that time, but proved to be all-important in the top of the 7th.

Not going down without a fight, SSC mounted a rally of their own in their final at bat. After the first batter of the inning was retired, SSC strung together 4-5 consecutive hits to cut the lead to 8-7 with two outs in the inning. HMA/RAMSA shut the door, however, to take the first game of this best of three series.

Weather permitting, Game #2 of this series resumes tomorrow (Thursday) on the Great Lawn #4 at 5:30 PM, where HMA/RAMSA will try to secure for their first-ever SLAM League title.