What can be said about the first game of the year? We had bad defense, sub-par hitting and not enough pitching. So when the dust settled...and there WAS a lot of dust...The Rogues came up short.

By Matt Cox #5

Tonight's player of the game is Ian Dunbar. Ian showed probably the most heart of any Rogue tonight, by going 3-3 with 2 stolen bases. He stole 2nd and 3rd in the same inning, and got mighty dirty in the process. Two of his hits went for doubles, and he was solid behind the plate, making some good plays at home.

(AP - Ottawa) But where was the team tonight? It might be my over-active imagination, but I'm under the impression that a lot of Rogues seemed content to give up and lose when we got down 7 runs in the second inning. And as anyone can attest to, nothing's that far out of reach.

The Stingers got off to a good start by scoring the first run in the first inning. A couple of errors brought in this run, but the Rogues got out of it before anything bad could let loose. Unfortunately, the ugliness was waiting for them in the second inning, when The Rogues took the field and The Stingers scored 7 runs to make the lead 8-0. Brutal. Balls went through infielders' legs, possible double plays got thrown into the outfield, and walks were issued.

But the Rogues sucked it up and started to come back, by hitting a few liners and doubles here and there. Dan Robert and Ian Dunbar had exceptional nights at the plate, while Chris Amos and Martin Soucy performed as well.

Cox started the game and went three innings, walking 3 and beaning one. He also had a couple strike outs and made a couple plays. But while his pitching would usually be enough to get by on most nights, tonight it wasn't enough. Dan Robert came in and pitched the fourth and part of the fifth...and did well considering he hasn't had much practice this year. Even more impressive was Martin Glazer, who pitched to a batter with 2 outs and the bases loaded...and after 2 strikes, made the batter pop out.