Spark Open Three Game Series with the Pride Fri July 28-30 at HOF Stadium

[TropicalSooner]

Fri 7/28 Lineup vs Pride

RF Moultrie
3B Sherrill
1B Leilua
DH Alo
LF Lee
CF Malau'ulu
C Elam
SS Williams
2B Busby

P Ricketts

Spark walk it off 4-3 in 7.
WP Rochard
LP Roberts

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Sat 7/29 Lineup vs Pride

RF Moultrie
3B Sherrill
1B Leilua
RF Alo
DH Lee
CF Malau'ulu
C Elam
SS Williams
2B Busby

P Gobourne


Spark's last inning come back rally falls short and lose to the Pride 6-4
WP Carda
LP Gobourne

line:
Team----------R-----H-----E------LOB
Pride----------6-----7------0--------3
Spark---------4-----10-----0--------9

The Spark, this season, seems to be plagued by a similar problem that dogged the Sooners last year----the ol' LOB number.
The Sooners however, had the power to overcome the LOB's and the pitching staff to control the other team--so it wound up being a moot point.
The Spark, though, not so much. They have excellent players and pitchers, but they are still building their team and the next round of incoming players--either from other teams, or undrafted players that make themselves available, or the results of the next draft round, I'm sure the management will continue to upgrade to power for the offense and add to the pitching staff as well.

The final game of the series is tonight at 7:00pm at HOF Stadium.

Go Spark!

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Sun 7/30 Lineup vs Pride

RF Moultrie
3B Sherrill
1B Leilua
LF Alo
DH Ricketts
C Lee
CF Malau'ulu
SS Busby
2B Bayless

P Rochard

Well.....it finally happened.
The Sparks fireworks stand of a dazzling opening season blew up in a ball of flames last night and nobody had any water to put the fire out.
The Pride absolutely demolished the Spark 15-4 in 5 innings.
WP Alvelo
LP Rochard
Wow!
It wasn't all Rochard's fault though. A lot of pitchers had a hand in it.
Rochard gave up the first 5 runs in the first inning and was only able to get one out. Emily Cerny was then brought in to try to stop the bleeding but gave up 3 more runs in the first, and another run in the second for a total of 4 herself. Next Alex Storako was brought in but by then we were down 9-2. We were able to claw back with a couple of runs in the third to get back to 9-4, but in the 5th inning, Storako lost it as well and gave up the final 6 runs to make it 15-4. Mercifully, the Mercy rule ended it there.
These things happen though.
These things happen to very good teams in fact.
Only 4 years ago, our OU Sooners National Runner-up team was humilated 16-3 by UCLA in front of 12,000 fans and a million viewers on national television.
These things happen.
The way the team digests this and how they come back from embarrassment will tell the story of the remainder of the season and will show what the team is made of.
I hope they are mad. I hope they are truly angry.

The Spark get one day off today to lick their wounds and rest before the league leading powerhouse--the Texas Smoke--come to HOF Stadium for a three game series starting Tuesday August 1st at 7:00pm.
If you can at all make it out to the ballpark.....the Spark need your support and cheers more than ever now.

Go Spark!!!