If you attended the Opening Day ceremony Saturday morning, you had the feeling it was going to be a great day for baseball!  Seeing all of the teams on Nance to celebrate the official start of the VLL season was awesome! After the ceremony ended the Majors teams started play on both Crabtree and Rhodes. 

The player of the day was Owen O. who led off for the Twins and lined a homer over the left field fence and then pitched 5 scoreless innings while striking out 12!

Red Sox over Cubs 12-4

After not scoring in the first inning, the Red Sox were able to cross runners each remain inning for a total of 12 runs.  Josh T. led the offensive outburst for the Sox by going 3-5 with 4 RBI.  Case M. with 3 hits and Macallan B. knocked 2 hits, including a double.  For the Cubs, Pax Leon and Bryce B. combined for 7 total hits including a double and triple by Pax.

Reds over Nationals 4-3

In a back-and-forth affair, the Reds were able to plate 2 runners in the 6^th inning take the lead and eventually the game!  Landon M. started out the action in the top of the 6^th with a laser to right field that would plate Luke P. all the way from first.  After stealing 2^nd base, August M. laid down a beautiful bunt and reached 1^st without a play while also moving Landon to 3^rd.  Carter C. stepped to the plate and delivered a single and the winning run.  The Nationals Luke A. continued his hot start to the season by collecting 2 hits, including a double.  Other Nationals with hits were Peter B., Chase H., Owen H., Rehan W. and Braden B.   For the Reds, Jacob L. and Cameron G. also had hits.

Twins over Phillies 6-5

Owen O. was dealing!  With a combination of a heavy fastball and a curve ball that fell off the table, the Phillies batters struggled to make contact.  Owen finished the day with 12 strikeouts over 4 2/3^rd innings and only allowing 2 hits on the day.  Owen also sparked the Twins offense with a leadoff home run.  The big hit for the Twins came from IJ Mathews who had a bases clearing double to put the Twins up by 6.  Max S., making his first ever start in baseball, was also impressive for the Phillies, scattering 5 hits and not allowing another Twin to cross the plate after the leadoff homer.  Offensively for the Phillies, Zach G. had a bases clearing triple of his own and scored on a passed ball to bring the Phillies within 1 run, but Nate H. was able to strike out the side in the top of the 6^th to secure the Twins victory.  Nate continued his hot start by collecting 3 more hits on the day while Cooper S. went 2-3 with 2 RBI.  Charlie C., Katie K., and Ben B. had hits for the Phillies.

White Sox over Cardinals 4-2

Ryne A. had a day!  On the mound Ryne struck out 10 over 5 innings while only allowing 2 earned runs.  At the plate Ryne went 4-4 with 2 RBI.  Sean C. had 2 hits and scored 2 runs, while Jonah K., Henry R. and Bridger C. added singles for the White Sox.  The Cole N. and Sean Y. did great on the mound to hold the offensive powerhouse White Sox to only 4 runs and Cole had 2 extra base hits.  Sean, Lukas K. and Caleb M. all had hits for the Cardinals.

Pirates over Orioles 6-3

The Pirates have played hard this year but haven’t seen the results in the win column, but that all changed Saturday.  Behind the combination of Kyle H. and Eason C. on the mound, the Pirates were able to only allow 3 hits to the Orioles.  Jensen M., Jonah M., Ben Y. and Ben C. had singles for the Pirates.  The Os pitching wasn’t bad at all in the losing effort, with Andrew B. and Rowan M. only allowing 1 earned run all night.  On offense Rowan and Daniel G. each had a double and Andrew had a single. 

Braves over Giants 7-1

The Braves continued their undefeated season.  The top of the Braves lineup had quite the night at plate with Nate H., Brady K., Sam D., Jack K. and Asher R. combining for 10 hits and scoring 7 runs.  Jack and Sam were strong on the mound for the Braves allowing only 1 earned run while scattering 6 hits. The Giants Grady J had 2 hits while Adam M., Samuel R., Danny D. and Carson P. picked up hits on the night.

Blue Jays tied with Yankees 5-5

6 innings was not enough to settle the score on Saturday and will resume at a later date.

Colts leading Dodgers 4-2 (suspended)

The game was called after 3 ½ innings and will resume at a later date.