Softball
Week in Review: Week 13; July 15 - July 21
July 15, Sunday
The Pirates
finished Lynn's
Sunday League regular season with a ridiculous 28-4 rout of the
woeful St. Peter's
Hospital. "At least you guys started going station to station in the
first..." commented the umpire, whose strike zone expanded to galactic
proportions when the Pirates were (frequently) at the plate as the game
progressed. To
celebrate their perfect season, manager Deryl B popped a couple bottles
of fine Yellow Tail sparkling the Pirates recently plundered off the
coast of Australia. "Now it's time to continue this run through the
playoffs" said Deryl. Unfortunately, the Pirates will have to wait a
week before the playoffs begin.
July
16, Monday
Game 1, 6:00P at FoD:
Toyota of Clifton Park vs. The Goodfellas. With a final score of 24-6, one might think this game was a laugher from beginning to
end--exactly what should happen when a good team plays a struggling
team. Such a thought, however, is a mistake as the score belies
the schizophrenic nature of the game. Through the first four innings,
the score was 5-3 in favor of The Goodfellas with Toyota having
problems in the field and at the plate. The official count
of three
errors doesn't fully capture Toyota's defensive futility that
also included some poor routes on fly-balls. Defensive futility, on the
other hand, was completely overshadowed by Toyota's offensive
ineptitude as they collected only four hits over the span. "His head
was ready to blow off..." noted the ever alert Deron S regarding Toyota
manager John C, adding "I could see the veins bulging in his
neck...he was ready to blow..." "The poor defense was one thing..."
said manager John C, "but not hitting and the constant chasing
of his blooping high pitch...wow. Tough to watch."
Then,
like shifting from Park to Drive, Toyota remembered who they were
in the top of the 5th and pasted 13 runs on the hapless
Goodfellas. Toyota followed their big offensive inning by dropping a
1-2-3 goose egg on The Goodfellas in the bottom of the inning. In the
top of the 6th, the offense
picked up where they left off and scored another 8 runs. "You knew it
was going to happen..." said Toyota 3B Jim C, "...sometimes
it takes a few innings before we get rolling." John C was less than
sharp after two long innings on the bench when he went to pitch the
bottom of the 6th, but the damage was minimal as The Goodfellas could
only plate 1 run despite loading the bases. "I should've went to the
pen..." said John C, "The long layoffs eventually iced me, I was done.
I need to
monitor that better in the future." Regardless, in the end, Toyota
amassed 22 hits--7 for extra bases and 7 walks. Offense was the star of
this game.
Game 2, 9:00P at
Mullen's Park:
Poppy's Place vs. Dirty Pirates rescheduled to Thursday, July 19.
July
17, Tuesday
Game 1, 6:15P at Nott 5:
J.T. Designs vs. Anarchy; 11-7, Anarchy. "I'm sick of this Punch and
Judy {garbage}, let's get some hits and beat the {stuffing}
out of them." That simple statement by Anarchy SS Justin R perfectly summed up
Anarchy's early going futility with J.T. Designs at Nott Road, Field
5--the sun field. Both teams battled 95O+ heat, high humidity, and
intense sun/haze in the batter's eyes. Anarchy's bantam blonde
manager, Stacey D, succumbed to the intense conditions: "I was hit in the
chest and I had trouble breathing. I needed to sit out the last inning
or so." This, however, did not stop Anarchy's firebrand manager from
vociferously and colorfully protesting a close play at the plate with
an exclamatory shout not intended to boost the morale of the umpire.
"He was wrong and I wanted him to know that..." said Stacey D.
J.T.
Designs took an early lead on Anarchy by playing solid D, by hitting
soft line drives up the middle, and with a pitcher who was smart enough
to take advantage of a low strike zone and flat pitches. J.T. Designs
held Anarchy hit-less through the first two innings until Phil smacked a
hard grounder to the right side in the 3rd. Anarchy's next hard hit
came from John
C--a hard line drive to right--with a runner on. Ugly base
running on his part, however, truncated any hope for a rally. "I was
frustrated..." said John C, "...we were flat and everything seemed to
go their way. I wanted to spark the team..." Strangely, Anarchy seemed
to recover from their malaise after his blunder. Employing a different
defensive scheme in the outfield, Anarchy shut down J.T. Designs up the
middle, soft line drive attack. From here, Anarchy's offense went to
work securing and then maintaining the lead for their 9th victory.
