As I sit here twelve hours later, one sight and one sound stand out from today's game between the best two Creaker teams this half. One was exhilarating, and the other was a dud.
The sight was the end of the game. After Red let the seemingly unsinkable Navy storm back to tie us at 17 going into the bottom of the eighth, and we took a precarious two run lead going into the unlimited ninth, Navy had a couple runners on with one out. Even though we had last ups, the game was hanging in the balance.
Crack - a sharp grounder up the middle. Tony Gorgone, our second baseman lunged to his right and on one hop stabbed at the ball, backhanded, and it stuck in his glove. He flipped it to Al Kidwell covering second, and Al fired as hard as he could to first. The runner was out by two steps, game over. It happened so fast, it was hard to believe at first. Then everyone slapped hands and agreed we all something great go down.
The sound was much earlier in the game. It didn't make much sense we were playing on Field 3 with Field 5 open, and I had a sense of dread that our last two games were there, what with the harsh penalty for hitting one over the fence. It proved to be prescient. James Del Rio came up in the third, and tried to hit a line drive to the opposite field. But he got a little under it, and it hit the top of the fence. But instead of dropping back down onto the field of play, it kept going, and the sound is ball hitting wood - thwack! - it next hit the telephone pole sticking above the fence and then slid down on the other side.
We will see what Leadership decides - the rule simply states that the player is suspended, with no guideline for how long. It does not even say he is suspended for the entirety of the game. I may be biased, but I personally would hope that the Creakers would want all teams at full strength for the playoffs. If I were our opponent, I would want to beat the best the other team has to offer. It's not like Del Rio picked a fight or cheated or performed any other criminal act - he merely hit a ball too hard on a field not designed to be played on with Senior bats in the hands of powerful men.
Navy jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first but we answered with five, highlighted by Del Rio's triple. In the third, before the dreaded 'out' by Del Rio, Mark Pitzlin hit a gapper to right center good for two runs. After Randy Crase plated Mark, we had built a 9-4 lead. It closed up to 11-8 in the next inning but after a shutdown top of the sixth, the top of the lineup again produced five. Included were extra base blasts by Rich Brown (triple, one run), Pitzlin (double, one run) and the closer, Lamont 'LT' Thompson, a booming double for the last two runs.
The rest is Bob Muegge being Muegge, one run allowed over three innings until the eighth when we faltered. In that inning our defense relapsed and Navy is just too good to not take advantage. But that just set the stage for Gorgone's dramatic play to end it.
Pitzlin was 4-4 with four RBIs and four runs scored. Yours truly also reached safely four times, but there was some, ahem, Navy help involved and some generous score-keeping. Kevin Kane continued to be leadoff hitter extraordinaire, going 3-3 and a sac fly. Bill Marthinsen and Crase, two models of consistency, rounded out those with three or more hits. A true team effort as we hit .681 as a team with everyone having at least one hit and all but one with an RBI. That's 18 RBIs for 14 guys - pretty well balanced (the actual game winning run scored on a double play, so there was no RBI).
Next up, we seek to continue this roll we are on to the end of the playoffs.
The sight was the end of the game. After Red let the seemingly unsinkable Navy storm back to tie us at 17 going into the bottom of the eighth, and we took a precarious two run lead going into the unlimited ninth, Navy had a couple runners on with one out. Even though we had last ups, the game was hanging in the balance.
Crack - a sharp grounder up the middle. Tony Gorgone, our second baseman lunged to his right and on one hop stabbed at the ball, backhanded, and it stuck in his glove. He flipped it to Al Kidwell covering second, and Al fired as hard as he could to first. The runner was out by two steps, game over. It happened so fast, it was hard to believe at first. Then everyone slapped hands and agreed we all something great go down.
The sound was much earlier in the game. It didn't make much sense we were playing on Field 3 with Field 5 open, and I had a sense of dread that our last two games were there, what with the harsh penalty for hitting one over the fence. It proved to be prescient. James Del Rio came up in the third, and tried to hit a line drive to the opposite field. But he got a little under it, and it hit the top of the fence. But instead of dropping back down onto the field of play, it kept going, and the sound is ball hitting wood - thwack! - it next hit the telephone pole sticking above the fence and then slid down on the other side.
We will see what Leadership decides - the rule simply states that the player is suspended, with no guideline for how long. It does not even say he is suspended for the entirety of the game. I may be biased, but I personally would hope that the Creakers would want all teams at full strength for the playoffs. If I were our opponent, I would want to beat the best the other team has to offer. It's not like Del Rio picked a fight or cheated or performed any other criminal act - he merely hit a ball too hard on a field not designed to be played on with Senior bats in the hands of powerful men.
Navy jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first but we answered with five, highlighted by Del Rio's triple. In the third, before the dreaded 'out' by Del Rio, Mark Pitzlin hit a gapper to right center good for two runs. After Randy Crase plated Mark, we had built a 9-4 lead. It closed up to 11-8 in the next inning but after a shutdown top of the sixth, the top of the lineup again produced five. Included were extra base blasts by Rich Brown (triple, one run), Pitzlin (double, one run) and the closer, Lamont 'LT' Thompson, a booming double for the last two runs.
The rest is Bob Muegge being Muegge, one run allowed over three innings until the eighth when we faltered. In that inning our defense relapsed and Navy is just too good to not take advantage. But that just set the stage for Gorgone's dramatic play to end it.
Pitzlin was 4-4 with four RBIs and four runs scored. Yours truly also reached safely four times, but there was some, ahem, Navy help involved and some generous score-keeping. Kevin Kane continued to be leadoff hitter extraordinaire, going 3-3 and a sac fly. Bill Marthinsen and Crase, two models of consistency, rounded out those with three or more hits. A true team effort as we hit .681 as a team with everyone having at least one hit and all but one with an RBI. That's 18 RBIs for 14 guys - pretty well balanced (the actual game winning run scored on a double play, so there was no RBI).
Next up, we seek to continue this roll we are on to the end of the playoffs.
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