OSLOPRETENDERS

Rommen, Oslo, August 31st 2024

By Terje

 

With two must-win-games vs Tr.heim Hellhounds, the Pretenders stepped up in great fashion to put ourselves right back in the playoff discussion.

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After a difficult first half of the season, the Pretenders are looking much stronger and hungrier for wins to reach the last playoff-spot. With 3 wins in a row, the Pretenders are only 0.5 games behind the Hellhounds with 5 games left of the season.

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Game 1 (9-6):

Kamil Hanak started on the mound for the Pretenders and gave up two runs (one earned) in the top of the first inning. But after that he settled down and shut-down the Hellhounds in the next three innings. Only giving up two hits.

 

In the bottom of the 2nd, the Pretenders answered with back-to-back RBI-singles by Ryan Goedecke and Terje Hoaas, followed by a wild pitch to take the lead.  Luis Frias smacked an RBI-single in the 3rd, and Kamil Hanak got an RBI-ground-out in the 4th to add the lead to 5-2.

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In the top of the 5th the Hellhounds came right back in the game with 4 runs to take a 6-5 lead. They batted out-of-ordered and gave the Pretenders a helping hand as the inning could've continued.

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In the top of the 7th, Enrico Guerrini took over the ball and shut the Hellhounds down in the last three frames. Striking out 4 batter and didn't allow a single hit. At the end of the game he earned the win. The Pretenders took advantage of this situation and score two crucial runs in the bottom of the 7th on Ryan Goedecke's second RBI-single of the game in addition to a throwing-error by the Hellhounds. In the bottom of the 8th the Pretenders added two important insurance-runs on RBI-singles by Kamil Hanak and James Håkonsen to give us a 9-6 victory.

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Game 2 (8-7):

With another must-win-game of the day, the Pretenders took a comfortable 6-1 lead in the 2nd inning after RBI-singles by Ryan Goedecke, Lukas Trepczyk, James Håkonsen and Luis Frias.

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The score stayed the same after the 5th inning, but then the Hellhounds woke up and scored two runs in the top of the 6th. In the top of the 7th the inning should’ve ended with three up three down, but with two errors the Hellhounds came right back, scored 4 runs to take rather shocking 7-6 lead.

 

With the season and a potential playoff-spot on the line, the Pretenders showed no panic and instead showed masterful plate-discipline as Kamil Hanak started the inning with a five-pitch-walk. On a 1-2 pitch-count Kamil Hanak took off from first on a hit'n-run as Marlon Ortiz Moré smoked a line-drive-double into the leftfield corner to tie the game at 7-7. In the next at bat James Håkonsen hit an infield-single to deep shortstop. The throw was off and the first baseman couldn't hold on to the ball and in that split of a second Malon Ortiz Moré took off from 3rd to score the winning run. 

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On the mound Ty Tollestrup pitched his first complete-game of the season. With only 3 earned runs of the game, he mixed up his pitches well to keep the Hellhounds off-balanced throughout the entire game. Behind the plate, Terje Hoaas threw out a season-high three wannabe stealers at 2nd base with a good margin as he showed pure poise from the dish.

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Best of the best:​

• Ryan Goedecke: 3-7 with 3 RBIs and 1 SB

• Kamil Hanak: 2-6 with 3 RBIs and 4 SB

• Enrico Guerrini: 3 IP with 4 Ks and zero hits