After a Friday filled with early morning snow and mid-morning tow trucks, the Toledo Indians played seven innings against the Mark Morris Monarchs on a beautiful, but cold, sunny day. Like many season openers, both teams walked too many batters and made a few errors.
Toledo is a young team this year, three seniors and six sophomores starting Saturday's game. The inexperience showed a couple of times throughout the game. However, the talent is there to seriously compete this season as the Indians settle down and learn their roles.
The bottom of the fourth inning was an inning the Indian's would like to have back. This was one of those innings with too many walks and a few errors. The Monarchs capitalized on these mistakes and ended the inning with seven runs scored. This left the score at 10-1. Toledo could have easily called it quits, but that's not a way to start a season.
If the Indians didn't score in the fifth and the Monarchs scored one more run, the game would be over, due to the ten-run rule. That didn't happen though. Toledo did what competing teams do; They answered back in the top of the fifth scoring four of their own. Justin Fillia, a freshman, started the inning off with a walk.
Bryce Marcil singled, and Matt Stavig walked on four pitches. This left Hunter Eaton up to bat with bases loaded. Eaton delivered, with a single bringing in two runs for the Indians. Next up was Brannon Guyor, he hit a double after driving the ball deep into right field to score another run. The Indians managed to score one more run this inning bringing the game closer to a more respectable final score.
One nice thing to see from the Toledo Indians was their composure. They stayed humble after their successful plays. They didn't pout after a strikeout. After an error, they didn't tear each other down, and they didn't blame the umpires for anything. Something nice to see was the Indians and their fans not making fun of the Monarchs after the Monarchs allowed an infield pop-up to land on the infield grass. Once again, Toledo showed what true sportsmanship is all about.