Monday, November 9, 2015

Mr. November

SFL's great streak pitcher, Jim O'Connor, is on a roll. In the month of November, pitching in the unfriendly confines of the Dyckman Street fields, O'Connor is 3-0 with an ERA of 1.24.

The streak began last Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Erik Mintz. O'Connor scattered 4 hits and 3 walks over 5 shutout innings, backed only by Cisco Velez's 3rd inning RBI single.

Jim picked up two wins on November 8. First he beat Havelock Hewes 5-4. O'Connor's team scored 5 times in the first inning, and then Havelock settled down and pitched shutout ball the rest of the way. Jim took a 5-1 lead into the 7th inning, and then things got interesting. After a leadoff error, two walks, and two hits, Sam Magnus came to bat with the go-ahead run on base. Magnus lined out to left, and O'Connor had his second win of the month, allowing 4 runs (one earned) on 10 hits.

In the third game of the day, O'Connor was matched up against Robert Rodriguez, and prevailed 4-3 in 5 innings. Jim allowed 3 runs on 5 hits, and survived another thrilling finish. He took a 4-1 lead into the bottom of the 5th, but walked Sam Melendez and gave up back to back singles to Tom Haskin and Cid Rivera. He retired Eric Schulman on a sacrifice fly to center, but walked Cisco Velez to put the go-ahead run on base. David Rodriguez hit a grounder up the middle that hit the baserunner at second, for the second out, and Jim got Robert Rodriguez on a fly to left to end it.