Crows Pick Black Apart

After a slow start, the Crows swooped down on Back in Black with a balanced offense and solid defense to win going away 19-12. 

We spotted Black a 7-2 lead after two innings, but came back to tie it at seven in the fourth, and then scored 12 runs in the sixth, seventh, and the eighth to put it away. It's funny, I talked to Pay Carman before the game and said they have a lot of talented players on his team but no wins to show for it, and his response was that they always seem to find a way to lose the game late. I guess he was prophetic.

Everyone had at least one hit and reached base at least three times as we took advantage of ten walks. It didn't help the opponent that they were missing their starter Bill Eppinga. Three pitchers struggled to throw strikes. But we remained patient and rallied for four run innings twice and five once. All but two players scored and all but two drove in at least one run.

Charlie Pastor led the way with four hits, followed by Dan May, Randy Cobb Lamont Thompson and Rob Dousa with three apiece. May and Cobb drove in four apiece. Don Devencenzi was voted best eyes or most respected as he walked three times, followed by yours truly with two. Cobb and I both had bases loaded BBs for RBIs.

Mark Childress hit a two run homer, which he seems to do every game, and May had one of his patented opposite field triples leading off the third inning.

Unfortunately the note taker failed to take many defensive notes but of note was that we turned a Devencenzi to Thompson to Kravin double play in the fifth inning.

Danville Gold managed to tie the Hornets at the same time on the other field, so we have not clinched third place, but Gold's last two games are both against the undefeated Wolfpack.

Who Were Those Guys?

In no particular order: Helen Kostoff, Brian Black, Frank Coppa, Tony Camillo, Jeff LeBoss, Johnny Gutierrez, Steve Rousso, and David Peterson, were all either sick, working, on vacation and/or winning disk golf tournaments in paradise. That's a lot of firepower at the plate and talent in the field. The last three (the sick ones) (correctly) bowed out on game day.

But the remaining teammates: Tim Orr, Dan May, Art Minor, Darren Bobrosky, Devin Underwood, Dave Rose, Leo Kay, Jeff Kravin, and Sandy Camp (with an assist from fill in Aram Boyd) strepped up to the plate, knocked the ball all over the park, caught everything in sight and toasted Team Gray 25-16. We hit a season high .717 as a team.

Bobrosky pitched all nine, and was 'effectively wild'. He gave up a few walks but when Gray wasn't taking the free passes, with his knuckleball he got them to ground out, mostly weakly. There must have been five plays between first base and the mound, either first base to pitcher or vice versa. And with two strikes on him, Skip Spragens (a very good hitter) at the last second took a swinging bunt swing, and dropped a perfect bunt hit up the third base line. Except Bobrosky pounced on it, wheeled and fired to first with a hard one hop throw off the turf, and Kravin snagged it cleanly.

When Gray hit it hard, it was mostly to shortstop Underwood going to his left for a 6U-3 double play or 6-11-3 through May at rover, and I think we turned five double plays in the first few innings.

May continued his torrid pace - he went 6-6 with one of his patented (two run) triples down the right field line. Boyd made the most of filling in for us, he was 5-5 plus a sac fly in the eighth. They played him so deep, he really wanted to take second on one of his hits (he's not allowed to as a sub), and he made a stab at it on his last hit just to see if he could get away with it. Of course that was the one he would have been thrown out by thirty feet and he wisely turned back to first. Bobrosky also had five hits (5-6) including a triple. Minor had an off game - only 3-5 but they were good for four RBIs. Underwood, Rose, and Kay all had four hits.

But the hit of the game came in the fifth. Gray had closed to 14-10 in the top half. consecutive hits by Bobrosky, Underwood, Boyd, Rose and Kay brought in two runs and loaded the bases. Kravin stepped in and planted a line drive over the right fielder's head to clean up the bases and put us up 19-10. He went 3-4 plus a walk and led the team with five RBIs.

Even though Gray did get four in the seventh to close to within five, we answered with five in our half and it was out of reach, as Bobrosky held them to two runs the rest of the way.

What a great win given the adversity we faced. We are suddenly the hottest team in the league. Undefeated in 2026!

Let's finish strong with just two games left.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

The Key Takeaway of our demolishing Danville to vault over them into third place: I, Jeff Kravin, am just one off the team lead in triples for the season. More on that later*.

