By Benjamin Boxer
Lady Luck, the Miracle Worker and Cinderella”s Fairy Godmother are all apparently Salt Lake Stingers” fans.
All three seem to have reserved seats right behind the Stingers” dugout, at least during the last four games. They also seem to have taken a particular liking to Stingers leftfielder Scott Morgan.
The leftfielder capped two of the wildest games of the Stingers” season with walk-off home runs in the bottom of the ninth in both Sunday and Monday”s contests against the Iowa Cubs.
“This is probably one of the best moments in my baseball career,” Morgan said Monday evening, after his game-winning three run shot.
The Stingers are currently riding a four game winning streak comprised solely of nail-biting ninth inning victories.
After scoring 18 runs in nine innings against the Memphis Redbirds on May 7, the Stingers struggled on the road, scoring only 13 runs in four games against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox.
Their final three runs of the series came in the ninth inning of their final game. This fueled a 4-1 victory and inaugurated their current stretch of late inning heroics.
The Stingers came home to Franklin Covey Field, Saturday, to meet the Iowa Cubs, led by Corey Patterson, the No. 2 prospect in all of minor league baseball.
In game one, the Stingers came through in the bottom of the ninth, with Jose Nieves smacking a line drive through the gap into left-center field driving in the tying and winning runs.
With two ninth inning wins under their belt, the stage was set for Morgan.
In the bottom of the ninth, in game two, the Stingers and Cubs were tied 4-4. Morgan stepped to the plate with one runner aboard, and with one swing, sent a 0-2 pitch over the fence resulting in a 6-4 victory.
“They threw a pitch in the happy zone and I drove it,” Morgan said.
He did some more driving Monday night in game two of the series. It was the bottom of the ninth, Stingers trailing the Cubs 9-7, two out, two men on, when he sent another “happy zone” pitch to the left field crowd.
Morgan”s homer, his second of the night, gave the Stingers an 11-9 victory. It was their fourth ninth inning victory in a row and third straight win in its last at-bat.
“The guys before me worked the count and got on base and allowed five or six guys to get to the plate,” Morgan said.
Manager Garry Templeton said he fears he will go gray before his time if this trend continues.
“I guess it doesn”t matter how you win – as long as you win,” Templeton said.
Here is a message for all Stingers” fans. If the game goes to the bottom of the ninth with the Stingers trailing, don”t head for the parking lot. The game is just about to get interesting.
