Know Mercy knows rust on Opening Day

Rust: noun (ruhst) 1) The red or orange coating that forms on the surface of iron when exposed to air and moisture. 2) The stuff on the Know Mercy bats and gloves during the first game of the season.

Know Mercy fell to GE on the Schnitz Ada Grill Opening Day, but the 8-2 final score makes the results seem worse than they actually were.

The rivals scored five of their runs in the second inning — proving that the One Bad Inning Syndrome carries over from year to year — and tacked on three more in the sixth.

Meanwhile, Know Mercy bats were still a little dusty, managing a run in the first and another in the fifth.

But there was plenty to build on, now that everyone has that rough first game of the year out of the way.

Which is not to say there were not some fantastic moments:

Melissa Ferens was a machine, reaching base three times, scoring a run and showing some nice defense at second base.

Steve Korb reached base both times he came to the plate, and scored our other run. But his defense at shortstop was spectacular. When the GE slugger launched one to deep left-center, Steve ran out to take the throw from Rachel Zollman, turned an fired an absolute bullet, right on target, to the plate, where Mike Gillis waited a slapped a tag on a dazed GE runner.

Steve Carins also reached both times he was up, and made a great running grab of a sky-pop off the bat of GE’s best player.

Jamie Linari was plugged into third base with little notice and handled a lot of action in addition to getting on base. She earned the Schnitz Ada Grill Game Ball for her performance. Sidekick Jason Stevenson also launched a hit and covered lots of ground in left.

Nick Rodammer also was two-for-two and was flawless at shortstop.

John Basher’s Know Mercy debut also was stellar with a pair of hits — and expert knowledge about firing up a grill.

Mike Gillis was working his magic on the mound, as we’ve come to expect, issuing no walks and striking out multiple GE batters.

Ouch! Catching can be a dangerous spot, but both of our backstops were banged up while running after hitting the ball. Wish Amy Bonjour and Charmayne Mulligan speedy recoveries!

But Opening Day is reason to celebrate no matter the final score, and we enjoyed some post-game fellowship with cookies and hot dogs.

Lost and found: Left in the picnic area were a green water bottle — at least it appears to be water. Some of you people are pretty wild — and a young fan’s gray sweat shirt with a polo logo. I’ll bring both to the next game.

Next week: We’re playing at 7:30 on the same field. Yea! But it’s against the Victory Club goon squad. Boo! But Casey thinks we’ll have our uniforms by then, so we’ll look really cool. And I think we’ll have some of the players we were missing this week! Yea!