Three for the price of one, Orange 26 - Royal 11

 After the Orange team had a victory beer, I moseyed over to the Royal pod to gloat.

John Preston said, "Here comes Kravin to gloat."

I was trying not to gloat.

Doug and Gary and Gerry and others said, "You can gloat now."

And I was trying not to gloat!

Well so here goes: No one wants to play Orange right now, we are on a roll, four wins in a row, including taking down two undefeated teams.

Way to jinx us for next week Heff.

This game was actually way closer than the score indicates. It was one of those three games in one games. In the first three innings we scored five twice, and zero in the third, while the talented Royals tallied 4, 1. and 5. So after three innings it was knotted up at 10 and it looked like a 31-30 game.

Thirteen of our first 15 batters got hits. The Marks, Narciso and Edelstone both ended an inning driving in the last runs with a double. I'm sure the scorecard on the other side looked similar.

And then an amazing thing happened - all the bats went silent on both teams. We scratched over two runs in the fifth, and Royal one in the sixth but for innings 4-7 the score was 2-1.

So it was that we took our very slim one run lead into the top of the eighth. Royal got two quick outs. Then Vince Francesci singled, and Mike Saindon doubled and up strode the secret weapon, Greg Wilson, the big lefty. He planted a long line drive way over the right fielder's head for a three run homer. And when we got back to back doubles by Ron Schwab and Narciso and a single from Ike Garcia, it seemed that the game was over.

Royal threatened in the last two innings but didn't score. We batted around in the open ninth and piled on another nine runs for the final score of 26-11 so it looked like a blowout, but really wasn't. We did dominate the last two innings 14-0.

Along the way we had plenty of good defense, which has really been the hallmark of our turnaround. Jay Chafetz made a great catch robbing Gary Namanny with two outs and the bases loaded in the second. Steve Sloat and Gabe Tanaka played two really high hop grounders into outs in the fourth and sixth. Saindon went to his knees at third base to stop a ball ticketed to left field to get a force out at second in the eighth. Then Francesci gunned down a runner at second on a clean single to right and Bob Carver snared a fading hard hit line shot up the middle for the third out.

The play of the day, though came in the fifth. On a little looper in no man's land in the infield, Schwab scooped it up before it touched the ground, and then shot the ball to second to turn a double play.

Narciso was 5-5 with six RBIs, Francesci was 4-4 plus a walk, and Chafetz, Edelstone, Saindon, Wilson (five RBIs), Schwab, Sloat and Carver all had three hits. Tanaka took two walks for the team to go with his hit, something he probably rarely does. Narciso also pitched the middle three innings, allowing just one run, and Garcia allowed zero the last three innings.

It was a great way to spend a Tuesday morning!

Orange Crush Cruises past Green 22-15

 I love Orange Juice. Especially when the team is slashing line drives all over the field, and when not doing that, dropping in bloop singles.

For the third week in a row, Team Orange took it out on the opposition, this time avenging our opening game loss to Green, 22-15.

It was a good sign (for us) when Ike Garcia retired the first three batters for a one-two-three first. And then we put up five, two of them on a monster shot by Greg Wilson over the right center fielder's head. In the second, two picks by the first baseman kept Green from tying it up, but in the top of the third our defense got a little too relaxed and allowed Green to get things even at 8-8. It was as close as they got to a lead in the whole game.

Mark Narciso came in to pitch the middle innings. Steve Sloat made a nice catch on a popup behind second that was whistling in the breeze. Garcia, in his time off the mound, went out to play second base for an inning in the fifth. Immediately the ball found him and he made a two nice plays to keep Green off the board.

In the bottom half we got five straight hits to open the inning, and after a sac fly, Gabe Tanaka plated the last run with a bomb to right center field. He was bummed it wasn't a home run (I suspect it was him that secretly snuck up and filled in his square on the scorecard), which it would have been had not the fifth run been on first.

That gave us a 20-9 lead and we kind of went on cruise control until the end. There were some nice catches in the outfield along the way by Sloat, Brian Black and Mark Edelstone.

The whole lineup hit well, but we were led by Wilson, Ron Schwab, and Garcia, who were all 4-4, and Mike Saindon, Tanaka, Bob Carver, Art Oller, and the coach who all had three knocks. Garcia led the way with 4 RBIs.

It was a long road but Team Orange got to .500 with the win.

I coulda had a V8

Or been anywhere else when the Coneheads got hammered by Advance Construction Sunday. One of the Advance Construction team members is on my Creaker team this year. He's always telling me how they have dominated the league the last few years. And looking at yesterday's game, you might be inclined to believe him.

