On a beautiful day on the turf at Heather One, relentless offense and clutch defense enabled Team Gold to top a stubborn Navy team 25-22.
We could get used to playing on the Field 1 - in fact we are 3-0 on the turf the last three games. Sadly we are not there again until June.
The game started off simply enough. The talented top of Blue's lineup avoided the curse of the first, scoring four. But Gold would not be denied and with two runs in and two outs scored three times more, punctuated by a triple to left by Doug Carlson, who came back from a few weeks off with a groin pull. Welcome back Doug!
It was the first of six triples, and the power barrage included four home runs (yet nary a double). In the third Gary Namanny slammed a three run homer, but we weren't done as Steve Alvarez blasted another and Jeff Mertens a triple and scored the fifth run on Steve Mastronarde's single. In the fourth the bottom of the order did their part, scoring on a leadoff single by Jeff Kravin (that went about 50 feet), another hit by Carlson and then a triple by Stan Bielecki.
In the top of the fifth, Navy refused to give in and using the catch up rule tied it up at 13. In the bottom half though, the relief pitcher could not find the strike zone and a couple of walks and hits brought in two with the bases loaded and two outs. The starter came back in but Kravin hit one of his patented liners to the opposite field from his past life that eluded the left fielder and cleared the bases.
Navy still would not cry uncle but Anthony Puccio brought in two more with a two out single in the bottom of the sixth, making it 20-14. A six run lead in this game was nothing. Navy closed to 20-18, but Gold would not be denied. Back to back Jacks by Namanny and Rob Katzer brought up Alvarez who planted yet another bomb over the outfield. He ran out of gas, stopping at third, and left it up to Mertens to bring him home. After a forceout, Heffe came up with run number five again on first, and made the Navy pay for playing too shallow one more time, blasting it over the right fielder for a second triple in three innings, making it 25-18.
Tom Gonzales came back in to pitch, and although the Navy brought in four more in the final two frames to make it interesting, Gold had a big enough lead at that point to weather the storm.
The defense had just as many highlights as the offensive barrage. Mertens made two outstanding swipes at high line drives playing 2B, and smothered a hot shot there in the eighth, and he also had a great catch in right field in the ninth for the all important first out in the open inning. Namanny added two shoestring catches in left center robbing guys of good hits - we don't take him for granted but he does this every week. Pitcher Gonzales, when he went to the outfield, robbed Ah-rahm don't call me Airum on a blast deep to left in the third inning. Pooch made what in senior ball is about the toughest catch there is - a pop up behind home plate in the sixth. And on a throw in the dirt up the line (er I mean turf), the first baseman twisted himself into a pretzel and snagged the errant toss laying on the ground while toe tapping the bag.
Overall:
Gonzales 3-3+BB
Bob Fulgham, quietly also 3-3+BB, 4 Runs
Namanny 3-4 2 HR, 6 RBI
Katzer 1-4 HR
Batman 3-4, 3B, HR
Mertens 2-2+2 BB, 3B
Maestro 2-3+BB, 3 RBIs
Heffe 4-4, 2 3B, 4 RBIs
Carlson 3-4, 3B
Bielecki 2-4 3B
Joy Dardin, 2-3
Steve Bedrick (Bedrock) 1-4
Pooch 2-3
