The University of Virginia isn't the only national champ this morning. The Vermont Shamrocks Under 16 girls hockey team won the USA tier two national crown yesterday, defeating Wisconsin's Baldwin Riverfalls BlackCats 5-0 in Amherst, New York.
The Shamrocks are a squad comprised of some of the region's best hockey players, including Abby Chauvin of Stowe and and Abby Robbins of Essex, who gave the Shamrocks a 2-0 lead in the first period. Lilly Truchon of South Burlington tallied in the second frame and that was more than enough for Shannon Moran. The goalie from Grantham, New Hampshire made 27 saves to notch the shut-out. Madison Chagnon of Colchester scored in the third period along with Lake Placid's Lydia Bullock.
This marks the third national championship for the Vermont program, with the under 16's winning also in 2013 and the under 19's in 2016.
To Major League Baseball, and the NY Yankees got their first crack in 2019 at the Houston Astros, falling short in a 4-3 loss in Texas. Aaron Judge homered for the Yankees off Houston ace Justin Verlander and the Yanks had a 3-1 lead into the seventh, but in that frame Roninson Cano tied the game with a two-run double off reliever Zack Britton, and the eventual game winning hit came on a broken bat single by Carlos Correa in the bottom of the eighth against Adam Ottavino.
Masahiro Tanaka made a strong start for the Yankees, allowed just Jose Altuve's long home run, one of three hits he allowed over six innings.
The NY Mets were idle. They host the Minnesota Twins today, and this afternoon the defending world series champion Boston Red Sox finally play their first game at Fenway Park after an eleven game road trip that was about as successful as the roll-out of New Coke. That's a mid-80's joke, kids.
The Red Sox will receive their World Series rings for 2018 before the game and any good will from the Fenway faithful for that accomplishment will last as long as the first pitch by Chris Sale. The 3-8 start the 2019 Red Sox are off to has fans flashing back to the wildly disappointing 2011 squad that was heralded before that season began as possibly the best Red Sox team ever, with a bevy of what turned out to be overpaid stars on the roster.
That team staggered out to a 2-10 start before recovering and rallying to mid-summer dominance, only to falter again in September in a fast fade for the ages, winning just seven games all month and falling short of the playoffs on the last day of the season. It wasn't long after that collapse that the news spread of some of those high end players playing video games while eating fried chicken and drinking beer in the clubhouse while teammates finished out the still in progress game on the field.
If there's even a hint that the 2019 team carries that sort of arrogance into its campaign to defend the title this year, you'll be able to hear the gnashing of teeth all over New England and the glories of the 2018 season won't do much to mute the sound.
One other sound you can hear today is the sigh of relief from Eugenio Velez. Until last night, Velez had the ignominious distinction of holding the longest hitless streak in major league history, coming to the plate 47 times in a row without getting a hit, a record set in 2011. But that title now belongs to Baltimore's Chris Davis, who went 0 for 5 in the Oriole's 12-4 win over the A's last night, and that stretches Davis' run of futility at the dish to 49 consecutive at-bats without a hit.
