New Offense Stuns Buffalo in Season Opener

The slightly tweaked and modified Philadelphia Flash offense woke up just in time in the season opening game, as the Flash rallied from 6 runs down with 3 outs to go to win 10-9 over the Buffalo Hot Wings. The 7-run 9th inning saw contributions from the entire lineup and prevented the Flash from dropping to 0-1.

LF Lefty Hodges started the inning by striking out, only to hit a 2-run triple later in the same inning that provided the tying and go-ahead runs. "Yeah, that inning had just about everything," Hodges said after the game. "I came in as a pinch-hitter and was a little too aggressive in my first at-bat. I was facing a different pitcher the second time around, so I felt like I was pinch-hitting again, but saw a fastball I liked and let my legs do the rest."

The inning featured, in order, a strike out, a home run, a triple, an infield single, another infield single, a bloop single, an error, a sac fly, a single, a triple, and a ground out. Whew! Quite the inning.

The game was actually a pitcher's duel until the 7th. SP Donovan Leiter and Buffalo's SP Midre Navarre had battled to a 2-1 score until Leiter was pulled for pinch-hitter C Jorge Ayala, who hit a 2-run double that ended Navarre's day. Both bullpens went to work and both looked shaky by the time it was all said and done.

"It's not how you win them, that's for sure. I'll take 10-9 as often as I'll take 1-0. Especially on the road," said manager Harold Willoughby after the game. The Flash were returning to the scene of their demise in last year's playoffs in this game, and as Willoughby mused, "It was good to exorcize some demons out there today."