Let it be said that when heffe goes 4-4, the Raiders are undefeated. In fact when heffe gets 4 hits, the Raiders don't lose. The last time was when he went 4-6 and the Raiders upset the Outlaws early in the season. If only his teammates could have gotten on base in front of him, he could have had oh, say 10 RBIs today. But he didn't as he led off twice, and David DeCarli drove in all the runners that were on when he was up in front of heffe. In fact heffe didn't have one single RBI. But still, one can dream.
In fact, this is not all about heffe. There were other players on the field for the tough luck this season Raiders. And here goes the story. The Warriors scored five times in the first. In Walnut Creek, we call that the Curse of the First, and it was today. They scored single runs in the third and fourth, and that was it for them. Lee Shreiner and the stout Raider defense (today) shut them out the rest of the way, five straight zeroes. There were many individual plays - the outfield, Cary Mitsuyoshi running a long way in the fourth and snagging a hard hit liner in the seventh, Randy Cobb and Don Devencenzi making tough catches. Third baseman Ray Oducayen having an inning in the fifth when the Warriors had the bases loaded making two straight outs to prevent a run from scoring. Pat Keisling making a couple of plays at second and Max Martin rolling around on the ground there to knock a ball down and flipping to second for the out. And finally, David Gerds starting a SS-R-1B double play in the sixth.
On offense, it was a small ball game (and I am not talking about the ball Gidget Blaquera knocked around for three hits). Of course Jeff Kravin had the only perfect day going 4-4. Gerds did his thing and had three doubles, and they were the only extra base hits we had. But when we got runners on we scored them, including a nice two out three run rally in the sixth and five run innings in the fifth and seventh to put the game essentially out of reach. All in all, Mitzuyoshi, Gerds, Jay Sankey, Blaquera, Devencenzi and Shreiner contributed three hits apiece. A great team game that just makes you think what coulda been.
