Slug This...The Hopkins Era 2007 2.9 Grady hits first tater

[felipe]

Louisville rookie catcher, Ernest Grady, hit his first career homerun tonight at the California Crusader’s South Pacific Field off of reliever Matasuke Hirose in the eleventh inning of Louisville’s 5—2 victory.

The twenty-seven year-old backstop became the overnight ‘toast of Kentucky’ when a local paper published a feature on the unlikely hero, detailing his rise from being the third stringer in high-school all the way to the Big leagues.

“It’s a great feeling,”confirmed Grady,”I finally feel like a big leaguer…I only wish I could have hit the first one out at Locust Grove…but I’ll take it!”

It’s likely Grady wanted to hit the first one at home due to the presence of seven lovely ladies, a group of white haired octogenarians who sit right behind the Slugger dugout and cheer for their beloved underdog at every home game.

“We call ourselves Grady’s Grannies,”confirmed group spokeswoman Ethel Robinson,”Ernest seems such a nice young man, who’s had to battle hard to get where he is…in today’s age of brawling general managers and overpaid superstars playing in the minor leagues…its nice for the youngsters to have someone to look up to who do things the right way…with old fashioned hard work.”

Grady continues to play out his career in unlikely fashion, as he didn’t even enter the contest until the tenth inning.

“Julio got the start,”explained Grady,”But he’s been playing a lot and he wanted to rest his knees after the ninth…so McNecrity got Rayaz to pinch-hit for him to start the tenth…and I got to play after that.”

The Sluggers came close to winning in the tenth inning, Marquez Rayaz leading off with a walk, and then being bunted over to second base by Coture. With one out, first base-man Costello hit a line drive single, and Rayaz aggressively beat out the throw to third base. The Sluggers had men on first and third with one out and their number two hitter at the plate. And that’s where they stayed as Chris Thomas ground out, and number three hitter, Fungo Clark, flew out on the first pitch he saw.

In the bottom of the tenth inning, California came close to winning when Jason Sherman led off with a single. He then advanced to second when Dwight Ferris ground out to short. Sherman then tried to score on Joe Sullivan’s single, but was tagged out at the plate by Ernest Grady, on a throw from center-fielder Roberto Garcia.

“That really fired me up,”explained Grady,”There’s nothing like taking a good whack at the plate and holding on to the ball…I’m just glad it was someone my size and not Mark Anderson!”

The top of the eleventh opened with Slugger cleanup hitter Bob Wilsonbeing sat down on three straight pitches. Right-fielder Pat Park hit a line drive double, before Cody Chamberland struck out on 4 pitches. Garcia then propelled Louisville to the lead with a two out double.

“That really took the pressure off,”confirmed Grady,”I could go up there relaxed. Every one of our guys had hit at least one pitch hard that inning, so I was gonna take my hacks...sure enough, second pitch, his curve didn’t curve.”

The unlikeliest Slugger (29 career homeruns in 7 minor league seasons) had his first unlikely home-run.