Denver, CO  The Colorado Aces finally returned to action after five weeks off due to Mother Nature, Mother's Day and a Bye Week and found their groove in a 7-2 win over the previously unbeaten Spartans on Sunday at North High School.

The team was led by the stellar pitching of starter Dan Clemens and Reliever Steve Jay as they only allowed two runs to the Spartans who had scored a combined 30 in their first two victories.  Clemens brought his "A" game Sunday as he went seven strong innings only giving up the two runs, one of which was unearned, on 8 hits, struck out three and didn't walk a batter on the day.  Clemens had the Spartans off balance at the plate for the entire seven innings using his complete arsenal of pitches called with the help of his catcher, Ric Poland.  Poland told Manager Eric Meyer in the 4th inning that Dan was "Nails" today and it showed on the scoreboard as Clemens gave the Aces a great chance to win a game against a very good team.

Jay came on in the 8th and only faced seven hitters to get his second save of the season.  Clemens got  his (and the team's) second win as well.  Jay looked pretty jacked up entering the game in the 8th, bringing hard and high fastballs.  But he settled in after a couple of batters and closed things out for the Aces to earn their second win of the young season.

The defense was really good for most of the game as well as the Aces only committed two errors, with only one of the two allowing a run to score.  Tony Walsh had a great day at 3rd and Keith Losey filled in at Shortstop and didn't miss a beat making all of the important plays for the Aces.  Poland was great behind the plate, not only calling a great game along with Clemens and Jay, but blocking everything that hit the dirt around the plate.  Sherman Lodge and Jason Leue made every play that came their way at 2nd as well as White and Jay playing top notch first base to sometimes bail out their teammates with great foot and glove work to get outs at critical times.  The outfield, including Pat Poppen, Saunders, Paulson, Meyer and Schneider didn't have a lot of action but made plays when they came their way.

The Aces never trailed in the game after plating two runs in the third but they had runners advance to 3rd base in both the first and second innings and could not get the clutch hits to get them home.  That would change in the third though.  Tony Walsh would lead the inning off with a solid single to right center field staying hot in the early season.  Sherman Lodge would follow with a bloop hit between 1st and second that the Spartans couldn't handle and the Aces had runners at first and second with nobody out.  After a Poland out, right fielder, Chris Schneider, would come to the plate and get things started for the Aces by lacing a laser shot to the right center field gap for a double that would score both Walsh and Lodge giving the Aces a 2-0 lead.

The Aces would extend the lead to 3-0 in the top of the 5th when Keith Losey led off with a double right over the third base bag. Shane Saunders would move him to third with a groundout and Walsh would come through again, driving in Losey with a single to center. The Spartans would answer with a run of their own in the bottom of the 5th When their #4 hitter would triple to the wall in left field and was driven in on a single by the very next batter.

The Aces would keep the pressure on  by scoring two runs in the top of the 6th.  After Craig Olson flew out to start the inning, Kyle Paulson drew an eight pitch walk.  Eric Meyer would fly out to left and with two out, Clemens would draw a walk of his own putting runners on 1st and 2nd with two outs.  That would set the stage for Steve Jay as he would launch a crushing shot to the center field wall that would dent the fence when it hit and that would score both Paulson, and Eric Meyer, who had pinch run for Clemens after his walk.  This would make the score Aces 5, Spartans 2 going to the bottom of the 6th.

The Spartans would have a small answer for the two run 6th inning rally by the Aces as they would score a single run in the bottom of the 6th on a lead off single, stolen base, a groundout moving the runner to third and a sacrifice fly.  Clemens did a great job all day limiting the Spartans from stringing hits together and the "No Trouble" mantra was on board all day.

The Aces would complete the scoring in the top of the 8th by plating another two runs.  Schneider would lead off with another hit, a single to right followed by Olson getting hit by a pitch.  Paulson would ground out on a hard shot to first moving the runners to 2nd and 3rd.  Meyer would follow Paulson, and after swinging at a horrible high fastball, was able to go down and get a breaking ball and bounce it over the head of the Spartans pitcher.  The 2nd baseman would make a play on the ball but throw it into the hitting cage allowing Schneider and Olson to score and put Meyer at 2nd base.  That would make the score 7-2 and essentially put the game out of reach. 

That's because Jay came in and ended the thing with two innings giving up only two hits and got a double play grounder to end the game and send the Aces to their second win in a row in this early season contest.

This was a great win for the Aces as they took out a team that was 2-0 and had thrashed their first two opponents by a combined 30-5 score.  The Aces pitching shut down a really good lineup and only allowed two runs on the day.  This is confirming that the merger of the Bombers and Grizzlies that formed the Aces is starting to come together and this game points to good things to come as the season goes along.

Next up for the Aces is a make-up game against the Cannons on Saturday, May 30th at North High School followed by a regularly scheduled game against the Greensox on Sunday the 31st at Adams City High School.