The AFL goes International

AFL Peoria Javelinas (20-4 Win over Team China in 7 innings)

Brett Gardner: 3-5, 4 R’s, 2 RBI, 2 SB. All three hits were line drives – two were up the middle and one over 1B. Now has 11 SB’s / 0 CS
Juan Miranda: 0-2, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K. Had trouble slowing the bat down – He SO on what looked like a 60mph change-up in the 1st inning. Now hitting an even .250. Replaced in the 4th inning.
Reegie Corona: 0-3, 1 K. Hitting .176 overall. Replaced in the 5th inning.
Steven White: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB. Lowered ERA to 10.29

The Chinese Olympic team was a late addition to the AFL schedule. The stats count but these are really just scrimmage games while they prepare for the Olympic tournament. Things didn’t look good for them even before the game started. They instituted something I’ve only seen in beer league softball – they announced the game would be stopped if theres a 10 run lead after the 7th inning. The hitting wasn’t bad but the pitching was terrible. It looked like they were topping out in the low-to-mid 80′s at best.

The only thing that slowed down the Javelinas today was a swarm of killer bees (seriously) in the bottom of the 4th inning. It was a strange scene – some of the Chinese players started laying flat on the ground during a pitching change and no one seemed to know what was going on because of the language barrier. So then everyone sees them looking up at a black cloud of sorts that was hovering in across the right field foul line. Now I’m originally from NJ and have never seen killer bees in my life so I almost did a full stop-drop-and-roll technique as they passed over home plate. The bees didn’t bother anyone and they eventually just flew over the media suites and left the stadium. I’ve been watching for foul balls and bats and such but killer bees was never a thought. I’ll have to file that one away.

The photo’s are on the other side