A bases loaded groundout, a slow grounder up the middle bobbled at least twice. These accounted for two of our three runs in the top of the seventh to take what in this game was a commanding 9-6 lead.
Add to that a hard grounder that Dr. Larry managed to knock down and somehow shovel to James covering second in the bottom half, and the elite Elite stranded the tying run on first, and suddenly find themselves just a half game up on the upstart Coneheads.
Granted we will need help to topple them and let's face it, it's all about the playoffs in this league anyway. Still they have now lost to each of the three teams, and the race for Cotton is wide open.
I'm not sure if it was the heat or the pitching but neither team hit very sharply. Joe certainly had the Elite hitters reaching.
Derek made the play of the game in the second when he went airborne to snare a line drive with a ticket to right field. Joe later turned a shot off his toe neatly into a 1-11-3 double play.
Pope's towering opposite field blast over the left fielder's head was the hit of the game, a two run triple in the third. Lefty made an attempt to one up that in the fourth with a gapper to center, only to come up lame with another calf pull coming into second. Whoever heard of barking calves?
It's always tough to win a tough low-scoring close game as the visitor. In that way tonight's was a big game in more ways than just closing in on first place - we let the Elite know they are not all that.
Milestones:
7/11:
Lefty 50 2b (#1)
Pope 10 hr (#2)
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