In a competitive game between the teams at the top of the early season standings, the Raiders prevailed over the Rovers 18-16. It was (as is usually the case) a team game with many players making some early mistakes and then making up for it in the later innings as we came back to win.
Don Ott ("I don't need no ice pack") nearly hit for the cycle as he had a triple, a single and a three run homer where he took a desperate throw from the outfield square in the back. Still he played on, and made some plays at SS to help seal the deal. He had six RBIs to lead the team.
Jay Sankey, Gidget Blaquera, Todd Evans, Ray Oducayen, Don Devencenzi, Mike Smith, and Steve Brown joined Ott with three hits apiece. Oducayen got the game winning RBI on a double that put us ahead to stay at the time 15-14. He was showing off for his wife, who was in attendance with their Australian Sheepdog. To add to his day, the pitcher struck out one looking and one swinging, and held the strong Rover lineup to two runs in the last five innings.
Oducayen was aided by some outstanding plays. Ott jumped high at SS to snag a liner for the last out in the fourth. The Rovers had the bases loaded with no outs in the seventh when Devencenzi took a grounder at 3B, stepped on third and threw home to catcher Jim Dietrich for a double play, and the next batter flew out. No runs. In the eighth, Mike Mooney snagged a sinking liner in left field to keep the Rovers from scoring. The lefty second baseman gathered a backhanded hot shot at 2B, and even though he nearly tossed it into left field, Ott saved him with another great leap and we got the lead runner.
It was a fun game, there were some calls that could have gotten the players bent out of shape, but everyone just played on, and in the end as usual they evened out and everyone had a good time. Perfect morning senior softball.
No comments:
Post a Comment