Two Old Oakland Teams, Raiders Come Up Short 23-31 to the Warriors

It was another of those games as the Raiders came up short again, this time to the Warriors, 31-23.

There were two Silver (and Black) linings: We turned a triple play in the seventh, SS David Gerds to 3B Cary Mitsuyoshi to 2B Don Devencenzi. But there was an asterisk - the batter thought he was out or that there were already three outs, and headed into the dugout. And then there were three outs, thank you very much.

And we may have found our pitcher, Max Martin. After too much wildness by our first two pitchers, he came in and gave out minimal free passes. Even though the Warriors did break through on him eventually, he gave us a reason to come back, as we closed it to 22-19 in the sixth.

Besides the TP, Cary was involved in a bases loaded smash to third where he stepped on the bag and threw home for an easy double play,

On Offense, Dave Balfour was perfect 5-5 with a double. Davids Gerds and Gratz were each 4-5, and including David DeCarli, the Davids were in total, 15-20 with four doubles. Jeff Kravin led the team with four RBIs.

Day of the Greens: Dark-G Squeaks By G-Gray 22-21 in the Thrilluh at Heathuh 3

There we were, rolling along and building a lead, inning by inning, all the way to 19-8 with just two frames to go. Dark Green had won every inning except the second and was cruising.

(Roll the Twilight Zone theme). Then it happened, Green Gray, which does have some talent, hit a bunch of line drives, bleeders and bloopers and throw in some absent defense by the Dark team, and G-G came storming ALL THE WAY back to tie us WITH NO OUTS in the eighth and it stood 19-19 going into the open inning.

You can never be too comfortable, and you can guess Dark Green was no longer comfortable. We were lucky, we had the bottom then top of the lineup coming up in the ninth, but we could only manage to turn that into three runs.

GG started down the same path as in the eighth, notching two runs and getting the tying run to third and the winning run to first. But Opener and Closer Mike Howard induced a pop fly to Helen Kostoff at Rover, who took a step back and squeezed it for the 22-21 win. There were 14 audible sighs by the visiting team, and the call for the ambulance for the Dark Green Manager was canceled.

It was an instant Creaker classic. Neither team should have lost this game. Kudos to the GGs for staging an incredible comeback, and to DG for digging deep and shouting down the nerves to cement the victory.

There was so much clutch hitting, it was tough to name the best hits.

We scored five runs twice; in the fifth inning rally, Jeff Olsen, Bill Jeha, Shel Perham, and Jeff Kravin got two out RBI hits. In the eighth, we scored all five with one out.

Jeha was perfect at 5-5 with a triple and a double and four RBIs. Right behind him was Perham, 4-5 with two doubles and he matched the four RBIs. John Banker matched the four hits with four of his own, and Michael Callahan and Woody Whitlatch stroked three hits apiece.

But as it is often in a close win, it was the bottom of the order that made the difference. Superman Howard Davis, hit two doubles among three hits to knock in three runs. Pat ODay crushed a two run two out hit in the sixth and knocked in our fifth run in the eighth. And Robert Douza, batting last, went 4-4 to set up the top of the lineup to bring him around.

Leo Kay was a nuisance to the GGs with two hits and drew an important walk in the ninth to get on to score the go ahead run.

Jeha made a couple of impressive catches on liners to SS. Frank Coppa made a great stop on a hot shot at 3B. Pitchers (M) Howard and Howard (D) each tossed a strikeout (If Curly Joe Ragazzo ever comes back from his injury, we might just field a team with all three stooges on it!).

Raiders Raided by the Mudcats 26-10

The shorthanded Raiders couldn't muster much on offense and made some critical errors and fell to the Mudcats 26-10.

Most of the bright spots were held by the Davids: Balfour went 5-5 with a double and Gerds was 4-5 with three doubles and a blast to the fence for a home run. He also turned two highlight plays: In the third he fielded a hot shot at the hot corner, stepped on third and fired to Gidget Blaquera at second to get a double play. In the fifth, he dove to his left at SS, jumped up and threw to first to rob a Mudcat of a hit.

David Gratz smashed two of the best balls hit all day, and the RC and LC respectfully made spectacular running catches to rob him of extra bases on both. That's how it went on this day for the Raiders.

Cary Mitsuyoshi and Max Martin did contribute three hits apiece, but the rest of the lineup just could not follow their lead and we came up short.

Dark Green emerges from the Forest, Tops Gray 18-12

My mantra has always been, "The bottom of the order hits, we win". Today, the bottom four, Frank Coppa, Helen Kostoff, Mike Howard and Woody Whitlatch went 10-13 including a grand slam by Coppa that traveled all the way through the infield on Field 3. They scored eight runs and drove in eight as well.

They were not alone as everyone contributed to the win: Top of the order batters Leo Kay and Michael Callahan had four hits apiece, with Callahan having the "mini-cycle": two singles, a double and a two run triple in the fourth. Middle of the order Jeff Olsen and Bill Jeha had three hits apiece - Jeha blasted one over the left center fielder's head for a solo job in the seventh, the inning Coppa later cleared the bases with his dinger.

