I was hoping to avoid airing my dirty laundry in public, but want to be transparent about the difficult situation I faced writing this article. Normally I save the “Get to Know Coaches” segment until the end, but I put it up front this time. Why? When I interviewed Jim and Dan at the start of the season, I didn’t ask them enough questions as I failed to take into account the fact that I would be writing twice as many articles this year. As I am out of content, and out of town, that left me with two options. The first was to leave the segment out, which I knew I couldn’t do without being deluged with angry letters from the couple people that actually read these articles. So that left me with only one other option, Google. What I found was quite surprising. Jim Burleigh was an English “footballer” (translation: soccer player) who played for the Wolverhampton Wanderers, and Dan Meade was a “legendary” monarch butterfly expert. Both of them passed away years ago, which seems odd since I heard they were at the game.
Nevertheless, the footballer and butterfly expert must be pleased with the performance of the Dons offense, which has now scored a whopping 33 runs during their current 4 game winning streak. Similar to the game Friday, the Dons got on the board early, scoring 3 runs in the 1st inning and 4 in the 2nd inning. For the game, the team had 9 hits from 6 different players. David Gonzales led the team with 3 hits. Dominic Patitucci had 2 hits, and Ben Pecci, Wyatt Cooper, Augie Martinez, and Nicky Fosina also had hits on the day. David and Ben continued to cause havoc on the basepaths. Each scored 2 runs, and Ben also had 3 steals.
On defense, the team did just enough to secure the victory despite an uncharacteristic number of self-inflicted wounds, including 10 walks issued, 1 HBP, and 6 errors. Brady Quinn got the start on the mound. He went 4 innings giving up 3 runs on 2 hits and 5 walks. David Gonzales pitched the next 2 1/3 innings, giving up 5 runs on 4 hits and 4 walks. Cole Gwaltney came in to close, pitching the last 2/3 innings while giving up no runs on 1 walk and 1 HBP.
After the game, the team enjoyed a BBQ at the field. Huge thank you to all the parents who helped organize.
The team continues the home stand on Tuesday, March 28 against Las Lomas at 4pm