Can we please bottle the defense, offense and all aound game we had Wednesday, and bring it out in the remaining games?

We scored five runs in each of the first three innings, then four, and then 3-3-3. We almost let Gold back in the game with a nine run inning in the fourth to close to 15-13, but held them to three runs the rest of the way as we added on. Final score 28-16. 

We did slow down in the late innings, but I will take scoring at least three in every inning any game. Everyone got at least two hits, everyone scored at least one run, and nearly everyone drove in a run.

We hit a season high .717 as a team. Dave had one of those games: 4-4, two doubles, two homers, six RBIs. He had a sore butt, and almost begged off playing, but he showed what a gamer he is. Dan, leading off, set the table all game, going 5-5. Tom G was also 4-4, and played great defense and other than the nine run fourth held Gold pretty much in check. Mark and Tom W had the other two home runs, as we doubled our season high in a game with four. *I could have joined them, as I understand they had given up on my hit in the RC gap, but my left leg was cramping big time as I dragged it to third base. Don got me home anyway. Brian, Lamont, Mark, Don and I all contributed three hits.

The play of the game was when Kelvin Nelson hit a hot shot up the middle,  Gonzales stabbed it, and Nelson was so surprised he didn't bother to run to first, and Tom threw to Mark at second who relayed to first. Nelson did not even bother to run. I am not sure when it was; my memory is not great, but I like to think it was in the ninth and it ended the game.

Other notable plays, the first baseman ranged far (for him) toward the first base dugout to snatch a foul ball fly on one knee in the first. Dan knocked down a ball at 2B and got a force out at second. Likewise, in the second inning, he deflected one to Mark at rover who fired to first for the second out. Brian made a great catch in LF as well to shut them out in the inning. In the fifth, Tom at 3B and Bob at SS made nice plays to keep the Gold scoreless.

There were other plays that were not noted as we played great defense the whole game.

Oh, and I love irony. Joe noticed that someone had advanced the inning to the seventh on the scoreboard when we were about to go out to the field in the top of the sixth. We decided to wait and see if the other team noticed; we were up 19-13 at the time. They didn't but ironically, no one changed the 8 to a 9 when we started what everyone thought was the ninth. When they went down quietly, someone on their side said hey that was only the eighth, but a teammate incorrectly corrected him and said it was the ninth. At that point they were done anyway. We would have had the heart of the order up in the true eighth, and undoubtedly would have tacked on five more to add to their pain.

Even though we have had a rough time against the top two teams, this win just about clinches third place with three games left. We have the next two against Team Black, who have not won a game, and one more against the Hornets. We are done with Danville Gold (and the Wolfpack) and have taken two of three against them, so we hold any necessary tiebreaker. Their remaining games are all against the Hornets and Wolfpack. Although technically tied, any combination of our wins and their losses equaling three will clinch third place.

It will be pick your poison in the first round of the playoffs. When we are firing on all cylinders, I would venture to say we can compete with the top teams. I hope everyone can make the remaining games and stay healthy.

Thirty One Is the Magic Number

Even though we were missing our leading hitter Darren Bobrosky, Team Black Shirts plated a season high 31 runs and made Tie Dye's shirts bleed, and won our FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON! 31-26.

Obviously the Magic Number is 31 as last week we scored 30 in tying Team Blue 30 all to send the season of losses.

With the addition of Devin Underwood solidifying our defense and providing major pop in the middle of the lineup, we are undefeated in our last two games. I'd put our lineup up against any of the others. But sometimes it's the bottom of the lineup that make the difference. Sandy Camp was 'only 1-2' with a walk and a sac fly, but her hit in the fifth started a five run inning and she drew a walk in the seventh to do the same. And her sac fly in the second drove in the fifth run of that frame. So basically she was the key in all three of our five run innings.

We played from ahead most of the game - we scored at least two in every inning - but when it came to the ninth, we only had a 28-26 lead. Helen Kostoff led off with a single and that turned the lineup over with no outs, which was huge.We only scored three as the rally petered out in the middle of the order, but at least we had a five run lead.

