Sunday April 30: Opening day for the Sleepwalkers NBIII team vs the Èrd Pioneers. 24-14 WIN! Èrd is one of the largest (with 125 players & 6 teams) and most organized of all the clubs in Hungary plus they were playing with 2 of their Division 1 players in the lineup (albeit playing out of their normal positions) so our younger players should be proud of Sunday’s team effort.
Game Recap.
Starting lineup/batting order: Tom Benko 1B, Joe Bowman SS, Viktor Turcsányi P, Xavér Breznay LF, Botond Horvath C, Roland Rácz CF, Benedek Farkas 2B, Christian Doser 3B, Ferenc Boros RF.
>First five players in the batting order had at least 2 stolen bases each. With our youthful team speed we accomplished an important team objective.
>Our 3-5 hitters (Viktor, Xaver, Boti) scored a total of 12 runs (4 each)
>Our leadoff hitter (Tom) was 3 for 5 with a triple, + a walk + 4 runs scored + a steal of home.
>Xaver pitched 4 solid innings in relief of Viktor, got on base in all 5 plate appearances with 3 walks, a HBP, and a double and scored 4 times.
>Zsofi, in relief of Benedek at 2B, had two line drive put-outs stopping the Cardinals from making any comeback in the later innings.
>Boti had his best game so far behind the plate. Smart, not over aggressive, on-target throws to 2nd and kept about a dozen errant pitches from getting to the backstop.
>Adding to our three double plays in the last practice game, we had an headup SS-1B-Home double play in the 4th inning ending another possible Cardinal’s rally.
>2 innings where we did not allow the other team to score (this is another important objective to focus on!)
>Only one dropped fly ball; Xavér….but we’ll forgive him since he did so much at the plate and on the mound for us 
😀
>Excellent contributions from Zsofi Nemeth, Marton Szaszko, Krisztian Matyas, Steve Stec, and Steve Benko coming off the bench as both position players and pinch hitters.