Feb. 9, 2007 — From night to night, you never know what Seaborne Stealers team is going to show up. However, the defending champions showed up big Thursday night against Speak the Word, one of the three teams in a three-way tie for first.
The Stealers pounded out 21 hits and six home runs to silence Speak the Word 17-9 in a time-shortened six innings contest.
Although still mired in the middle of the league’s standings, the Stealers proved Thursday night that they are still a team to reckon with.
Batting first, the Stealers got two runs on a two-run shot by Enrique Soto to get on the board. Speak the Word answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning on a two-run shot by Kareem Dennis and an RBI single by Norbert Pickering to take the early one-run lead after one inning.
The Stealers exploded for nine runs in the top of the second to take an 11-3 lead and they would never trail again. The nine runs included a three-run shot by Owen Pimentel, a two-run single by Brandon Biggs, RBI singles by Soto and Michael Schjang and a two-run error. Speak the Word could only muster three runs in the bottom of the inning on a two-run blast by Martin Charles and an RBI groundout by Jose Robles to trail 11-6 after two innings.
The Stealers really put the game out of reach in the top of the fifth when they added five runs on a three-run home run by Soto and solo shots by Ronald Schjang and Owen Pimentel to take a 16-7 advantage. Speak the Word then came up empty in the bottom of the inning.
Speak the Word scored their last two runs of the game on a two-run blast off the bat of Mike Franklin to trail 16-9 at the end of the fifth.
With the allotted game time just about gone, the umpire alerted both teams that the sixth inning would be the final one. The Stealers added the final run of the game on Ronald Schjang’s solo shot in the top of the inning to give his team the eight-run final margin of victory.
Samuel Ramos picked up the win for the Stealers, while Mark BeHarry took the loss for Speak the Word. Top batters for the Stealers were Soto (3-for-4 with two home runs and six RBIs), Pimentel (3-for-4, two home runs and four RBIs) and R. Schjang (3-for-4 with two home runs and two RBI)s. For Speak the word, Dennis was 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs, Skepple went 2-for-3 with a home run and one RBI, and Ulric Benjamin was 3-for-3.
