Gold Ends First Half Winning Another Close One, 16-13 Over Green

Typical Gold win. Get a big lead, give it up, and hold off the opponent with some clutch defense.

We pecked away at Terry Karp's team early, scoring 2, 4, 5, 3, and 3 runs, while good defense held Green to three in the first five frames. Stan Bielecki was a defensive star in the early innings - turning a grounder to third, step on the bag and throw home double play with the bases loaded to hold Green to one run in the second. On the play, catcher Anthony Puccio (Pooch) scooped up a low throw. And Bielecki made a great stop in the next frame on a hard grounder playing rover, and flipped to Hugh Vasquez, who ranged a long way to cover second to get the force.

In the fourth, Steve Bedrick, who threw nothing but strikes in the middle innings, got a strikeout looking. And we turned a short to rover to first double play to hold them scoreless.

Somewhere in there the first baseman ranged far into foul territory to catch a pop fly. No one could believe how far he ran. Steve Alvarez made a couple of nice catches - one a mile high pop up playing second, which is always tough, and one on a long ball to right field.

A 15-3 lead is safe right? Not in Creaker ball. We were outscored 10-1 in the next three innngs, and Green got their hopes up, closing to 16-13. And Gold failed to score the last two times up. We were holding on to the hopes of having the home team last ups advantage. But in the eighth, with some of the best Green hitters coming up, Gary Namanny corralled a liner to center and fired to second to double up Karp (who was not sure whether the ball would be caught) with the bases loaded, effectively ending the rally. It was a close play, the throw only beat him by inches but umpire Steve Goulet made an honest call, exhibiting the best Creaker sportsmanship. No one argued. We went quietly in the last two innings, but starter and closer Tom Gonzales induced some easy outs in the ninth and we did not have to perform any bottom of the ninth heroics.

Steve Mastronarde had a quiet 4-4 day to take over the team batting average lead. Bob Fulgham came back from two weeks in Croatia and must have received some good batting tips there as he went 3-3 with two doubles and a walk. Rob Katzer matched that 3-3 plus a sac fly and led the team with three RBIs. Alvarez and Jeff Kravin also added three hits and everyone in the lineup had at least one.

First place remains Gold territory, which is pretty impressive considering we are fourth in run differential, third in runs scored, and tied for fourth in runs allowed. It's called team chemistry - we relentlessly harass each other to keep it loose.