While the Red Sox played the Blue Jays in Toronto, Jay Gamboa blew Black Sox hitters away at Brandeis University with blistering fastballs and devastating off-speed stuff. He shoved for the entire game with ten K’s, zero walks, five hits, and two unearned runs.
I had a wave of intuition wash over me before the game telling me that this one would be a pitcher’s duel. It had to be if the Black Sox wanted a chance. That isn’t a knock on the talented Black Sox either. They have a strong lineup with some gifted guys, but Jay is him. They would need to restrain our lethal offense on top of doing damage against our ace, so it wasn't looking good if they didn’t have their best guy out there.
Both pitchers stifled the first three hitters in each lineup in the first inning, and my intuition came to fruition. A run wouldn’t score until the top of the third when Jacob Perez darted home on a passed ball. I was on second at the time and scurried to third, and Miguel Gonzales later knocked one high into the buggy night allowing me to score on a sacrifice fly. With the score then 2-0, we put some necessary pressure on the Sox and prepared to lock it down on defense.
They answered in the bottom of the fourth when Justine Makisimu laced a single up the middle that scored Jared MacLeod, cutting our lead in half. The pressure flipped on us, and we refused to crumble when history repeated itself in the fifth. Miguel Gonzales slapped another high fly towards the left fielder and I scampered my way to the plate to make it a 3-1 ballgame. With an even bigger lead and our ace still pumping cheddar, the Black Sox started to sweat.
Chirps flew through the air in the heat of blazing competition, but Jay Gamboa kept his cool. Through the last three innings he gave up just one hit and one unearned run, and ATBC captured our fourteenth win of the season improving to 14-1-1. Now we get a much needed intermission to the season with our next game being on July 7th against the Brighton Braves. The squad hopes to get more robust for the home stretch of the regular season, and once the playoffs start anything can happen.
