All's Well That Ends, Well, Just Like It Began

In an entirely appropriate end to Winter Ball 2025-26, Team BS lost yet another close one in the bottom of the ninth, 18-17 to Team Blue.

That's four walk off losses in ten games, must be some kind of record. "Highest Percentage of Walk Off Losses". And the Award goes to...

And that's not including two games where it was tied or close after eight and as the home team we allowed a big open ninth only to come up short in our own furious rally in the bottom half. That's six of our nine losses we could have won. Oh well, just wait til next year?

We jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first (curse?), but had too many zeroes - we scored 15 of our 17 runs in just three innings and were shut out in five.

There were highlights. Brian continued his torrid pace, lulling Team Blue to sleep with three line drive singles before hitting a gapper three run homer to plate our last three runs in our five run eighth. It brought us back in the game as we took a 17-14 lead into the bottom half. Sadly, we couldn't add on or hold on and lost the game. Brian has been tough for anyone to keep up with this season - he hit at an .813 clip.

David P. was also 4-4 with a double and drove in three runs. Devin was a nuisance to Team Blue, and went 2-3 with a double and a triple and scored in all three ABs, and also drove in three. Heffe hit a gapper double into the soccer goals that closed out the scoring in the other five run inning, the fourth. Art had three hits and finished winter league leading the team in ABs, Runs (tied with Darren), Hits, 2B. 3B, HR, RBIs, and slugging pct. I want to be Art when I grow up.

On defense, someone kept writing in the book that Darren got grown men to swing and miss at softball pitches. Sandy and Steve made several good plays on the infield. Art made a sliding catch in the outfield, but I think he was showing off. Helen scooped an errant throw from third to get a force out in the seventh for the second out, and Dave R caught a pop up behind the plate that looked like he had no idea where it was until hit hit his glove, but it kept us in the game as it closed out the inning scoreless.

It was a season of coulda woulda shoulda but it should be noted that we were still 'celebrating' long after Team Blue was in their cars and gone. That's good enough for me to keep out winter league thing going for years to come if we can. See you in October!

Black Back

Back in Black is not a bad team at all when all their players are there, despite their record, and they were in attendance Wednesday. Pitcher Bill Eppinga handcuffed our bats and we didn't break double digits, going down 14-9.

The game didn't mean much. BiB is out of the playoffs, even though they won their last two games. Danville Gold is a half game behind us for the third place spot. It would take a miracle for them to beat first place Wolfpack next week, and they would have to at a minimum to pass us regardless of the outcome of our game against the Hornets.

And it doesn't really matter who places third or fourth. We will have to beat the Hornets and the Wolfpack in the playoffs to claim the championship, so it doesn't matter in which order we do it. Next week we get a tuneup game against the former before likely facing their fully loaded lineup the following week in the opening round of the playoffs.

But hey- the games will be decided on the field. We have a good team when we all hit and play defense. So let it be.

I haven't been writing up losses much this winter, but since I made one of the Plays of the Game, I have to lead with that. In the middle innings, Black had the bases loaded and one out and someone hit a little popup half way to home in front of me. Or it seemed that far to me. Now, no one on the opponent's team, nor my own, nor the old guys watching the game, nor anyone in Danville, the State of California, nor the world thought I would get to that ball before it hit the ground. Especially my good buddy Tony Gorgone, the runner on first. He took off like lightning toward second. But I will tell you this now - I had it all the way. And then it was easy to turn around and double old Tony off first to end the inning.

There were some other defensive highlights - Joe Silva showed off his strong arm a couple of times. In the first he launched a throw from deep left all the way to Tom Gonzales at the mound, who wheeled and threw home to Don Devencenzi to cut down a run. Randy Cobb forced out a runner at second from right field on a 'single' with a perfect strike. In the sixth, on a ball launched over left fielder Mark Childress's head, he hustled to it, got it to Silva who threwout the runner trying to take third base. It helped that he ran like a typical senior player. In the same inning, Lamont Thompson made succesive good plays at 1B to hold Black scoreless. Dave Balfour made a sliding catch in right center to rob a hitter in the eighth. And finally, Rob Dousa finished that inning by hustling to catch a popup behind the plate.

With defense like that, we should have had a win but there weren't many offensive highlights. Silva had a good game, going 3-4 with a triple. But no one else had more than two hits. The one exciting moment was in the top of the seventh, when Dousa blasted a shot to the other field in left, and we got to watch him huff and puff all around the bases for a three run home run. It got us back into the game at 11-8, but we couldn't add enough on to seriously threaten the outcome. Three strikeouts didn't help - two looking and two of the three were the last outs of innings.

So sharpen up those bats and bring it to the Hornets for our last tuneup before playoffs!