Hillsborough-Marietta battle it out

Hillsborough and Marietta battled in a wild one yesterday. After just three innings, the score was already 9-8 in favor of Marietta and the amazing thing is neither team scored anything again until the 8th when Hillsborough tied it up on a sac fly. It took until the 11th to get a decision. A possibly fatigued George Sherrill, working his 3rd inning got into trouble quickly, walking the leadoff hitter, then giving up a single. Finally Josh Hamilton ended it all with a base hit into the right field corner that scored Adrian Gonzalez. Hamilton finished the game 3-6 with 3 RBIs and Mark DeRosa also drove in 4, while Ben Zobrist was 2-6 with 5 RBIs for the Hitmen.

Newark's Marc Rzepczynski tossed 7.1 shutout innings, allowing only 4 hits and striking out 8 en route to a 5-0 victory over the Cutters. Both pitchers were blanking the opposition until the 5th when Newark scored 3 runs. Jorge Posada piled on an additional 2 runs in the 7th to clinch it for the Sugar Bears.

Sardine City fans can now breathe a sigh of relief as the Straphangers finally won their first game of the year, although it did take them extra innings to do it. Evan Longoria tied the game up at 2-2 in the 9th inning with a solo home run. The Straphangers were all set to have a big inning, but James Loney hit into a double play to end the rally. The big inning would have to wait...just a bit. In the 10th, the Straphangers exploded for 5 runs capped by a Ryan Braun grand slam. Loney was hoping for a chance at redemption as he came up to bat with 2 outs in the inning and Longoria on the bases. But Loney didn't get his chance as Longoria took off for 3rd and tripped over his shoelaces and was thrown out by Miguel Olivo.

Spring Training phenom Ryan Rowland-Smith got a taste of reality yesterday when he was tagged for 5 runs in 6.2 innings against the Falcons, but escaped unscathed anyway as the Mallers won the game 6-5. Falcons starter Ricky Nolasco didn't make it out of the 2nd inning. Apparently Nolasco looked over at the time on the scoreboard and noticed he was running late for his fantasy league draft. "Last year I missed it and the stupid software auto-drafted Sidney Ponson with my first pick" said Nolasco.

Carolina's Barry Zito made a triumphant return to his old team, pitching 6 innings and allowing only 3 hits and one unearned run to earn the win against the Endzone Animals. Zito, who had a rough season in 2009 (7-16, 5.95), was left unprotected by the Mudcats. Philadelphia then swooped in and drafted him in the 10th round, but he was released a week ago. "It felt good to kind of shove it in their faces" said Zito "but Carolina has always been my DMBL home."