14-2. Not pretty.

So I had to look it up. Covid has stretched out our concept of time. In 2019, indeed they were 10-4 and we were a distant third at 6-7-1. And in 2018 they were 12-1 and we were in third at 8-5-1. But that year we tore through the playoffs, and took down Big Feet and them. Before that of course we ended the season in first place four straight years.

Not exactly Advance dominance, but judging from Sunday afternoon the torch may have been passed.

We are in a period of transition - coaching change, Joe retired. And we added a lot of talent but talent takes a while to gel. That's where we are today.

We started off well enough. Loaded the bases in the first with no outs, D got us on the board with a hit. And then - two popups and a ground out. Advance didn't start any better, only scoring once in the first two innings. We took our first (and last) lead in the second. It was a Chopper special - he doubled and when Gene grounded out to third, he just kept running, drew a throw that should have been the faux pas third out at third, and of course they airmailed it to get him off the hook.

But unfortunately that was it for our scoring - Advance shut us out the rest of the way. 

Defensive highlights included a 6U-3 double play by Randy, the new Joe's first Conehead K, and Gene and Pope making tough catches with the Field 3 sun in their eyes in the 6th.

Hopefully we will start hitting next week.

The Orange Purple People Eater. 25-22

"Well I saw the thing comin' out of the sky

It had the twelve long horns, and twelve big Orange eyes

I commenced to shakin' and I said "Ooh-eee"

It looks like a purple people eater to me

It was a twelve-eyed, twelve-horned, flyin' Orange purple people eater

(Twelve-eyed, Twelve-horned, flyin' Orange purple people eater)

A Twelve-eyed, Twelve-horned, flyin' Orange purple people eater

Sure looks strange to me (one eye?)"

(If you remember this tune, you are probably even more ancient than me)

This is now Frank Coppa's nightmare.

The short handed Orange Monster came out of the sky and ate up the Purple People, 25-22 on field 4 today.

We only had 11 1/2 players, but sometimes having fewer in the lineup just keeps everyone hot and that we were, up and down the lineup.

We dominated the early going. Mark Narciso held the powerful Purple lineup to seven runs in the first five innings. Twice he set down the top of the order - that includes Chip Sharpe, Mark Pitzlin, Gary Tryhorn and Raul Delgado - with zero or one run.

In the top of the first, Mike Saindon made two of his patented great stops at third base to get outs. In the bottom half, Mark Edelstone hit a gapper triple to score a hobbling Kevin Hopkins. Mark ended the day with the 'mini-cycle', a homer, triple, double, and a walk. Gabe Tanaka finished the scoring with a shot down the left field line past the speedy Sharpe and only stopped at second because the fifth run had scored.

In the second we traded four run innings. In the third, Tryhorn smashed a deep fly to dead center that Edelstone tracked down after a long run, and squeezed his glove when the ball rattled around for a while. Then Mark Narciso induced a comebacker from Delgado and made a nice play to get the third out. 

In the fifth we turned over the lineup with six straight hits sandwiched around a bases loaded RBI walk (look it up Frank) to yours truly - the capper being a left center gapper by Hopkins that plated the last two.

There we stood with a commanding 19-7 lead, but we knew the Purple people would make a comeback. And sure enough they did, scoring 12 in the next two frames to tighten the game to 20-19, Suddenly it was anyone's game. 

But in the bottom of the seventh, we answered with five. The game turned on a two out grand slam by Edelstone - again down the left field line. It turned a one run inning into five just like that. Have a game Mark!

In the eighth we traded zeroes - the only time they held us scoreless. It was the right side of the infield's time to shine. The first baseman fell/dove (and then even managed to get up and run to first!) to steal a hit away from one Purple Player, and then Tanaka ranged far to his left to rob another and get the third out.

In the top of the ninth, Delgado did his thing and mashed his second home run, but it was too little too late, and we walked off with the 25-22 win. Purple is undefeated no more! Yum Yum, Eat 'em up!

Brian Black was a perfect 5-5, Art Oller was also perfection at 4-4, Saindon was 4-5, Edelstone led the way with six RBIs.

I voted three MVPs - Edelstone on offense, Tanaka on defense (he also caught a troublesome popup) and Narciso on the mound for making the Purple People look largely ordinary.

Orange 28 Crushes Scarlet 16

There are lots of new players in the American Division this year (and from last) making their debuts this season. So every team is loaded with hitters. No one notices the defense, except when we give the other teams five or six outs in an inning.

