Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Kiss Your Brews, Brothers

On October 8th, 2002, Transdyn tied our then arch-rival the Tri-Valley Giants, 9-9. TVG beat us in the other game against them that season, but we didn't lose another one, and TVG lost a few others and we won cotton.

And unbelievably, we have not tied another game until last night, 16-16 against the Brews Brothers. That's about 16 years, 32 seasons, 350 odd games.

Kind of amazing, some of my other teams seem to tie one every season.

It was a game of wild swings. We busted out batting around plus two in the top of the first to go up 8-0. But we knew those boys could hit, and sure enough after plating four in the first, they had the monster eight run second inning to go up 12-10.

Then a strange thing happened, both teams kind of quieted down with only a combined 10 runs the rest if the way. We showed some character and some defense, and a lot of patience at the plate (10 walks including two with the bases juiced), and came back to take a 16-12 lead going into the bottom of the last inning.

Along the way there were some great plays. Cage ranged far into left for a flyout. Bo (Ok, you made the team) went flat out in RC to snag a gapper as it came to the ground. Heffe scooped some dirt and the ball on a low throw, and held it all against his leg. Jason showed great range at 2B on one play, and then after the middle infield switch, made a couple at SS. On one he knocked the ball down and threw it in the dirt to first, but D scooped it, a lot cleaner than I did.

Pauly was the hero of the game for avoiding getting killed on a hot corner liner right at his face in the second. He managed to take it off the fat part of his throwing hand, and thus miraculously he averted broken bones as well (although I haven't had a medical update).

He gamely came back in toward the end, and with two on and one out in the bottom of the sixth, threw one in the dirt that I grabbed, held for a second, but it dribbled out to load the bases. Sadly, the next batter sent a shot almost to Mount Diablo for a game tying grand slam, but we were able to stop them there and get the tie.

Bert and D had three hits each, with Bert including a two run homer on his way to leading the team with four RBIs. Cage walked three times and set himself to score three times on the big boys' hits. Jay and Pauly had three RBIs each, showing that guys all over the order were on base.

A tough one to lose the lead but the Brew Crew are the defending champs, so we could have done worse. And SOP lost!


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