This is a photo of the bus that the players took to Cold Spring on Sunday morning.

I repeat, this is not a photo of a prison transport vehicle, but rather the Official Muskies Players Bus.

Aside from the fact that one of the players was 45 minutes late to get on the bus (email your guesses to BoddTardman@ToddBergstrom.biz), and aside from some questionable stains on some of the couches on said bus, the morning got off to a good, if not early, start.

But then about an hour into the journey one of the back tires decided it wanted to try and break through the floor. It turned out to be a blown tire. Either way, the Official Muskies Players Bus Experiment was over as quickly as it began.

Long story short, we ended up hitching a ride with the Official Muskies Fan Bus, which came equipped with such features as lights, tires, and a bathroom not in the form of a plastic bottle. All told, we ended up getting to the field with about 45 minutes to spare. It could have been worse, I mean, Todd could've had a heart attack or something. 

As for the game, the weather was pretty much exactly what we have come to expect when traveling north of the 494/694 loop: chilly and very windy, of course, blowing directly in from center field: #Freeporting.

We got off to a quick start. The lead-off hitter reached on a walk, and Scotty Lyden followed this up with a record setting HBP, number 19 on the season. Congrats Spokes! We knew you had it in you. The lead-off hitter would eventually come around to score on a Nick Rost single. 1-0 Fish after one inning.

The Nate Rost was dominant all day. Hinckley only had a handful of baserunners, none of whom reached third base. He only needed to throw 78 pitches over 7 IP to get the CG SHO W. And the wind made his flowing locks all blowy and stuff.

Offensively, we broke the game open in the 4th. Highlights included back-to-back doubles from Ripp and Parker, the latter of whom missed his first Muskie dinger by a matter of feet. Rumor has it that a dinger would've earned him Mt. Dew for life. Alas. 

One of my favorite parts of the game was in the 7th inning, where every pinch hitter got a base knock: Engler, Bergman, and Rudorfer. I would be remiss not to mention that Dorfer's hit was the game winning one: #DorferIn.

The ballpark at Cold Spring was really nice. Next weekend we get to check out the field in Watkins, and on top of that, we get to play none other than the Watkins Clippers themselves, the host team. Game time is at 11am on Saturday. There will be a fan bus. Details to follow on Facebook.

This is a photo of us before the game during the National Anthem.

Photo courtesy of Julie Weeman.