Opening Day..sweet victory...

as the Defenders win 5-1 over the Portland Seadogs tonight. The Defenders jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the first as Clay Timpner singled for the first ever Defender hit and one out later Nate Schierholtz hit the first ever Defender home run in history. Chris Begg pitched two hit ball over seven innings and earned the victory. Billy Salder and Geno Espineli pitched an inning each to finish the game. Schierholtz also had a double and scored two runs. Eddy Martinez-Esteve had two RBIs and Jusin Knoelder had the other RBI before a festive crowd of 4,901 that included a very loud group of a 100 or so Coast Guard cadets. The bright spot for Red Sox fans out there was the two very effective innings pitched by touted prospect Craig Hansen.
Misc. fans note: The other big winner was the Nathans Food stand that featured long and I mean long lines thru the game. Owner Lou DiBella was fussing over the lines at Nathans before the game started and the lines just got longer and longer. Hey; it was opening day for the help there too. And it's great to see the owner at the park attending to detail. Also the Nathans grill produced smoke that blew over the first base side most of the game until they got it under control. I'll review the changes to Dodd in another post in detail but it's a big thumbs up overall.
Opps moments: A represenative from Gov. Rell read a message that refered to the team as the "Connecticut Thunder" a women's football team and the PA announcer did say "Navigator" once and although I expected really more out of just force of habit. And ex-Nav Angel Chavez was picked up on waivers by the Phillies and sent to Reading so we'll see him in acouple of weeks when they come into town.