Game 2, 6:15P at Nott 2:
EYS vs. D&R Paving. In a completely different game than their first
meeting, EYS lambasted D&R Paving 17-2. "We hit from beginning to
end." said EYS manager Deron S, "It was never a contest." EYS cruised
to their 10th win of the season with one regular season game remaining
against the 2nd place Fiscal Hitters. EYS manhandled and booted Fiscal
from the playoffs last year in a 16-6 laugher. "I wish it was a best of
three..." commented Fiscal Hitters manager after the playoff loss. Now
is their chance to make partial amends.
July
18, Wednesday
6:15P at JCC1; Anarchy vs. Pitches be Crazy: Playing
two games in as many days, Anarchy opted to earn both victories in
stylistically divergent fashion: Tuesday was a hard fought
11-7 nail-biter, Wednesday was a 33-2 romp. Such a score is self
explanatory--the result of Anarchy mashing and defeatist, disinterested
defense by Pitches be Crazy. Anarchy tried not to run up the score and
resorted to station to station base-running in the top of the 1st.
Pitches be Crazy, however, asked for a little more abuse later in the
game with complete lackadaisical play on defense--epitomized by a
misplayed line drive to center field by Anarchy SS Justin D. "I was planning on
staying at first..." said Justin D, "but he (the center fielder) came
in on the ball and it went over his head. He never turned around to go
after it...he just stood there. I had to go home after that..." "It was an ugly game..." said Anarchy's feisty
blonde manager Stacey D, "...but it was fun to put it to them." With
the blowout, Anarchy earned their 10th victory.
July
19, Thursday
7:30P at Coyne Field; Poppy's Place vs. Dirty Pirates: In
their best played game in awhile, the Pirates plundered Poppy's Place
15-4. The Pirates did it all tonight--solid defense and timely, smart
hitting. "It was exactly what I like to see..." said Pirates' manager
John C, "...plenty of hard line drives and hard ground balls up the
middle." In fact, the Pirates only had 6 extra base hits, but good,
opportunistic base-running made up for the lack of raw slugging. With
staunch defense behind him, Deryl B pitched a gem. His only trouble
came in the top of the 6th; "I let up a bit..." said Deryl B, "We had a
big lead and I was trying to make them get themselves out..." A brief
visit by John C was all Deryl needed to collect himself and to regain
his focus. He shut Poppy's down for the remainder of the 6th and the
7th. The Pirates picked a good time to start to turn things around.
They need a strong finish to make the playoffs in a competitive
division.
July 20, Friday
6:00P at Fireman's Field; Dirty Pirates vs. Glenmont Beverage: What
should have been a laugher, turned into another stinker for the
Pirates. The Pirates lost to Glenmont Beverage 9-8 for their 6th single
digit score on the season and 5th loss. All 5 losses have come when the
Pirates scored single digit runs. "I wasn't at the game..." said
Pirates manager John C, "...but the scorebook said it all--too many fly-outs." The Pirates--who have played the majority of their games on
large field--fell into the Fireman's Field trap:
swing for the fences. "It's not necessarily that they were trying..."
commented fill-in manager Deryl B, "...but the short fences get in your
head. We needed the approach we had at Coyne yesterday--line drives and
hard grounders." John C added "It's frustrating. There's too much
talent here to lose like that. I think some players are pressing. Just
let the hits come to you..." The loss increased the difficulty of the
Pirates' chances at making the playoffs. "It's tough to win when you
combine poor hitting with poor defense." said Deryl B, "We have to step
it up." The Pirates need to step it up if they want to make the
playoffs and can barely afford another loss.
Records
and Standings
Dirty Pirates
Sunday: 10-0, Remain in 1st place in Lynn's Sunday League
Dirty Pirates: 8-5, A win and a loss drops the Pirates to 6th in the North
EYS: 10-1, EYS
maintains their grip on 1st place in the Media League
Anarchy: 10-1,
2 wins moves Anarchy to 2nd place behind Farm Family in Lynn's Rec AL
Toyota of Clifton
Park: 10-1, Despite identical records with the Dominican All-Stars, Toyota drops to 2nd inn Andy's
League Men North
