Nine Shades of Gray, BS Toppled 30-25

We've all been there, a close game where you are the home team, and you just keep saying, keep it close, we have the hammer. Well, Team BS did everything right, coming back from an initial 7-2 deficit to take early 11-8 and 16-11 leads, then answering two straight late five run innings with a five of our own in the eighth to send it into the ninth as a one inning game knotted at 21.

And then the roof fell in. Team Gray ran nine across the plate, and even though we gave it our best shot in the bottom of the ninth, we ended up on the wrong side of a 30-25 defeat.

Despite the high score, there were some strong defensive performances. Steve Rousso made a bunch of plays at rover, chasing pop ups in the sun, catching a liner headed to center field and getting a force out on a tough shot in the fourth. Dave DeWitt made his once a game putout from right center on a 'single' to get a force out at second. Ken Gurgone had a nice game behind the plate, lunging far to his left to catch a pop up in the sixth, and scooping a one hopper from Dan May at SS on a bases loaded grounder. Johnny Gutierrez made a fine catch on a sun fly in the third. And Mike Nichols did likewise in the sixth in right field.

For a while, we owned Gray's big hitter Mike Herrera. Sandy Camp got him out twice, by pitching just close enough to the strike zone that he lost his discipline. But then he put one over Brian Black's head in deep right center that ended up beyond the foul line fence on Field 2 - quite impressive.

We had enough offense that on another day would have been enough. Gutierrez led the way with a 6-6 day, and drove in six runs with those hits. DeWitt and May each went 5-6 and scored 10 runs between them at the top of the lineup. Art Minor hit a triple and a home run and led the team with seven RBIs. Frank Coppa showed extreme patience at the plate, walking four times in five plate appearances. I guess they were afraid of him. Black also showed a good eye, walking three times and scoring five times altogether. David Thompson got the last hit in our first five run inning in the fourth when we had six singles, a walk and then his hit.

I guess all things must end and there goes my one game winning streak as fill in manager. Come back Dave Rose!