Who's the Best? Team BS Pulls One Out, 24-22

Ok so.

Dan May hit a right center gapper all the way to the fence for a solo home run. Drove in a run every at bat to lead the team with five RBIs.

Brian Black hit a three run blast in the third that finished our first five run inning.

Rob Moody was 5-5, drove in four, started the game saving RC-SS Sam Dhinga-3B Rob Katzer second out in the ninth inning.

Art Miner had an off game for him only 3-5, but he threw out a runner at second base and made a great sliding catch.

Tim Orr had four hits and he made playing left field with that terrible sun look like a walk in the park.

Dhinga joined Orr, Black and May with four hits and made every play at SS.

But let's face it, the highlight of the game was my bases loaded 20 foot single that died between home and the mound, which triggered two guys falling down, and overthrows and Katzer just running all the way around the infield. A three run double! And it will take a while for me to forgive Dave Peterson for prematurely calling time since I had a triple as no one was within 50 feet of covering third base!

Great game, Team BS!

When a Loss Is Better Than a Tie, Hornets 20-19 Over the Crows

Those badass Hornets with all their new and returning triple major plus plus plus tournament players dominated the Crows for five innings. They five runned us (is that a verb?) three times while we had nine hits as they built a 15-3 lead.

Then a funny thing happened - we held them to one run in the sixth and none in the seventh. In the bottom of the sixth, with two outs and no one on, Clay Leche, Charlie Pastor, Joe Silva, and Bob Gatehouse singled and then Dave Balfour, who has been hot all season, hit the right center gap and everyone just kept running until we had five runs - grand slam! That lit the torch, and in the bottom of the eighth we did even better - again with two outs and no one on, we had eight hits sandwiched around a walk as we closed it to 19-16. Pastor hit a triple and Al Banisch a double in the rally, then Tom Wagenseller and Dan May closed out the scoring with two RBI hits, a single and a double, respectively.

Unfortunately, the Hornets pushed one run across in the top of the ninth before right fielder Lew Altman made a diving game saving shoestring catch to save a big inning.

In our half, again with two outs Silva hit a three run home run to close to within a run, but unfortunately it ended after that with a flyout.

But here's the thing. In forty plus years of softball I've never seen this - we scored every single run with two outs in all the six innings we scored runs. I double and triple checked the scorebook. That is some clutch hitting!

We can play with anyone in the league, and maybe the guy batting last won't go o-fer next time and that will push us over the top!

Kiss This, Crows Tie Back in Black 16 All

As of this post, I vow to never say kiss your sister again in the event I am involved in a tie game of softball. Frankly, even though this only my second of the year, I am tired of it and it's enough already. My sister is coming into town for the Thanksgiving holiday, as she does every year, and one annual peck on the cheek is enough after 70+ years in the same family.

Of course it would be easier if we hadn't tied Back in Black Wednesday, or in any of the other times we will play the rest of the season. We had every chance to put away this game, but perhaps it was the curse of the first - we led 5-0 after shutting down the top of the Black lineup, and getting five straight hits, including back to back doubles by Joe Silva and Jim Krochka and a two out single by Al Banisch to plate the fifth run.

Then we pretty much led the rest of the way until the top of the seventh when B in B tied it up at twelve. We just didn't add on enough - only adding seven runs in five innings to that point. There were four in the fourth, highlighted by a leadoff Krochka triple, a Dave Balfour double, and a Banisch triple.

We were shut down in the seventh and eighth, and after giving up four in the top of the ninth, disaster loomed large. But we dug deep and clutch hits by Silva, Krochka, Mark Childress, and Balfour and Banisch again made sure we didn't leave in defeat.

The main hero of the story is Balfour - he came up with a runner on and one out as the tying run. The B in B defense gave him a huge hole in right center, and multiple players in the dugout remarked that all he had to do was hit a line drive over the second baseman and the ball would roll out to the perimeter walkway and he could jog home. He did just that - in fact the outfielders even stopped chasing the ball and the game was tied.

Sadly, even though Banisch hit a double for the mini-cycle, we could not get him around for a walkoff, but as they say, kissin... I mean a tie is better than a loss.

There were numerous good defensive plays. In the first Clay Leche threw a hit ball back to SS Krochka who zipped it to Bob Gatehouse covering second to nail a runner who dared to test our arms. In the third, we turned a sharp double play, Krochka to Charlie Pastor at rover to first baseman Bob Fulgham. In the fifth our own Grouch, Tom Wagenseller couldn't stop talking about me putting him at first in my second sitout inning, and then made two snazzy catches on hard liners - he almost had to get off the ground on one of them. But the play of the game, which in retrospect may have saved the game for us, was Silva diving in shallow left center to rob a batter in the eighth with runners on to end the inning scoreless. Kudos to Leche also, for backing him up in case it got by the left center fielder, although in the end, luckily it wasn't needed.

