Maybe I am delusional but it seems like I am managing two teams. Today the Dr. Jekyll half performed surgery on the Navy bunch and dominated them 18-7 and evened our record at 3-3. Hope the Doc figures out a way for his alter ego Mr. Hyde to stay out of sight.
Navy jumped to a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the third. Chuck Howlett led off with a single and Willie Mays Hayes Hollis sent his pinch runner to third with a double. After a fly out, Dan the Man Declercq tied the game with a two run single. Up to the plate strode Big Jim Alexander and did what Big Jims everywhere should do, he pounded a rocket launch into the far reaches of Field 5, and by the time the dust cleared he stood on third base. Charlie Ohlman brought him home with a line drive single, and with the score at 6-4, we never looked back.
That's because we brought in the new secret weapon, a pitcher named Steve Bedrick. This is a Creaker rookie in his first appearance on the Farm of Heather, but it's clear he has plenty of experience getting batters out in slow pitch softball. Bedrick mixed up short and deep, high and low and in and out, and the Navy batters for the most part were off balance all the rest of the game. For four innings we played good defense behind him, and Navy put up four zeroes. They finally touched him for three runs in the top of the eighth, but they were all unearned - we made at least four or five errors. By that point the game was out of reach and he set them down in order in the ninth for the win.
It was out of reach because our bats came alive this time around. Declercq, Charlie Uhlman, and Coach Heffe were all 5-5. Alexander hit another bomb for a double to go with his triple and had the mini-cycle with three hits. Jay Edwards was also perfect with 4-4 and a team leading four RBIs. He has made a habit of hitting in the clutch all year and is tied with the team lead in RBIs despite hitting lower in the order. Besides Alexander, Helen Kostoff, Donn King and Howlett also had three knocks, and everyone had at least one and nearly everyone knocked in one or more runs.
There were a couple of good plays to note. On a shot up the middle Howlett, who started the game, managed to deflect the ball just enough that SS Tom Sciarrino could grab it and get a force at second. Alexander took a bases loaded hard grounder to third and performed the textbook step-on-third-throw-home double play in one of the later innings. And Donn King, nailed a guy trying to stretch a hit to right into a double.
But (butt?) the play of the day was by Willie Mays Hays Hollis on a medium deep fly to center, casually sticking up his glove to snare the ball (what, two hands? 150 years of baseball fundamentals? bah!). Next week, I expect a snatch catch a la Rickey Henderson. Oops, did I say that out loud?
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