We should have known how weird the game was going to be when, in the bottom of the second, Dave hit the right center field gap and the fielder kicked the ball all the way to foul territory. I think he was trying to kick it into the soccer goal out there in right field, so he could claim it was a ground rule double as Dave was racing around the bases. Never you mind it was a three run homer, and settled our lead at 6-2 after two.
We scored at least two in each of the first five innings to build an 18-7 lead. In the fifth, none other than Wolfpack owner/GM JP led off with a smash down the left field line. It was hit so hard that the Vintage left fielder watched it and neglected to go after it. John didn't know quite what to do. And then everyone started yelling "Run, John, Run!" and he hobbled past second, and third and all the way home. These were two of only three extra base hits we had all game, and whoda thunk it would be Dave and John?
Along the way we experienced one of the strangest plays I have ever seen, and seemingly could only happen in senior softball. It was so strange I made a mess of it in the scorebook and I am not even sure who was at bat but I think it was Dave who hit a bases loaded popup near second base. As soon as he hit it I remember thinking, no one is getting that, and sure enough the Vintage infielders, instead of trying to catch it started yelling "Infield Fly". Well our umpire was having none of that, as it clearly was not a routine play for any of the 65+ infielders. But our runners froze except the one at third, who thankfully did score. So ultimately, I'm not sure who came out ahead - we had a run but they put out the runners forced at third and second.
And so we sat pretty at 18-7 after six, and all was well. Except it was a strange day in Danville. Marc came in to close out the game, and Vintage suddenly remembered they knew how to hit. We didn't really make defensive mistakes, they just hit the ball. It took the manager too long to relieve Marc, who really didn't do anything different than our other pitchers, but sometimes you just have to change things up to stop a rally. At long last JP came back in to stop the bleeding, and we still led 18-16.
The mark of a good team is what do you do when faced with adversity. I have been in games like this one and the team that is ahead just loses all the momentum and never recovers. But not Wednesday in Danville. We responded with our third five spot. JP start this rally too, and six of the next seven batters hit singles to plate the five.
JP came back in, and he couldn't close out the game. But Chris, who had started, managed to finish the 23-19 win.
There was some great defense along the way. Selwyn made a couple of running catches, including a one of the shoestring variety. Ditto Paul L in left and then he moved to right center and nabbed another tough chance. But the play of the day was a grounder (to second?) and Johnny G stretched all the way out to cut down a hitter in the late innings after the score was tight.
Johnny G drove in a run every time up for a total of five, and ended two of the five run innings with a hit as he went 4-4. Similarly, Marc was 4-4 and drove in runs on three of his hits. Paul D rounded out the trio of four hit batters, had the only double in our lineup, and drove in three. Paul L, Chris, and Nick had three hits apiece.
Maybe it was the odd warm temperature. Maybe it was the 12:00 game. Let's just say we are 1-0 in bizarro games.
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