OSLOPRETENDERS

Dønnestad May 24th 2025

By Terje.

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After a tough start to the 2025 season with two losses in Trondheim and two losses vs VIF in Oslo, the Pretenders really need a break vs the Suns. Dønnestad is always a tough place to travel to but, after a slow start of the first game the Pretenders finally let their bats loose to secure a series split.

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Game 1, 6-9:

The Suns' ace, Ben Davis, had his a-game and dominated the game over 7.1 IP with 10 Ks and no runs. Our hats off to the young talent that had our numbers all day long. Luckily, he hit the pitch-count limit and that’s when our bats came alive.

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With a 0-9 deficit going into the top 9th no one really thought we had a chance, but we never surrendered and came back with 6 runs on 5 hits and 5 walks.

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On the mound Kam Hanak started the game and went 4 solid innings with 5 Ks. Unfortunately, we had several miscues that gave the Suns a 8-0 lead. Enrico Guerrini came in as a relief and pitched 4 strong innings on his own. Giving up one run and one K.

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Defensively we still have some work to do, but we managed to make two great double plays by our middle infielders in Stian Sandivia and Kyle Robertson.

 

Game 2, 15-9:

Although we just lost a game, our focus was that we won the game 6-1 from the 5th inning on. The attitude and focus of the guys were unpackable and we went into the game with a must-win attitude. Our hit-machine Luis Frias started the game with a line-shot of a triple to left-center and scored on Marlon Morè's single. 

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In the second inning Kam Hanak and Ryan Goedecke singled. Terje Hoaas pocked a sac-fly to RF and Raul Bonilla pushed in another run in the following inning with a nice RBI infield single.

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With the score 4-3 the Pretenders stepped up another level and score 6 runs in the top of the 4th after 5 hits in a row - RBI singles by Luis Frias, Marlon Morè and Kam Hanak plus a huge RBI double by Raul Bonilla in the left-center gap.

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The Pretenders went on to score at least one run in every inning of the game - first time this season - to finish it off with a very pleasant 15-9 victory. Stian Sandivia had another RBI single, and Luis Frias keeps on hitting with a bases-clearing triple in the top of the 6th.

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On the mound the ever-young Ty Tollestrup pitched 6 strong innings, striking out 4 batters. Max Krafft came in as a relief in the bottom of the 7th and shut the Suns down in order.

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On defense we witnessed a rather bizarre 3-2-3 double play.  With the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Suns hit a ground ball to Enrico at 1st. He fires home to get the lead runner out. But the batter somehow thought Enrico had already stepped on first and walked off the field. Terje threw the ball back to Enrico who tagged out the confused runner.

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In the bottom of the 4th, the Pretenders executed a successful 521 rundown out at home to end the inning. Kam Hanak also made a great barehand play at 3rd on a grounder and fired to 1st as Enrico Guerrini made a great scoop to secure the out. Our losing streak is finally over!

 

Best of the best:

• Luis Frias: 3-8 with 2 triples, 4 RBIs and 3 R

• Stian Sandivia: 3-7 with 2 RBIs and 3 R

• Enrico Guerrini: 3-7 with 1 double, 1 RBI and 4 IP with 1 K