Legends Return Home and Beat Kings 7-2
Redwood City, Calif. – After a long single-day trip to Healdsburg on Wednesday, the Legends had to be tired in advance of their Thursday night game against the West Coast Kings. If that was the case, it sure didn’t show on the field as Menlo Park was able to handily defeated their opponent 7-2. They used three different pitchers to hold the Kings to a combined five hits, and took advantage of costly mistakes by the Kings. When all was said and done, it made for quite an effective game to help keep up the winning ways before the Legends travel to San Luis Obispo this weekend. The Legends improve to 15-7-1 this summer.
Sheldon McClelland was on the mound for Menlo Park, an interesting call to start the game considering he had yet to make a start this summer. However, he seemed to fit right at home on the mound from the first pitch, as he did not allow a hit until the fourth inning. That fourth inning would be when the Kings would get on the board first however, and used a two run single from Lyle McKean to pull ahead of the Legends 2-1. McClelland was able to work his way out of trouble and keep the damage to just two runs, and after blanking the Kings in the top of the fifth, he would leave the ballgame trailing 2-1 and hoping his offense could put some runs on the board to back him up and give him a chance at the win. He finished the game allowing just four hits, two walks, and striking out three.
Score runs the offense did in the bottom of the fifth. RJ Williams reached base on a throwing error by the Kings third baseman, and advanced to second. Two batters later, Sean Watkins would deliver a double to centerfield that bounced over the wall and scored Williams. After Watkins stole third base, Chandler Bengston drove him home on a sacrifice fly to centerfield, giving the Legends the lead once again at 3-2. THey would not be done in the inning as Patrick McColl singled, Scott Ota walked, and Philip Caulfield launched a three-run homerun to right field that doubled the run total for the Legends. The third homerun of the summer for Caulfield made it a 6-2 lead and the Legends would cruise from there.
Turner Bishop and Matt Bergandi were lights out in the bullpen, each pitching two innings and facing the minimum over the final four frames. When added all up, it was another solid performance from the Legends in advance of their big three-game series against the San Luis Obispo Blues. The series begins with a night game on Friday night, with first pitched scheduled for 6:00 PM from Sinsheimer Park. The games will not be streamed live on the Legends Radio Network, but a live broadcast produced by the Blues can be found on www.bluesbaseball.com.
