In today’s opener what started out as a very tight game ended in a resounding win for the Kettle. The score was 11-10 in favor of the Kettle in the 4th inning, but the Shellbacks went scoreless the rest of the way while the Kettle scored 14 en route to a 25-10 victory. The Kettle topped it off with eight straight hits in the bottom of the 8th for the win. Every batter in the Kettle lineup had at least 3 hits and at least one RBI. Five hits for Howard Thompson, 4 each for Chuck Berez, Carlos Arias, Ernie Rounsefel and Warren Galloway. Of note, Ernie was 4 for 4 with a walk and pitched a strong game not walking one batter. The Shellback Tavern players Ron Rotstein Audie Freeman, David Inouye and Jon Chaykowski all produced 3 hits each while Jeff Walsh, Hugh John McDonald, Ken Ahlmeyer and Joe Rassulo each added 2 hits in the game.

The finale of the day pitted the Admiral Risty Whalers and the Jets teams in a close 11-8 lead for the Whalers after 5 full innings of play. In the final 4 innings of play the Whalers held the Jets to 3 more runs while posting 10 for themselves. Risty led by the 5 hit game of Adam Garcia with Gary Bemis, Wayne Galer and Jim Stevens bringing 4 hits each, Tony Luca, Alan Kiser, Richard Ecker (6 RBI’s and Wayne Judah all with 3 hits, while Mike Lorden, Mike Costa and Howard Miller adding 2 hits each. All 11 Risty players had at least 2 hits and 1 RBI in the contest. For the Jets Dario Serna and Joe LaMay (double) both produced 3 hits each, Bryan White, Joe Owens, Ward Brown, Mike Baker, Doug Bagley (double), Dana Goller all added 2 hits each in the game.