It was a key moment in the game. The opposing manager Dave Rose came up with a runner on and one out. He hit a pop up near the first base dugout. The slow footed first baseman pulled up his gut and got on his horse and got almost all the way to the dugout. And then - he reached out and got a glove on it, tried to catch it with his ample midsection, and then his arm, and then his mitt again. But alas, it popped out. Rose followed with a key hit and Scarlet was in business. But Howard Davis shut down the top of the Red lineup with minimal damage and Scarlet could only narrow the lead to 13-11. They tie us up there and it's game on. We got the two the first baseman let score back in the bottom of the eighth and it was 15-11 going into the ninth. And Davis induced three popups (two on the infield) and it was game over, home team wins.
A different tone was set in the first. Scarlet hit it where we wasn't and netted five. We answered with five of our own - seven straight hits after a flyout to open the inning. Greg Wilson had a two run double and Heffe hit the middle gap for the last run.
Pitching and defense took over for the next three innings, won by Big Red 3-2. We got one third out when Art Oller hustled in on a single, threw a strike to Ron Schwab, who replicated the perfect throw home to nail Rose by a half step, trying to score from second. In the third, the 3-1 putout of the year, that same first baseman leading pitcher Mark Narciso perfectly on a slow grounder, who neatly stabbed the edge of the bag just ahead of the runner. Except, the umpire ruled otherwise. C'est la vie, I guess there won't be an ESPN highlight on that one. Narciso made several other tough plays in his five innings on the bump - he stabbed one with the bases loaded and got the third out at third base, and on one play he slowed a hot shot ticketed for center field just enough that it went right to Wilson at rover who completed the double play.
That was one of three Orange double plays - the others being Narciso to Davis (rover) to Bob Carver at first and then in his one inning at SS. Mike Saindon took a grounder to second himself and fired to first to complete the twin killing.
The Orange offense shows how balanced our latest winning streak (three) is. Only Mark Edelstone had three hits. Nine others had two hits, and everyone had at least one. We did not hit long balls today - Greg Wilson had two doubles, and heffe had a third (Steve Sloat thinks I am still running to second), and that was it for extra base hits. But the consistency was there to get runs home when needed, and pitching and defense took care of the rest. A good win against a good team.
It was a fierce battle for playoff positioning - three teams were within a half game of third place, including these two. Orange leapfrogged both others - but wait - it's a round robin end of season tournament, no seeding. Oops - never mind - anyway well we now have bragging rights for third place with one week to go...
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