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It’s April Fool’s Day, 1912, and ten Arizona baseball teams take the field for the first time in games that mean something. Sure, they played a few games during Spring Training, but those games were meaningless in a competitive sense. Lets take a look at some of the firsts for each team on this historic day.
GAME 1:
The Nogales Black Knights played host to the Tempe Bulldogs.
Nogales sent southpaw starter Ryan Gaskin to the hill. He threw a first pitch strike.
The first error in Nogales history was committed by 3B Brian Raphael as he misplayed a grounder in the top of the 2nd inning. Amazingly, even though there were 5 runs scored in the inning, none of them were the result of the error.
Raphael then led off the the bottom of the 2nd with a double, the first hit in Black Nights history. He came around to score the first run for Nogales as 2B Randy Page delivered an RBI double. That was the first RBI in franchise history.
Brian Raphael continued to rack up franchise firsts as he hit the first home run for Nogales in the bottom of the 3rd.
On the other side of things, the Tempe Bulldogs sent right handed pitcher Tyler Craig to the mound on opening day. His first pitch was a ball. He retired the side in order in his first inning of work. He sustained an injury in the 2nd inning and had to leave the game.
CF Scott De Lorenzo delivered the first Tempe hit, when he ripped a single into right field on a 1-1 pitch to lead off the game.
C Abel Parr hit a grand slam into left field in the top of the 2nd, for the first home run, RBI, and grand slam in franchise history. Three pitches later, De Lorenzo hit a solo home run, the first back to back home runs for Tempe.
After being hit by a pitch in the 4th inning, De Lorenzo stole the first base in Bulldog history.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, 3B Chris Khalife committed the first error for the Bulldogs. He misplayed a ground ball and allowed the runner in second to score.
Tempe got the win on opening day, 8-5. Relief Pitcher Matt Nelson got the win after coming in to replace the injured Tyler Craig. Closer Ryan Barton picked up the franchise’s first save. Ryan Gaskin picked up the loss after allowing 5 runs in only 1.2 innings for Nogales.
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