There's an old Al Jolson song that goes "Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina...in the morrrrning" made famous by Bing Crosby:
Carolina In The Morning · Bing Crosby
When we were in college, we turned it into "Nothing could be finer than to be at Doggie Diner...in the morrrning".
My college friend Mark was a writer and was writing his ultimate Great American Novel, about a pimp (and three-card monte expert) that he met in Oakland. I forget his name but Mark hung out at Hy's restaurant at the corner of Telegraph and MacArthur in Oakland all hours of the night to talk to him. Across the street was one of those iconic giant Dogs of the Doggie Diner fame. Any of you that are locals must know about this bygone chain. The women of the night would play their trade in front of Hy's and the Diner. I don't know if Mark ever finished his novel. We were close but sometimes friends just drift away, and I guess I will never know.
But I digress...
What I really meant to say (or sing) is the Danville version of same - "Nothing could be finer that to smash the Hornet...whiners". Yeah that's it.
Yesterday the Crows lived up to our potential once again and even though we let the Hornets tie the game halfway through, we dominated at the beginning and at the end to run away with a 24-18 convincing win.
Everyone contributed. Brian Black made his Crow debut and it was a beaut. He held the Hornets scoreless for the first three innings as we piled up a 9-0 lead. Lamont Thompson hit a two run triple in the first and Heffe had a two run single in the second. We scored our first five run inning in the fourth on consecutive RBI singles by Howard Reeves, Don DeVencenzi, Randy Cobb, Anthony Paschal, and Charlie Pastor. Even though we allowed five in the bottom half, we sat pretty at 12-5 when we added on three in the next inning. But then the Hornets did what they do, hit after hit after hit, and before we looked up it was 12-12.
In the sixth, LT had another two run hit to put us ahead. Then with the bases loaded and two outs, Clay LeChé stepped to the plate, and promptly unloaded them with a shot that was still rolling to field four when he stopped at second base because the fifth run of the inning had scored. Even though it only made it 17-12, it felt like he broke the Hornets' buzz.
Just to prove the point, we shut them out in the bottom of the seventh, and put up five more in the eighth with no outs. Cobb had the big blow, a line shot double that plated two.
Don Clay came out of retirement once again (a weekly event), and even though the Hornets had another five run inning, held them to six over the last four innings to pick up the save. Of note: Reeves gets the win for getting the last out of the seven run fifth inning!
Our defense shone from beginning to end. but for some reason I have no notes on it. LeChé had a couple of nice catches in left field. Dave Balfour and LT had a heads up 8-4-3 putout on a hit in the ninth that put the stake in the heart of the opposition. The first baseman woke up just in time to take the throw.
But - the key was we turned three or maybe four double plays. Cobb and Thompson were in the middle of all of them.
Reeves was 5-5 and 4 RBIs and three of them came with two outs. Paschal was 5-6. Balfour, Pastor, and Barry Walter had four hits each, and Cobb, Thompson, and Heffe had three.
By winning we clinched third place and avoid playing the Hornets three weeks in a row. After next week's makeup game against them, we will play the Knights in the first round of the playoffs. Our goal is to finish against the Hornets with a similar result as yesterday's game.
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