The MAA Summer Minors Intramural Travel Baseball Team was devastated by vacation and injury over the past week. Manager Steve Siwinski gathered a patchwork squad for the second trip to Malverne's Whalen Field. Four new faces and one substitute joined five regulars in a tough late inning defeat. The game was not a total loss with a barrage of extra base hits and stellar fielding. Friday's game reacquainted the team with their regular lineup against Williston Park only to have a rainstorm cancel the game after the visitors first at bat.

Mineola built a run in classic fashion to open the game. Robert Sallie stroked his first hit of the season and advanced to second on a Malverne misplay. Sallie then stole third base and scored on Carmine Sarno's sacrifice fly. Malverne struck back quickly. A single scored two after Mineola loaded the bases on walks as the inning looked grim. Before the damage could worsen, Drew Barnett and Matt Siwinski turned the team's first double play of the season to end the inning with only a 2-1 deficit. Mineola would open the second with a solidly placed double by Andrew Shear only to be stranded at third.

Sallie pitched himself out of a predicament in the latter half of the second frame. Loading the bases on walks, he sandwiched three strikeouts to shut down the rally. Unfortunately, Malverne came out blazing in the third with three runs on five hits before the Mineola defense would again leave the home team exasperated with the bases stacked during the final two outs. The boys mounted a charge an inning later. Terry Mooney led off with a single. Four consecutive walks after two quick outs sent MAAers around the diamond with RBIs to Joe Calabro and John Hinchcliff for a 5-3 score. This was to be the last of the offense Mineola could muster with but one more hit behind five strikeouts in the last two innings.

The current record of this fine group of sportsmen stands at two wins and five losses. Leading hitters include Terry Mooney with a .444 batting average and eight runs batted in and Alex Eisen with a .333 batting average and tremendous 1.333 on base percentage. John "Rickey" Sullivan leads with a 1.500 on base average spurred by eight walks, two hits batsmen, and a high of eight stolen bases. Matt Siwinski and TJ Winters top the charts in runs scored with four each behind respectable batting averages and on base levels.

Team pitching is a tale of two fates. Sallie (2-0) and Mooney (0-4) have handled the bulk of the load with 30 of 38 innings hurled between the duo. Mooney has garnered 37 strikeouts in 15 innings with an opponents batting average of just .190! Sallie has a team best ERA along with 21 K's and only 15 walks in 15 innings of work. Defensive stalwarts include third baseman Carmine Sarno, outfielder Vince Ruggiero and catcher Andrew Shear, all of whom have gone without an error. Coaching boxes have been manned by the seniors, Terry Mooney and John Sullivan, while bench coach Tom Winters prevents dugout chaos all under the guidance of Steve Siwinski.