Before looking for a featured image for this writeup, I hadn’t realized Cotton Nash was also a professional basketball player. He only played two seasons, but perhaps that height advantage gives him an edge in Out of the Park as well. (…nah.)
Regardless of what it was, Nash’s home run and Scott Stahoviak’s 3-4 game led the Tall Tales to an easy 11-5 win over the Short Stories to take the opener in the Stature Showdown.
Jackie Collum, the shortest of the Stories’ moundsmen (5’7”), did not make it out of the fourth inning after getting rocked for four in the third. Joe Mauer started a string of four consecutive hits (the fourth a Nash two-run double) that brought home a trio; Nash later capped the frame’s scoring by coming across on a Mike Poepping fly ball.
After the Tales loaded the bases with one out in the fourth, Bobby Castillo entered out of the bullpen and got the final two outs, but he was finally hammered by Tall bats in the sixth. Again, the heart of the order (Mauer, Dave Winfield, Stahoviak, and Nash) set up the scoring, but Walt Bond ended up with the ribbies upon singling a pair home.
Meanwhile, Michael Pineda made rapid work of Story lumber, allowing just four hits and one run across seven innings. The sole run he allowed came on a Quinton McCracken fielder’s choice with the bases loaded.
The top of the eighth saw Nash tag Ronny Henriquez for a solo dinger that barely cleared the right field wall, extending the Tales’ lead to 8-1 and setting things up for the bullpen. The Stories got two runs off Dan Naulty in the eighth and two more off Alex Meyer in the ninth, but they were unable to close the gap—a gap that had widened on Stahoviak’s bases-clearing double in the top of the ninth.
The Tales’ Game 1 win sets them up with an early advantage as they send Mike Smithson to the mound for the sequel; Lee Stange will counter for the Stories.