Tonight’s game was more than a baseball game for the Canadians, it was for a teammate, JD Pruitt who was beaned in the head with a ball in the 3rd inning.  Pruitt is alright, and last I heard from Rob Fai, he’s been released from hospital, but he dodged a bullet.

JD went down for minutes, apparently out cold, down on home plate.  The former NWL HBP king was hit, but wasn’t getting up.  Pruitt was taken to a local hospital, where he has since been released, reportedly.

Pruitt was 1-1 with the HBP when he went out of the game.

Tri-City managed three runs off of Shawn Haviland in the 5th, and 2 more in the 7th off of Hector Garcia.  Mike Hart came into the game with none out and the bases loaded in the 7th, but failed to give up a hit, or a run.  Vancouver fought back, scoring three runs in the 8th, but two strikeouts and a line out ended the game in the 9th.

And you know what, I can’t blame them.  When a teammate goes down, or even an opponent, early on in the game, it’s not about a baseball game.  In the back of your head, for every pitch, every swing, and every out, you are always wondering about the guy who went down.

And it’s not fun.  I’ve played when kids have broken their bones, gone out cold, and had to finish a game.  It is not fun.   And that’s little league.  These guys travel together, spend all day together, and to see a friend go down?  It’s hard enough to step back into the batters box after someone gets hit but to manage a comeback?  I know it sounds amateurish of me to say this, but they did one hell of a great job.

Jason Christian was exceptional tonight, going 2-2 with 2 walks, and a double.  He also stole a base.  Jeremy Barfield was 1-3, and Leo Gil was 1-4 with a double.

Edgar Tejeda pitched a scoreless 8th, 5-3 was the final in favour of the Dust Devils.  My thoughts are with JD tonight, hope he can recover as soon as possible.