After several months of anticipation and one rained-out season opener, the Rockies were finally able to get their feet wet in the Sunburst League, and they didn’t disappoint.
Despite a last minute curveball from the City of Calgary that saw the Rockies booted from their expected home park of Foothills Stadium, the team was still able to put together a home game against the Calgary Diamondbacks at Glen Hansen field, and marked the birth of the franchise on May 19th, 2023 with a 10-3 victory over their South Division opponents.
Curtis Smith (1-0) got the start on the hill for the Rockies and was roughed up early by Diamondback sluggers JP Willner and Andrew Malone who each hit solo shots in the first inning. Smith went on to strike out the other three batters he faced and would settle in to allow only one additional run over the next four innings and leave the game in line for his first career Sunburst League win in the fifth inning.
The Rockies offense, not to be outdone, was alive early as well. Luke Carmichael got his huge day at the plate started by taking advantage of a first inning walk drawn by Dale Bratz and batted him in with the first base knock in Rockies franchise history, a hard line drive to left field, to cut the lead to 2-1.
A big third inning led by base hits from Bratz, Lane Aman, and Travis Gaudet would provide the Rockies a 4-3 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish, and a four run bottom of the fifth would break the game open for the Rockies as they poured on six more base knocks to run the lead up to 8-3. Owen Steele was brought in for relief duties after Smith’s exit and slammed the door with five strikeouts over two scoreless innings while allowing only one baserunner.
Travis Gaudet and Luke Carmichael earned Co-Player of the Game honours as they both paced the offense with three hits each and combined for five RBI’s and five runs scored between them.
The Rockies are back in action on Tuesday May 23rd at Inland Athletic Park for their first road game against the same Diamondbacks as they try to keep their momentum rolling!