In the battle today of the winless Orange and Scarlet, Orange finally put together a few innings of good defense and the very solid pitching of Ike Garcia to soundly defeat Scarlet 28-16. Putting up 28 runs didn't hurt either.

The game was a lot closer than that in the middle innings. The Orange Crush went 1-2-3 in the top of the first but then tallied ten in the next three innings to take a commanding 10-2 lead. The offensive highlight was two run shot over the right center fielder's head by Greg Wilson who touched them all. The defensive highlights were snag/putouts at rover by Mark Narciso and Mike Saindon at third in the fourth and just a crazy good catch in left by Brian Black, on a ball that was seemingly smashed over his head until he reached up and snared it.

In the third we scored five runs on five two out hits by the Coach, Black, Mark Edelstone, Kevin Hopkins, and Vince Francesco. We were on our way.

Ike was dealing and shut out the tough Scarlet lineup for three innings. But Scarlet pecked away with two in the fifth and when we had a defensive relapse in the sixth, they scored six to narrow our lead to 12-10. Our only runs in the middle were on a booming run scoring triple by Saindon, who then also scored on a sac fly by Steve Sloat.

Unlike last week though, this week we were determined to keep our lead. We tallied five in the seventh and four in the eighth punctuated by a triple to left by Narciso. In the ninth we put it away when we batted around with nine of the first ten batters reaching base. We netted seven in the open inning and the 28-16 lead held in the bottom of the ninth.

Francesco was a perfect 5-5, Wilson and Gabe Tanaka had four hits, and Black, Hopkins, Edleston, Saindon, Garcia, Narciso, and Kravin all had three hits to lead the offense.

Smashed Pumpkins 12, Royalty 17 at Rudgear

Last week and throughout the practice games, Team Orange was the Smashing Pumpkins on offense, but played defense like we were all Orange globs.

Today we had some good signs - our defense was greatly improved, holding the monster Royal lineup to 17 is a feat in itself. We played from behind the whole game but it was 3-2 through one, 9-8 through five, and 12-9 through six. We lapsed in the seventh and Royal took advantage to post the only five spot in the game. We heroically held them scoreless in the ninth, and had hopes for a miracle home ninth. But a badly timed double play put us behind the eight ball and we could only muster two runs, and lost 17-12.

Several Orange defensive highlights: Greg Wilson made a diving, tumbling catch in right center to rob the batter of a hit, probably extra bases. Mike Saindon made two diving stops on drilled one hoppers at the hot corner for outs. Brian Black's pitching was actually lights out, and his highlight was a strike three looking on a very good hitter. He also ran down a potential gapper when he went to the outfield. Steve Sloat and Bob Carver made great stops up the middle on a liner and a one hop smash, respectively. The first baseman nearly made a circus catch on a little bloop over his head, but even when he dropped it he managed to get a force out at second.

We had our issues on offense, hitting a lot of grounders right at the Royal infielders. But give Doug Uchikura and his brain trust credit - they were in good position on a lot of our hitters.

There were a few good hits. Art Oller led the way with three line drive hits, and he was joined by Vince Franceschi and Bob Carver. Kevin Hopkins had the best hit - an opposite field double over the left fielder's head. Mark Edlestone also burned the left fielder for a leadoff triple in the fourth.

One of these weeks we will put it all together and then watch out for the Smashing Pumpkins!

From Under the Bus, It's Orange 26 - Green 28

You're not supposed to throw your teammates under the bus in these write-ups. Accentuate the positive, skip the bad. Happy, happy joy joy.

Well...I've never been one to hold back.

The good news is I don't have to name names, because the list is long, and it is crowded here under the bus. Maybe not everyone had an error, but nearly everyone did and it cost us dearly and was the difference in a 28-26 loss to Green.

The other good news is that we are an exciting hitting team. Greg Wilson and Vince Franceschi led the way with four hit perfect games. With three were Brian Black, Mark Edelstone, Ron Schwab, Mike Sainden, Bob Carver, Gabe Tanaka, Kevin Hopkins and yours truly. That's ten out of 14 with at least three hits.

Franceschi had a home run and a triple in his pocket, although his teammates had to practically go out on the field and beg him to keep running on the homer. Vince drove in seven runs to lead the team. Sainden crushed one to Field 6 hobbling on one leg and limped all the way to third base. Hopkins and Ike Garcia also added triples.

I'm hoping next week we discover that we actually own gloves AND know how to use them. There's always hope right?