In a crisply played game today at Heather 6, White rode a comeback wave and overwhelmed Gray 22-20.
Gray put up five runs in two of the first three (and the outcome once again proved the curse of the first rule), and took a 15-6 lead into the bottom of the fifth. But White's pitching and defense settled down, and the hitting heated up just as the sun heated up the morning - we scored 3,2,6, and then 5 to put away the game.
Lead off Rich Brown went 3-3 with a walk. He wants the official stats to count walks as hits as in baseball pre-1900. His favorite line is "A walk's a hit!" He's got a point, I can say cause I had two of them!
Mike Guerrero was 4-4, and behind him Mike Saindon was 3-3 with a sac fly and team high 5 RBIs, so the top three in our order were 10-10 and 10 RBIs with a walk and a sac. Way to set the table boys!
Dave Rose was also 4-4, and Bruce Spencer had three knocks. Coach Neil Henry also had three including the game winning hit, a triple that put us ahead 21-20 in the eighth.
Helen Kostoff had a perfect day too - she beat the extreme shift twice: Once on a smash just inside the third base bag, and then a liner between about four or five Grays that couldn't do a thing about it. In her other at bat, she hit a ball about 100 feet, and Henry tagged at third and dared the left fielder to throw him out, and he couldn't. Neil was double daring on the bases - following his triple in the eighth, he stood on third when Clay Kallam hit a grounder to the third baseman at the bag. Tony Teixiera played it perfectly, holding the ball til the last second so Neil couldn't advance. But he took off immediately after the throw, and forced Gray to gun him down, which they couldn't and we had our final insurance run.
Despite a few of the usual doinks in the field, we made up for them with a couple of stellar plays. Brown, not once but twice deked a runner at first on 'singles' in front of him in right center - and got a force at second to take away the hit. He also made a nice running catch in the fifth on a ball headed to the RC gap. Spencer took one in the soft padding at third base and turned it into a force out at second. And Howard also playing the hot corner stuck out his glove on a smash and came up with it to stifle a Gray rally.
But the play of the day was when Gray still had a lead and Kevin Kane dared to try to scored from second with two outs on a single in front of LC David Partridge. David casually set up and threw a strike to Barry Gronenberg at the mound who made a quick turn and fired to Kostoff at the plate to nail Kane by more than a step. Well done!
All in all very well played by both teams and of course you feel better coming back to win, but it was really what Creaker ball is all about. Even the one controversial call at second! (I'll let Suchon get into that)
Gray put up five runs in two of the first three (and the outcome once again proved the curse of the first rule), and took a 15-6 lead into the bottom of the fifth. But White's pitching and defense settled down, and the hitting heated up just as the sun heated up the morning - we scored 3,2,6, and then 5 to put away the game.
Lead off Rich Brown went 3-3 with a walk. He wants the official stats to count walks as hits as in baseball pre-1900. His favorite line is "A walk's a hit!" He's got a point, I can say cause I had two of them!
Mike Guerrero was 4-4, and behind him Mike Saindon was 3-3 with a sac fly and team high 5 RBIs, so the top three in our order were 10-10 and 10 RBIs with a walk and a sac. Way to set the table boys!
Dave Rose was also 4-4, and Bruce Spencer had three knocks. Coach Neil Henry also had three including the game winning hit, a triple that put us ahead 21-20 in the eighth.
Helen Kostoff had a perfect day too - she beat the extreme shift twice: Once on a smash just inside the third base bag, and then a liner between about four or five Grays that couldn't do a thing about it. In her other at bat, she hit a ball about 100 feet, and Henry tagged at third and dared the left fielder to throw him out, and he couldn't. Neil was double daring on the bases - following his triple in the eighth, he stood on third when Clay Kallam hit a grounder to the third baseman at the bag. Tony Teixiera played it perfectly, holding the ball til the last second so Neil couldn't advance. But he took off immediately after the throw, and forced Gray to gun him down, which they couldn't and we had our final insurance run.
Despite a few of the usual doinks in the field, we made up for them with a couple of stellar plays. Brown, not once but twice deked a runner at first on 'singles' in front of him in right center - and got a force at second to take away the hit. He also made a nice running catch in the fifth on a ball headed to the RC gap. Spencer took one in the soft padding at third base and turned it into a force out at second. And Howard also playing the hot corner stuck out his glove on a smash and came up with it to stifle a Gray rally.
But the play of the day was when Gray still had a lead and Kevin Kane dared to try to scored from second with two outs on a single in front of LC David Partridge. David casually set up and threw a strike to Barry Gronenberg at the mound who made a quick turn and fired to Kostoff at the plate to nail Kane by more than a step. Well done!
All in all very well played by both teams and of course you feel better coming back to win, but it was really what Creaker ball is all about. Even the one controversial call at second! (I'll let Suchon get into that)
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