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Manchester Eagles's 2006 - Part 1

This feature, and those to follow, will deal with the Manchester Eagle's and their exploits on the playing fields of England during the 2006 season.

Eagles rally, stun Edinburgh with 10-spot (30/04) - by By DAN STRAYER

Edinburgh Devils 13 @ 16 Manchester Eagles

EDINBURGH - Some members of the Manchester Eagles joked later about how close Dan Strayer came to hitting his teammate and manager, Rob Denham, in the head with his swing.

Luckily, Strayer missed Denham's head - and not the ball, too. His two out, two-run single in the top of the seventh put the Eagles ahead for good, and Manchester would add three insurance to turn what looked like an insurmountable 12-6 deficit into an improbable 16-13 comeback victory over the Edinburgh Diamond Devils in the first game of a scheduled twinbill. Sunday's second game was suspended due to field time constraints, with Edinburgh leading 6-5 in the middle of the fifth inning.

Strayer's second hit of the inning came on the heels of a sequence that left the Diamond Devils (0-1) thoroughly confused. Denham, representing the tying run at third base after reaching on a walk and moving up on Luis Arreva's clutch single to bring Manchester within a run of tying the game, noticed Edinburgh pitcher Jason Derr going into a slow windup. Derr, a righthander, barely picked up Denham's dead sprint for home, and threw a startled fastball that Strayer ripped to right, easily plating both Denham and Arrevillagas for the tying and go-ahead runs, respectively.

Insurance runs were added when Strayer, who reached second after the hit bounded past right-fielder Paul Marshall, scored on a base hit by Alex Chang. Karim Ariane added a single, and Tom Rowlands delivered the crushing blow with a two-run triple that stayed just inside the first-base line, putting the Eagles up 16-12.

The inning began with singles by Strayer and Chang, who had four hits in the game, and Rowlands loaded the bases when shortstop Davy Farr couldn't haul in a chopper with one out. James Eaton was retired on strikes, but Dave Fisher cut the deficit to 12-8 with a two-run single, and Chad Barnes delivered his fourth hit to make it 12-9.

Barnes was the big dog for the Eagle offense from start to finish. A first inning solo home run opened the South African's Manchester career, staking them to a 1-0 lead. He added a two-run double in the third inning, and drove in five runs on the day, while scoring three.

All the seventh inning offense handed the victory to Strayer (1-0), who went the distance despite allowing 12 runs in the first three innings. Despite allowing 15 hits, he struck out five and kept the Diamond Devil offense on ice for the final four innings as Manchester slowly chipped away.

Arrevillagas added a solo homer for the Eagles with a blast to left field in the fifth inning. Ariane, Arrevillagas, Fisher and Strayer all finished with two hits.

The Eagles will attempt to move to 3-0 in their home openers Sunday against conference rival Menwith Hill.

Hard-hitting Eagles earn split with top-flight Patriots (07/05) - by By DAN STRAYER

MANCHESTER - An early-season treat pitting the two top teams in the National League North Division Sunday left the standings looking roughly similar at the end of the day as they looked at the beginning.

The Menwith Hill Patriots maintained their hold on first place in the NLN, earning a split with the host Eagles of Manchester by taking the first game of the twinbill 12-6. The Eagles stayed within a half-game of the leaders in a 14-1 run-rule drubbing in the nightcap.

The Pats (4-2) knocked out Eagles starter Chad Barnes in the fourth inning after a 20-minute rain delay, scoring six runs to erase a 5-4 Manchester lead.

Niekro Maggitt, Mike Martinez and Chris Darling reached to lead the bases with nobody out, and Nelson Setzer (fresh off a long two-run homer in the second inning) knocked a sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game. The throw to the plate got away from Manchester catcher James Eaton, allowing Maggitt and Martinez to score and Darling to advance to third base. Adam Dove plated the third run of the inning with comeback grounder to reliever Alex Chang, and Jay McCullogh doubled. Terry Cuddy followed with an RBI single to make it 8-5, then scored along with Robert Devall to complete what proved to be the game's crucial inning.

Tom Rowlands had put the Eagles (2-1) ahead just before the rains stormed Allen Field in the bottom of the third, drilling a two-strike pitch from Dove over the right-centerfield fence for a three-run homer. Yet the Eagles' offense shot themselves in the foot in the first inning by failing to come through with runners in scoring position, leaving the bases loaded.

But such offensive struggles never materialized against the Manchester nine in game two, as a five-run first inning paved the way for an easy five-inning pasting of the Patriots. After Chang, Rob Denham and Rowlands reached to load the bases, Eagle pitcher Dan Strayer helped his own cause with a sacrifice fly for the early 1-0 lead. Catcher Mark Brick ripped an RBI-single to center field to make it 2-0, and Dave Fisher drilled a two-run double to push the lead to four runs. Karim Ariane walked, and Ken Panko also delivered with two outs, going to the opposite field for a base hit to plate Fisher for a 5-0 lead.

As the Menwith Hill batsmen struggled to handle Strayer, the Manchester offense was merely getting started. Luis Arrevillages made it two bombs in two weeks, taking Pats' starter deep to left center for a three-run homer and a 8-0 lead.

A six-spot by the Eagles in the third inning put the game into run-rule territory. Panko started things with a one-out double, and Chang drew a walk. Denham's single to left plated Panko to make it 9-nil, and Rowlands continued his hot hitting with base knock to plate Chang. Arrevillages wasn't to be outdone in the sweet stroke department, delivering an RBI single for an 11-0 lead, and, after harmless fly ball and Brick's walk, Fisher delivered again, stroking a two-run double to push the lead to 13 runs. Brick then scored the final tally on a wild pitch.

Strayer made the lead stand up, going five innings to earn the pseudo-complete game, his second of the season. He barely missed out on the shutout, tossing a wild pitch to plate Menwith's Darling for a harmless run in the fifth.

The southpaw struck out four and walked four, but held the hard-hitting Patriots to four safe hits and used some strong defense from his Eagle teammates to cruise to his second straight win. Highlighting the defensive exploits was Fisher, who made a sensational running catch in the third inning and punctuated it with a final leap.

The Eagles head outside of the NLN Sunday, May 14, taking on the Sheffield Stars in an away twinbill.

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