Where to start in a game like this. We should start at the beginning but I will start at the end: Team Cuervo, the most schizophrenic team in the league, put it all together and won over Orange going away, 21-8, avenging two earlier defeats at Orange's hands.
But back to the beginning: It started with defense. SS Tom Sciarrino had perhaps his best game since joining Gold. In top of the first, he dove for a grounder for one out. Not sure if it was still in the first, but on a hot shot that 3B Andy Steinberg knocked down Sciarrino hustled to third base to take the throw to get the lead runner. Tom served notice to Orange - we were here to play on this day.
After dispatching Orange, Willie Hollis led off with a blast over the left fielder's head for a triple. Dan DeClercq drew a walk, and Dick Stanley drove in the first run. Up stepped Jay Edwards. Jay had missed the last three games playing Tom Sawyer on the Mississippi River. He had led the team in RBIs before he left. He deposited a line drive into right center and we jumped to a 3-0 lead. It's like he never left.
Orange came back to take a 5-3 lead after 3, but Woody Whitlatch came in to pitch, and shut them down for two innings. Woody pitched brilliantly, painting the inside corner on the Orange dead pull hitters and getting two strikeouts on foul balls.
Still it was a game as we stalled a little on offense. Then in the fourth consecutive hits by Kravin, DeClercq, Stanley, Charlie Uhlman, Edwards, and Helen Kostoff plated three. The last one sadly struck a base runner so the rally stalled at three runs. But it was a sign of things to come.
In the mean time, DeClercq made a running catch in right and then Stanley repeated an almost identical diving catch that he made last week. He's a beast.
In the fifth, the bottom of the order decided to take over the game. Whitlatch, Sciarrino, Chuck Howlett, Dale Browne, Donn King, Malia Frey, and Steve Bedrick (with an assist by Hollis at the top to finish it off) singled in succession as we scored five without an out being made. Eight straight hits.
Not to be outdone, Kravin started the next inning with a booming double over John Banker's head. Hits by DeClercq, Uhlman, Edwards, Steinberg, and Sciarrino and we had another five.
Well that just laid down the gauntlet for the bottom half of the order. Howlett, Browne, King, Frey, and Bedrick again had consecutive hits, and Hollis, Kravin and DeClercq added on to complete another five run inning without making an out.
So that's three innings, 20 for 25, including 13 hits in a row. Fifteen runs. Outstanding. All in all the top six were 16-19 but the bottom seven were each 2-3 and they drove in nine of the 21 runs.
In the mean time, Bedrick came back in to close it out and did not allow a run in the last three innings. Frey made a great running catch in right, and then Steinberg did his best Stanley impression, catching a ball in left just off his shoelaces, and easily doubled off the runner at second who had no idea how Andy caught that ball.
All that was left was Orange flip flopped after the seventh. Game over, 21-8.
If we can catch this magic in the playoffs, the rest of the league is on notice.
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