Week 7 Game Results

Final week of the first half!

Doghair Blues Swamp Mudcats on "Bullpen Night"

   The Doghair Blues defeated the Mudcats 19-15 on a night when they used two pitchers who hadn't pitched this year, Manger Gabe Delgado and Chris (CAP) Capistron who has never pitched before. What a gutsy performance by from the "bullpen" pitchers !!!  The game started slowly, with Gabe magically shutting out the Mudcats in the top of the first, while the Dogs scored two in the bottom of the frame on a single by Art Abiera, a triple by Tony Annino, and a sac fly by Nick James to go up 2-0 after one.  The Cats came roaring back to score five runs in the second on a long solo homerun by Kevin Riley, a double by Clint Longley, and hits by Ed Sullivan, Peter MacKay, Rob Dunn, and Octavio Aguirre, and three run producing walks. Not to be outdone, the Blue's bats answered with 5 runs in the bottom of the second inning to retake the lead 7-5.  The Blues perfect inning (5 runs with no outs) was achieved on a walk, and consecutive hits by Mark Meredeth, Mike Hamlett, Capistron, Vince Aguino, Delgado, Jason Dreas, and Abiera.

The Mudcats scored 4 runs in the top of the third on a double by Donnie Young, and hits by Matt Riley, Longley, and John (who ?) and a sac fly by MacKay to retake the lead 9-7. The Dogs tied the score 9-9 by plating two runs in the bottom of the third on hits by Nick James, Cristian Brady, and Hamlett.  They threated to score more, but with the bases loaded and two outs, Mudcat's pitcher Ed Sullivan stuck out a Doghair batter for the third out. The Mudcats scored one in the top of the fourth, on hits by Dunn and Kirk Riley and two walks. The Doghairs answered with 5 runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up 14-10 after four innings.  After one out, Dreas doubled, Abiera got him home with a single, Annino's double put runners on second and third. Both runners scored on a triple by James who scored on a hit by Brady. Erik Swanson advanced Brady to third on a hit, and the final run scored on a hit by Meredeth.  The determined Mudcats scored 3 in the top of the fifth while shutting out the Dogs in the bottom half of the inning to close the gap to 14 -13 after five innings.  The Mudcats regained the lead 15-14 by scoring two runs in the top of the sixth, helped by some Doghair fielding miscues and walks.  The Blue's batters rose to the occasion by scoring five runs in the bottom of the sixth after two were out.  Consecutive hits by James, Brady, Swanson, Meredeth, Hamlett plated 3 runs, and Vince Aguino's clutch hit scored the final two runs to enable the Dogs to lead 19-14 after six innings. CAP closed out the scoring by getting Ed Sullivan to fly out to right on a good catch by Hamlett, and getting the next Mudcat's batter to line out to him,  and he doubled off the Mudcats runner at first to end the game. 

Doghairs pitchers issued 12 walks, but were aided by three double plays, two of which were initiated by super SS Jason Dreas.  Dreas also threw out a Cat's runner at home on a strange play in the sixth. With two Mudcats on, Dreas, playing deep almost on the grass, was unable to reach a very short bloop, but snagged it on a hop and threw a laser strike to home to a surprised Mark Meredeth who caught it just in time to nip an even more bewildered Mudcat runner at the plate. Hamlett made several catches in right field, especially on a potential game changer on a Mudcat drive to deep right in the top of the fifth.

The Blue's bats were led by perfect nights by Hamlett (4-4, including a double) and James (3-3, including a triple), Capistron (2-2 including a double and two walks), and Swanson (2-2 and two walks).  Brady and Abiera were each 3-4, while Dreas, Annino, Meredeth, and Aguino each had 2 hits.

Mudcat hitters were led by Rob Dunn with 3hits.  Kirk Riley had two hits and a home run, while Clint Longley and Donnie Young each had two hits, including doubles for the Cats.  MacKay also chipped in with two hits.

-----------------------

The Cats took eleven bases on balls but only managed to score 15 runs against a stingy Doghair defense. SS Matt Riley homered and 3B Peter MacKay drove in four runs.2B Scott Stevens reached base all four at bats and C Octavio Aguirre reached base in all three of his at bats. RF John Eveland knocked in two with a double.

Week 7: Stoned Willys vs Red Rockets

Two heavyweights at 5-1 squared off to see who would walk away 6-1—and who would leave crying into their sunflower seeds. The Stoned Willys rolled into our town ready to bring the smoke, and honestly… they had us lit up most of the game.

They stayed a few runs ahead the whole way and had a comfy 5-run cushion heading into the bottom of the 7th. Most teams would’ve folded, packed up their gloves, and gone home early. Not us.

Jesse sparked the fire with a line drive to left. Then… two quick outs. Down 5 runs. Two outs left. Basically staring up Mount Everest in flip flops. But the Rockets decided it was time to climb.

JC and Ray delivered clutch singles. Alan, hotter than a Vegas blackjack table, got pitched around and took the walk like a true team guy. Then Tony A stepped in and smoked a double that cleared the bases like grandma clears a buffet line. Suddenly the tying run was on second, the winning run at the plate.

And guess who’s up? Yours truly. I punched one through the 5-5 hole, tied the game, and parked myself on second as the winning run. Then comes Jorge Gurrola, we couldn’t have picked a better person for the moment and First pitch—smoked into left. I cruise around third and jog home for the walk-off winner. Rockets 17, Willys 16.

But this wasn’t just bats—our defense made sure we even had a shot. Alan went 4-for-4 at the plate and flashed the leather with the play of the game: stabbed a shot up the middle, flip to Ray covering second for a huge out. Jesse made a highlight-reel catch in deep right that looked impossible when it left the bat. Dave, bum leg and all, patrolled right-center like he was 100%. Tony was making running grabs as well.

At the plate, Jesse, Jim, JC, and Dave all had clutch RBIs to keep us within striking distance. It wasn’t pretty hitting overall, but we got loud when it mattered most.

Next week, we take the show back on the road. The private jet will be fueled, the snack cart fully loaded, and the Rockets are locked in for the second half of the season.

Final: Red Rockets 17 – Stoned Willys 16.

A decidedly one-sided affair. The Sandmen’s offense was unable to get going against the MiP.

Here we are, halfway through the season and ready for part 2. Hopefully the Sliders will solve their defensive issues before too long.

Another close game we could have easily won. Defensively we are catching the balls we should, but our throws don't always seem to go to the right place. Once we get that settled, we should be fine. The Silverbacks seemed to have much fewer problems defensively than we did.

On offense, we did enough to win but we left a lot of runners on base too. We didn't put up a single 5 run inning except for the open which I started with a solid fly out to LCF again. Fortunately my team didn't let me down, posting 6 runs before we made the final out to end our comeback. We are hitting great but we keep getting thrown out on the basepaths costing us runs and outs.

Notable Slider Bats- Perfect for the Evening : Kevin Sutton [5-5 w/ 5 RBIs] Almost Perfect : Dale Olson [4-5] and Dave Lazott [3-4 w/ a BB] Also Notable : Anthony Gallagher and JoJo Cuevas [3-5]  Diamond Dave Jackson, Rob Lazott, and Mike Fernandes [2-4 w/ a BB]. Everyone else got on base at least twice. As I said, we are hitting great and we are making the pitchers work by taking walks rather than swinging at bd pitches. However, I always encourage the other team to swing at everything.