Jitterbugs at North Bend

The Jitterbugs rolled into North Bend on June 23 smack dab in the middle of the town's Old Settlers Days festival, finding the field by the shrieks of the children zooming around the carnival's Octopus ride. We all cut it a little close on the time, and since it was our first game, most of us were still changing into our swanky vintage uniforms when North Bend took the field. But praise be to the gods of baseball, our second hitter Aaron Hillyer knocked the first pitch he saw out over the outfield fence. Trying to lace our belts through our pants' loops and tie up our cleats, half of us didn't see the hit, but that didn't matter. 1-0, Jitterbugs.

Mitch Minarick, a native of North Bend, took the mound and got off to a rocky start. Giving up three walks, an error, and a home run, the Jitterbugs found their early confidence shaken and resolve in question. At the end of the first inning, the North Bend team was leading 4-1. It was three up and three down for the Jitterbugs in the second. We were trying not to think what 9 innings times 4 runs was, especially since most of our opponents weren't old enough to buy a pack of Pall Malls. But then our local wonder "My Man Mitch" Minarick found his groove and never looked back, pitching a shutout the rest of the way. The 26-year-old Minarick gave an amazing performance, not having seen action on the mound since the last millennium. He finished the game with 13 strikeouts and was helped throughout with flawless play in the field.

Riding the Minarick wave, the Jitterbugs found their bats. Slowly but surely, we fought back with Tony Mixan scoring in the third and Alex Brown coming home in the seventh. Aaron Hillyer scored on a Luke Francis double in eighth to tie the game 4-4. Francis then scored shortly after on an Alex Brown double. The put the Jitterbugs up 5-4 and they didn't look back.

In the bottom of the ninth, Minarick only faced three, cutting the North Bend rally off at the knees. Minarick induced a fly out and the struck out the last two batters he faced. With a pitch count of 144, he had stunned the fans and given the Jitterbugs in our orange and black a season opening victory that will long be remembered.

In the day of the long ball and entertainment seekers it was the home town boy and the ragamuffin team who made the show. Later that night, under blooming fireworks over the North Bend field, no one had to ask who the guys in the faded jerseys were.