BananaBall Manchester – Coconuts vs Firefighters
Last weekend I made my way to Manchester NH for my 5th consecutive weekend with the Loco Beach Coconuts, this time they were headlining against the Firefighters at Delta Dental Stadium, aka “The Tooth”.
We arrived at our hotel (that was basically in Left Field of the stadium) a bit early, but fortunately our room was ready! We relaxed a bit and then got ready to head down for Game #1. The setup seemed a bit hectic – we went through security but no one scanned our tickets and then both teams were out at once – likely because a storm was on its way. It was tough for me to balance which Coconuts I wanted to talk to as well as tracking down which Firefighters I needed to try and get to fill out my form/quizzes. (They are trickier because they have no number on their fronts either!) I had 18 Firefighters to go so we figured if we could get 3 at each pre/post we’d be all set. We ended up getting 5 and then the players left and it started drizzling. We made our way up to the K-Club area and the sky just was getting darker and darker and next thing I know it started pouring and then it started coming down sideways and into the restaurant windows and I was just scooting myself as far away as I could without still getting wet. BBB kept getting delayed due to lightning and ended up getting moved to post-game which I was worried would mess with my quest.
Despite the downpour and lightning, the game still ended up starting just about on time. Though the Firefighters scored 2 runs in the first inning, the Coconuts walked off scoring 3. Coconuts then walked off the 2nd. Firefighters managed to score and get a point in the 3rd when Peanut hit a triple and managed to advance to home on the play. The Coconuts then walked off the 4th and 5th. Armando Becerra hit a Home Run in the 7th, the Firefighters scored 4 runs and the Coconuts only scored 1 making the score 4-2. Coconuts then walked off the 8th making it 5-2 going into the 9th and CJ Williams was dominate with 2 strike outs and getting the Golden Batter to fly out in Center Field. Coconuts win 5-2! Despite some of the team being on the field for BBB, others were still out in the plaza so we did manage to get some more quizzes.
Friday we made our way to Tropical Smoothie Cafe in the morning – I tried the new Loco Beach collab smoothie – unfortunately it was ALL banana and I couldn’t taste the pineapple or coconut at all. If I were to order it again I’d probably modify it to not have any banana. 4 Coconuts were there hanging out – we met Kyle Perry, Drake Fontenot and Gideon Antle and got ourselves some Coconuts/Tropical Smoothie branded leis. Peyton Chatagnier came later and was across the parking lot so we figured we’d catch him later. We also got to spin the prize wheel where I won a ‘mystery prize’ of sunglasses and my friend won a BOGO coupon.
There were 3 others meeting us for this game so we had to coordinate where to meet them. Fortunately this time they had a ticket scanning tent set up right after security so we were able to tell them where to meet us. After meeting players, we once again headed up to the K-Club area and watched the stage show from up above. We also ended up in the middle of the high five parade (this always seems to happen) and got to hype the players up before the gates opened.
The Firefighters scored 1 unanswered in the first and took the early lead. Zack Phillips was pitching for the Firefighters and hadn’t started a game in quite some time. He was also being caught by Zachary Bridges and pitching for the Coconuts was Zach Smith. It was a very Zachary heavy game. The Firefighters earned another point in the 3rd – both of their points came from some trick play misses by the Coconuts. In the 4th the Coconuts got a Walk Off, but the Firefighters earned themselves another point in the 5th. And Coconuts walked off the 6th making it 3-2 in favor of Firefighters. In the 7th there was a really weird play with Gideon being called for interference so the runner on the bases being called out for a strange double play? But in the 8th the Coconuts only had to send up Grady Morgan who hit his first Home Run of the season to tie things up at 3-3. In the top of the 9th the Firefighters took the lead again and unfortunately the Coconuts did not score any, leading to a 4-3 Firefighters win.
Saturday we woke up to head over to Dunkin for the meet and greet. First up we spun the wheel, hoping for a hat. I won a Banana Ball pennant which I had the players sign (it was the same as the one I had gotten in Tulsa) and my friend won a cute donut keychain! Inside was Zach Smith, Keegan James, Austin Temple and Logan Lacey. The Firefighters were behind the counter so Austin ended up ringing up our order while Logan manned the drive thru. Zach gave out some Coconuts branded donuts but it didn’t look like they had any of the player face donuts that we were so looking forward to 🙁 BUT they did have Coffee Rolls which seem to have been discontinued in Connecticut so that made me happy.
We had a group of 4 for the Saturday game with 1 total newbie. We got in line early and ended up doing the Dunkin prize wheel at the game where we both won sunglasses but my friend got a giftcard instead since she wore prescription glasses. Her sister won the hat that we had been wanting so a trade was made. I will have to make an effort to hit up the Dunkin area at some of my future games to see if I can get myself a hat.
We had 4 players left to track down to the quizzes. I was in what I thought was a line for 1 but he walked away and then I got in line for one of the others and just narrowly escaped being cut off. By the end of the post plaza, the quest had been completed – technically I am missing 2 but they were not there due to injury so hopefully I can get them later in the season. This time we tried to strategically place ourselves again for the high five parade, but it started to drizzle and ended up being a bit of a cluster with some older people not knowing what was going on getting in our way for part of it. When we got to our seats it was slightly drizzling, we hoped it would stay at that amount of rain since it was hot but we didn’t want another downpour.
The Saturday game went scoreless until the bottom of the 5th. Although both teams scored in the 2nd they canceled each other out. Coconuts scored in the bottom of the 5th, as well as the bottom of the 7th. Firefighters did score 1 in the 9th but the Coconuts ended up victorious with a score of 2-1.
My next Firefighters game is in August and Coconuts is in September – though Jordan Brewer seems to think I may pop up somewhere else before then. We’ll see if he’s right 😉