There is one way to beat the curse of the first. White started out with six straight hits in the top of the first, and went up 5-0. The key is to add on, and White didn't let up the rest of the game, winning 21-9 in a heat shortened seven inning game.
It didn't hurt that we very nearly batted around before we made an out. In fact we were just one batter short of what very possibly could have been a Creaker record. I'm not mentioning any names, you will have to check the box score, but when lead off hitter Rich Brown knocked in our tenth run, it was 10 runs in 14 batters in two innings.
Teal never recovered, although they did make a run in the third and fourth, answering our three with seven while we cooled off temporarily, and they cut the lead to 13-8. But when we put up four each in the fifth and sixth, it was all over.
That was also because our pitching and defense took over. Barry made the first great play in the first, a tough come backer that wasn't really at him, but he knocked it down and recovered to get the guy at first. In the second, we had a Mike Saindon to Clay Kallam to Jeff Kravin double play to keep Teal scoreless.
It was the fifth inning that stood out. The first baseman pulled an errant throw in the dirt against his leg, and held on. The ump at first ruled the runner safe, assuming the throw was dropped, but to his credit, reversed his call when he realized what happened. Then Paul Lisi made a huge running catch in left center, and wheeled and threw to Helen Kostoff at second base, who picked up the one hop throw. The same ump wasn't as generous this time - he may have been mugged by his teammates if he called the double play. However, that just set up a bases load two out confrontation between pitcher Barry Gronenberg and Gerry Dacey, one of the best hitters in Creakerdom. It was the biggest moment of the game. Dacey fouled a couple off and worked a full count, and then watched as Gronenberg hit the very corner of the board, and 'thwack' - there was no doubt it was strike three.
Finally in the last inning we showed off our outfield. Lisi ranged far into right center to peg a dying quail for one out, and for the exclamation point, Brown ran down the last out in the right-right center gap.
White plays best when we spread our hits around and everyone gets into the act. We hit .733 as a team in this game. Brown and Saindon led the way with four hits. Right behind them were Lisi, Mike Guerrero, Dave Rose, and Kravin with three hits each. Lisi, Guerrero, and Saindon each had a triple. And then there was our secret weapon, Howard Davis, aka Superman. He also had three hits (but in just three ABs), and deserves separate mention because after the first two he hurt his ankle and played the rest of the game on one leg. What does he do? He comes up and slaps his third hit.
Lisi, Guerrero, and Kravin, led the way with three RBIs. Everyone but me (somehow) scored a run.
Lastly, of note, Gronenberg and Dave Siegel held a very good hitting Teal team under ten runs, quite an accomplishment.
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