Krochka was 4-4 with two doubles and a triple, and hasn't made an out yet in his two games. Leche (2B), Pastor, Silva (2 2B), Gatehouse, Balfour (2B, HR), and Banisch (2B, 3B) all had three hits. Gatehouse, who always seems to hit when there are runners on, led the team with 4 RBIs.

Next week the fun really begins, we play the Hornets and then the Grizzlies again. Time to step up.

The Gold Cure-All, Crows Dominate 22-7

Ok Mark, here's a trivia item that even you cannot answer.

When is the last time a softball game ended with both teams batting through their lineups exactly four times? The answer is today's game, but has it ever happened before?

This is only because I insisted that we not flip flop even though they asked for it trailing 22-7. We helped by getting only one hit in the bottom of the eighth and running int a double play, and they cooperated by going without a run in the ninth.

Maybe I should have not insisted that we not flip, but I get tired of the "we are so bad, we should be able to twist the rules" attitude, why not just play better? Just like that player not wanting to get called out for hitting the first base bag (when there was a play there by the way), because we were so far ahead. 15-7, really?

Ok, that's enough, let's talk about how great we played. We had defense - Bob Fulgham and Jeff Kravin with nice picks at first in the first two innings, Mark Childress with a great diving catch in the fourth, Dan May at 2B in the seventh. Bob Gatehouse with an 11U-3 double play in the second.

We had pitching - Tom Gonzales going the distance and basically shutting Gold down after they got three in the first.

But it was the hitting that came back with a vengeance that gave us the highlights today. Did we miss Jim Krochka the first two games? All he did was drive in six runs on a double, two home runs, and a sac fly. One of the home runs was blasted nearly to field four on the fly.

Not to be outdone, Gonzales nearly had a cycle with a single, triple and sac fly and in between a smash down the left field line that was a bayou hit on the left fielder - as in By You. He had four RBIs.

Dave Balfour was our only 4-4 hitter, but with three hits were May, Krochka, Gatehouse, Childress, Gonzales, Fulgham, and Tom Wagenseller (who only was robbed of a possible home run because his middle field blast scored the fifth run from third in the seventh). Joe Silva had our other home run after hitting a couple balls hard right at fielders. Everyone had at least one hit.

Play like this against the big boys, and we can be right up there with them.

Too Hot to Play Nine So Let's Pour it on in Four and Melt the Gold, 19-6

The Crows started the season alarmingly with three hits in eight at bats with the only highlight being newcomer Al Banisch's solo home run in the second inning with two outs.

In the first inning, Dan May, being the gentleman he is, volunteered to play SS for shorthanded Danville Gold and made a play to end the inning. Well, I had to put an end to that. Pronto. I refuse to lose our opener to ourselves. I forced the issue - Gold had to put an outfielder in right field and we would only supply a catcher, as it should be. Returning former Crow Ed Cook generously said he would play for the other team so he played first base the rest of the game.

In the mean time, our own good defense limited Gold to four runs over two innings. In the second, they loaded the bases with no outs, but we held them to two runs. Could have been worse.

In the third, the bottom of our order came to the rescue. Consecutive singles by Tom Wagenseller, Lew Altman, Bob Fulgham (also his first Crow AB), Don Devencenzi, and Jeff Kravin brought in three runs to tie it and set up leadoff hitter Clay LeChe who hit a double that provided the last two runs of the inning and the ultimate game winner.

Charlie Pastor came in and shut Gold down in his three innings, literally shut them out. Starter and closer Tom Gonzales pitched well too, and the two may just be the best pitching duo in the league.

In the fourth the top of the lineup made sure they weren't left behind. Pastor's single and Joe Silva's double set up a two run hit by Bob Gatehouse and eventually May and Wagenseller drove in runs to give us our second five spot. Next inning more of the same, the bottom set up the top but we did leave the fifth run on second.

It was getting out of hand at 15-4, but Gonzales provided the proverbial icing on the cake. Singles by Dave Balfour and Banisch and a walk to May set up Gonzales with a bases loaded no out situation. He slashed a line drive to left that managed to elude the left fielder's glove and it was off to the races, ultimately ending in a grand slam to finish our scoring.

Gold wanted to flip flop and despite a two run home run, they went out meekly after that and the final score was 19-6.

