At the top of the Oakland hills in Sibley Regional Park lies Round Top, the volcano that spewed out the material that forms the East Bay Hills. If you hike to the top and look northeast, you get a view that used to be a pristine valley that I called the Wilder Gap. It was EBMUD watershed or something, that somehow was connected to the San Pablo and Upper San Leandro and Chabot and Lafayette reservoirs and drainage, beautiful open land.
Now of course there is a subdivision of upscale houses littering the Gap. Maybe someone thought this was a good idea, and after all, development is progress.
The good news for the Coneheads is that the City of Orinda, in order to appease whomever needed to be appeased for approving this project, had to build sports fields so we can think of this as a community asset. And now we get to play most of our games on these beautiful turf fields tucked in along the freeway.
In Monday night's game we redefined the Wilder Gap and that won the game over St. Mo's 18-14. Because if you hit a gap on those fields, the ball rolls forever and it is pretty much an automatic home run. Chopper led the way with two shots, although truth be told one of them was a springy bounce that went over the head of the right fielder, same effect. He was joined by Sting (solo shot) and Charley who brought in three runs with his. Sting's was a hard shot that was really a line drive that was hit so hard the outfielders had no chance of cutting it off. Charley's was more of a classic majestic gap fly over everyone.
Even though these hits accounted for only seven of our 18 runs, they came at key moments that propelled us to victory. Charley's and Chopper's first one came in the third inning and turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead from which we never looked back. Sting's started off the fifth inning, and sparked us to a nine run Conehead inning that pretty much salted the victory; Even though St. Mo's rallied late to make the final score seem close, there was never really a threat that they would overtake us.
That was because every time they thought they had the monster shot themselves, they would hit a drive into left center and somehow Bruce would track it down and make one of his patented basket catches. There were some other highlights - Joe got a backward K, and Ol' G and Heffe made some nice grabs of popups behind the infield - but none compared with Bruce's rangy tracking.
Bruce and Sting led the way with four hits each, and Chopper, Haze, Gene and Heffe pitched in three apiece. The three big boppers (Sting, Chopper, and Charley) accounted for 11 RBIs altogether.
Good start to the season against a team that usually gives us fits. Think I'll go up to Round Top and cogitate on that.
Now of course there is a subdivision of upscale houses littering the Gap. Maybe someone thought this was a good idea, and after all, development is progress.
The good news for the Coneheads is that the City of Orinda, in order to appease whomever needed to be appeased for approving this project, had to build sports fields so we can think of this as a community asset. And now we get to play most of our games on these beautiful turf fields tucked in along the freeway.
In Monday night's game we redefined the Wilder Gap and that won the game over St. Mo's 18-14. Because if you hit a gap on those fields, the ball rolls forever and it is pretty much an automatic home run. Chopper led the way with two shots, although truth be told one of them was a springy bounce that went over the head of the right fielder, same effect. He was joined by Sting (solo shot) and Charley who brought in three runs with his. Sting's was a hard shot that was really a line drive that was hit so hard the outfielders had no chance of cutting it off. Charley's was more of a classic majestic gap fly over everyone.
Even though these hits accounted for only seven of our 18 runs, they came at key moments that propelled us to victory. Charley's and Chopper's first one came in the third inning and turned a 3-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead from which we never looked back. Sting's started off the fifth inning, and sparked us to a nine run Conehead inning that pretty much salted the victory; Even though St. Mo's rallied late to make the final score seem close, there was never really a threat that they would overtake us.
That was because every time they thought they had the monster shot themselves, they would hit a drive into left center and somehow Bruce would track it down and make one of his patented basket catches. There were some other highlights - Joe got a backward K, and Ol' G and Heffe made some nice grabs of popups behind the infield - but none compared with Bruce's rangy tracking.
Bruce and Sting led the way with four hits each, and Chopper, Haze, Gene and Heffe pitched in three apiece. The three big boppers (Sting, Chopper, and Charley) accounted for 11 RBIs altogether.
Good start to the season against a team that usually gives us fits. Think I'll go up to Round Top and cogitate on that.
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