I didn't know what to expect going into the season opening night for the Coneheads in the Orinda league.
It's the Last Hurrah of Last Hurrahs. Many of our players played last year in the original Last Hurrah in Walnut Creek, but 'Ol G was coming back from shoulder surgery, we were breaking in a new shortstop (welcome Raul) and the league itself had been on hiatus for two years. And let's face it, a lot of us are on the far side of the minimum age to qualify for the league, 40 y.o. Our kids are pushing 40 in some cases.
And we had the usual set of no-shows, and the Randy-playing-on two teams issue.
But here we are, we have outlasted all the good teams in the league except the Old Scout and Cal Bronco - the early reports say it looks to be a three way race as it has been for the last decade or so.
Each team this season will have one doubleheader night, and we drew the first night of the season. Cool. We had the Sandbaggers as our first opponent. They had been in our league many moons ago, before Orinda officially made it an over 40 league. And now the Sandbaggers had all turned 40, and so they are back.
Well, the Coneheads are like a fine wine, we age well apparently, but the Sandbaggers did not. Of course it would have helped if they had a full team at game time - they played the whole game with only three outfielders and no catcher, and had to hit first just to hope that an eighth player showed up (who did in the nick of time).
The first barrage started quickly after we shut them out in the first. After a Randy leadoff single, Pope hit the first of three home runs on the night - he hit bombs to all fields all night - and it might have been over then and there. Later in the inning Haze hit a bases loaded triple to go up 6-0. The Sandbaggers did get a few hits and put up four in the fourth to close to 6-5, but we answered with our first Conehead inning of the night, sending up twelve batters and plating eight. The big blow was a two run triple by Darren.
After that we added on and basically shut them down. The final score was 20-8, but could have been much worse as the Sandbag centerfielder made diving catch after diving catch to rob several of our hitters.
Pope had three two run hits overall - a single, double and the home run. Raul was involved in two great defensive plays. Hazel tossed a fly ball to him and he threw a strike to Chauncey at the plate to deny a run. In the eighth, Raul took a grounder himself to the bag at second, and fired to first for another DP.
In the nightcap it was more of the same for the first five innings. We scored five in the third and fourth, and by the end of the fifth, we had built a comfortable 15-4 lead. Raul had two of his three triples in the game in those middle innings. Note that Larry kept all the opposing hitters off balance all night and had but one walk to blemish his pitching.
And then came the sixth. The Warthogs didn't know what hit them but their snouts were plenty burnt.
The first seven hitters all scored two runs. And Chauncey - he led the inning off and was the only one to go three for three in the frame. It was mostly a barrage of singles - bam bam bam. But there were the two homers by Pope, Raul's (third) triple, and doubles by Gene, Charlie and Chauncey. Altogether twenty hits. Sadly there is no mercy rule in Orinda, and we showed none. In the end they stood in shock on the downside of a 32-4 score. The Hogs did manage a solo home run in the seventh but it hardly mattered.
I will let you look at the stats but of note on the night as a whole:
Pope, 9-10, 3 HRs, 12 RBIs
Bruce, also 9-10 (Welcome, back)
Ol' G, 8-9 (Ditto)
Hazel, 8-10, 2 triples, 11 RBIs
Darren, 7-9
Raul, 7-10, 3 triples
etc.
It was reminiscent of Conehead days gone by and a great sign to start the season. Conehead rally indeed. SEVENTEEN runs.
And so, when we got to the dugout, Bruce, who never misses a beat, looks at me and says, so when was the last time we did that? And looked me straight in the eye as if I had the answer at my fingertips! When I looked back in doubt, he says, "well you have all the data." And I have to admit he is right about that, and now I have a research project.
The first thing I found is that nothing in our Walnut Creek season last year came close. Next, in the last Orinda season, 2019, amazingly, our biggest win was 29-8 in the first game of the playoffs that year against, you guessed it, the Warthogs. Followed by a 26-8 drubbing in those same playoffs. I am surprised they showed up last night. But no 17 run inning, 10 was the largest.
In June 2019 in WC, Big Feet had a 17 run inning against us. But that hardly counts.
On July 31, 2017, we beat the Usual Suspects 32-13, but our largest inning was a 15 run 7th.
June 26th that year, Coneheads 34-Reds 6, so that's the last time we scored more than 32. But again, 15 runs was the biggest inning.
July 30th, 2016 WC also against Big Feet, we had a 16 run inning.
But the last time we scored 17+ runs in a single inning was (drumroll...) August 10th, 2015, when we opened the game against Buddha and the Cal Broncos with a 19 run first inning. We needed it too because they closed to 23-17 before we put them away 26-17. We only played four innings in that game before time and/or light ran out. Not sure which. They got payback a week later when they knocked us out of the playoffs.
So there you have it, the recent history of the Conehead mega-innings. Hope to see more in the near future!
No comments:
Post a Comment