Pastor and Fulgham were 3-3, May and Kravin were 2-2, and LeChe, Silva, Gatehouse, Banisch, Gonzales, Wagenseller, and Devencenzi were all 2-3. Gatehouse tied Gonzales for the team leading four RBIs.

There were several good plays but the highlight was a pop up on the infield that 2B May chased down and lunged for to catch and easily doubled off the runner at first, who rightly (but not smartly) assumed no way would Dan get to it. Ah ye of little faith.

Good start against an overmatched opponent. Don't tell anyone, but the brilliant schedulers in this league accidentally gave us an extra game against Danville Gold and one fewer against the Hornets. Oh well.

TC You Take It, No You Take it, CC Diablos over WC Cardinal 13-12

In an appropriate end of the TriCity season, the Diablos tried to gift wrap the season finale by playing generous defense throughout, and trailed after a five run Cardinal top of the seventh, 12-11. But the Cardinal, said, no, thank you, you are the hosts, so here, load the bases and let's see what happens.

What happened was that Bill Hoffman stepped up with the bases loaded and one out, and earned the game ball by slapping a clutch line drive into left field to tie it up. But then the hitting star of the game, Mark Childress, who already had a home run and a single came to bat. All he had to do was put it over the heads of the drawn in outfield, which of course he is quite capable. Instead he hit one of those floating bloopers over shortstop and the Cardinal fielders just couldn't reach it and it was walk off, game over, 13-12.

In the first inning, the Diablos started off with three excellent plays: A fine running catch in right by Mike Daley, and back handed grab on a smash to second baseman Greg Lagomarsino's right to get a force at second base, and an acrobatic play on one of those balls that is almost always a hit in Senior ball. A little pop up between the pitcher, SS and third baseman that takes a funny hop and usually eludes everyone and they pray it will go foul. Instead, Bob Carver snagged the high hop and fired to first to end the inning.

Then we pretty much took the rest of the game off on defense. Well, except SS Jim Krochka did take care of two hard liners. One went off his glove into the air but he had the presence of mind to find it and grab it and flip to second for a force out. The other he got at least two credit cards off the ground between short and third to snare a hard line drive ticketed for left field.

The lineup was very balanced. Besides Childress 3-3, everyone else was either 2-3 or 1-3. Jimbo Wilcox hit a clutch two run single in the first to become the only player besides Childress (3 RBI) to have a multiple RBI game.

The after game BBQ was fun, and even though it was not the best played game of the season, it is always fun to win a walk off, and end a fantastic season for the Diablos.

David Beats Goliath, 12-8

The wind was howling, almost biblically. The Diablos were being bedeviled by Nick Iocabitti, three hits in two innings. Tom Gonzales was keeping us in there, only allowing two runs through three. But it looked like we would never score against Iocabitti.

Then our own David, Mike Daley, stood up tall to the Goliath that is the Clipper team, and grabbed his slingshot, and boom! Sent a pea over the right fielder's head and went flying around the bases. The spell was broken. 

Dan Roach and Brian Goldufsky followed with hits setting up Jim Krochka, our own giant, to blast a two run triple into the gap in right center. Mark Childress followed with a single and Jimbo Wilcox brought him home with a double for the fifth score, and the Clippers were the ones on the run.

The pitchers' duel lasted into the sixth - their fourth inning featured some excellent Diablo defense - Roach made a Willie Mays basket catch in right, and Krochka somehow lunged toward right field from SS on a hard grounder, reversed direction to get to second base in time to step on it and fire the ball to first for an inning ending double play.

Being generous, we had one defensive breakdown in the top of the sixth, but held them to three runs on six outs. They took their last lead but on hits from Goldufsky, Krochka, Childress, Greg Lagomarsino, and Bob Carver, we answered with four to win the inning, and it was starting to look good for the Devils. We held the top of their vaunted order to two in the seventh, and despite two strikeouts looking, answered with two of our own in the bottom half. Somewhere in there was another double play where second baseman Lagomarsino fired his own pivot slingshot to complete the play. We added an insurance run in the eighth, and Goliath was already on the ground wailing away, and they went meekly in the ninth to finish the 12-8 win.

Kudos to Gonzales for not walking anyone in that gale force gusty wind, not to mention keeping the big hitters in the park. Goldufsky and Krochka were 4-4, the latter with team leading three RBIs. Carver had three hits and the rest were spread around. Not our greatest offensive game, but we faced a great pitcher for about six innings, and we scored just enough for a comfortable win.

Next week, of course is the last game of the season. With Goliath dead, not much more to achieve, except an exclamation point to finish a great season. I don't know about you, but I don't want it to end. I wonder if it is too late to quit all our Danville winter league teams and just enter it together?