The game was a 3-3 tie when Callahan punctuated our first five run inning with the triple. After we were shut out in the fifth, Gray tied it at eight apiece. But we scored the max five in the next two innings to put the game away. Coppa's blast sealed the deal.

Mike Howard pitched the whole game and had the Gray hitters leaning awkwardly this way and that. He got one strikeout swinging. He was helped immensely by some key defensive plays.

In the first Olsen caught a liner moving back for the first out, and Rover Kostoff snagged another liner to keep Gray from getting more than two runs. In the third Whitlatch snared a hard liner at 2B, and flipped to first where the Manager tap-danced and pushed the side of his foot against the bag as he caught the runner who was off and running.

In the sixth, Jeha and Whitlatch combined for the play of the game. Bill dove for a hot shot and flipped the ball to second base from the ground, and Woody, just arriving, snagged the ball bare-handed and did a similar tap-dance to get his foot on the bag ahead of the runner crossing. To complete the fine defense, Shel Perham at 3B grabbed a hot shot in the 5-6 hole with runners on second and third, ran to third base to get the runner from second, and then fired home. We didn't get the double play as the runner retreated back to third, but it saved another run. In the eighth, Jeha dove again for the third out, this time catching it before it hit the ground.

Even though we only had 11 players, everyone had a hand in the win, and that made it a great team win. Helen's shots always taste better after a win.

Raiders Sink a Little Short of Shore, 21-19

The Raiders came roaring back from a shaky start to a loaded Outlaws team to nearly finish the job, but ultimately fell short 21-19. We spotted them an 11-1 lead while shaking off some rust from the long off season, and clawed back to take a one run lead at 15-14 in the sixth. After giving up a five spot in the top of the seventh, and answering with a four run eighth, we went into the ninth trailing by just two runs, And then we shut them out in the open inning. The table was set, but unfortunately the potential winning rally died with the tying run at the plate.

There were some defensive highlights. Cary Mitsuyoshi ended the debate of the best play of the year in the first game as he dove all out in the third to snag a sinking liner in shallow right center from his rover position to rob an Outlaw of a hit. Max Martin made two great plays at 2B, one on a grounder and one on a line drive. In the sixth, Dave Balfour twice in left and Jay Sankey in right made great catches in the outfield for the three outs in a shutdown inning that kept us in the game.

Coach and the best leadoff hitter Jay Sankey was 4-4 with a double. Gidget Blaquera went 3-3 with two doubles plus a walk. Mitsuyoshi joined her with three hits and led the team with four RBIs. Blaquera and Jeff Kravin drove in three apiece. The team managed to hit just .542 although we drew seven walks as the Outlaw pitchers also showed some rust. Not enough hitting but at least everyone got at least one dinger.

Curse of the First, Green Falls 17-2 to Light Blue

We had them right where we wanted them, up 2-0 in the top of the first - no sir, no ma'am, no thee no he no she no they, no curse of the first for Dark Green, so we lightened it up and stopped at two across.

It was so comfortable, and we loved it so much, we simply stopped scoring - for another eight innings.

We had some good defense and pitching, and we held the powerful Light Blue lineup under 20, but if you don't hit in softball, you ain't gonna win, and the final score was 17-2.

Woody Whitlatch played an excellent game, making several plays at 2B, and going 3-4. On one, we turned a 4-11-3 double play to end an inning. The first baseman had to stretch to the limit of his 5'7" frame and keep his toe on the bag. Later Woody caught a hot shot line drive. John Banker made a nice catch in right field that took forever to come down. Leo Kay had three hits in his return from a broken rib suffered in the practice game. Frank Coppa regained his stroke and joined him with three hits.

We had nary a single extra base hit, and that is not going to win a game in slow pitch softball. But the team has great spirit and no one pointed any fingers and still enjoyed our postgame refreshments.

No excuse but we were missing six players, so hopefully going forward, we will get some of them back and put on a better performance.

Green Marooned, 18-8

All decked out in our brand new Green and Gold, the Dark Green Creaker-A's were looking forward to making A's fans everywhere proud. After all the anticipation (and rumors of Forest Green, Silver, and what all else) of getting New Jerseys (see what I did there?), we get the Wandering A's colors. Well, at least now we know where the A's are playing, Walnut Creek, er Pleasant Hill!

And then, we went out and played like the Triple A-s on Thursday. We spotted the Maroon a 9-0 lead through three and it never got close after that. It turned out too much to overcome, and even though the game was pretty even after that, Maroon came out on top 18-8.

A few highlights: Howard Davis made a great stop in the 3-4 hole and stuck a hard grounder in his glove to get the easy out at first in the fourth inning. We turned a nice around the horn double play in the sixth - 3B Frank Coppa to Woody Whitlatch at 2B, who rushed a throw in the dirt to first where the first baseman dug it out backhanded. Likewise Dick Stanley corralled an errant throw at first in another inning.

Shel Perham led the team's meager output on offense, 3-3 plus a walk, including a triple and three RBIs. Michael Callahan, John Banker (with our other triple) and Stanley joined him with three hits. Helen Kostoff continued her torrid RBI pace with two more.

Maybe the manager should be fired. Or the team should step up next game and save his job!