I will admit, I was a little nervous in the ninth when we didn't any more runs,  given the number of games we lost late. It was true that Tie Dye had the bottom of the lineup coming up, but that part of the lineup had destroyed us in the eight run sixth, when they tied it up at 20. However, this time pitcher Brian Black coaxed three relatively easy outs, and we came out ahead. The breakfast shots were all the sweeter this day.

We bombed five home runs in addition to scoring the season high 31 runs. Art Miner led the way with a 4-5 day, two doubles, a home run and a team leading seven RBIs. Behind him, Tony Camillo hit a cycle except he forgot the single - double, triple, homer, walk and a sac fly good for five RBIs. Likewise, David Peterson can't seem to stop at first - he had three doubles and a bomb (4-4). Jeff Leboss matched his 4-4 with a couple of doubles. Brian Black stayed on fire, 4-5 with a solo homer. Even when Manager Dave Rose (also 3-3) bats him seventh, he seems to lead off every inning, in no small part because Mr. Clutch Johnny Gutierrez drove in the fifth rum twice batting ahead of him. And Tim Orr, leading off this game only went 3-3 plus two walks, scored five times and hit our other home run.

There were some notable defensive plays as well, even though we allowed 26 runs (Tie Dye has a pretty massive lineup, especically the forst seven or so). Gutierrez made an incredible sun catch in the first in RC. Underwood ran a long way to catch a potential gapper in the second and a shallow one after that. Kostoff made two great plays - one at 2B (2nd inning) and one at rover (4th). Likewise Tony up the middle in the fourth and Peterson dove for one in his inning at SS in the fifth. LeBoss caught a hard grounder and got the leading runner at second also in the fifth. Steve Rousso, snagged a shot headed to left in his inning at 3B, and got a force at second. In the next inning, Dan May leapt high to catch a liner that may have been the catch of the day. And finally, Leo Kay cut off a potential gapper in RF in the eighth.

Well, dare I say it we have momentum now! Let's keep it going!

When A Tie Is Not Something Around Your Neck

When is a tie a victory? Let me suggest - when you are 0-7, and you're about to lose yet another game in the ninth inning, and you're down by eight with the bottom of the order coming up in the bottom of the ninth, and then you're still down by seven with two outs, and you rally on six straight hits to come all the way back to tie it up. Thirty runs, a season high.

When is a tie like a loss? When a walk then loads the bases and the winning run is on third, but a groundout ends the game. This is no reflection on Helen, and we were all deeply rooting for her to get that game winning hit, but alas, it was not to be.

At least we still have that first win to look forward to.

There were planty of heroes who had monster games. Dan and Brian were both 6-6. Dan drove in a team high (shared with Darren) six RBIs on three doubles and three singles. His shot down the right field line over the first base bag was a thing of beauty as it gave us our first five run inning in the first. He repeated the two run hit for the last runs in the five run sixth. Both came after Team Blue had scored five in the top half.

Brian did not drive in a run on his perfect day at the plate - because he is the leadoff hitter. His leadoff triple in the bottom of the first was a statement to Blue that we were not lying down after they started the game with a five run top half.

Then there were the five hit boys batting four, five and six - Newbie Devin, Darren, and Johnny G. Devin started with a loud out (the only one in the first), and hit it harder and farther every time up with two singles, followed by a double, homer and another double. He scored five times and drove in five in his Team BS debut. Darren knocked in six on his five hits, and Johnny played set up for Dan after they pretty much cleared things on the base paths.

Art had four hits and drove in five, and in between took an oopsie called third strike leading off the eighth. Heffe and Leo contributed three hits apiece.

The game was close throughout and no one led by more than four runs at the and of an inning. When Blue opened up the ninth with six for the eight run lead, it looked unlikely that we would come back. But we showed our character in the bottom half.

It tells you everything you need to know that the powerful Brian Alexander wants to play with us next on his bye week off.

We kept in the game with some excellent defense mostly involving Devin early on. Tim made a nice running catch in the first. Devin made two highlight snags in the second - one a low liner headed to center field and the other ranging far into left field for a pop up. He also started a double play in the fourth. In between we threw out a runner from the deep reaches of left center who dared to tag up from first base. Devin's relay nailed him.

So we still have that first sweet win to look forward to, but our grit paid off in a great comeback...tie.