ONES: 1st: Indiana, 2nd: Horfun, SS: DT, RF: Swiss Miss, CF: DY, LF: Kyle II
TWOS: 1st: DT, 2nd: Geok, SS: Sandman, RF: Seven, CF: Grandpa, LF: Rugburn
Game 1 ONES 18 : TWOS 06 (9 innings)
Game 2 ONES 11 : TWOS 00 (1 inning mercy)
The weather was quite nice, though it had drizzled earlier in the day, it stopped promptly at 2 for our game. Sadly, the frisbee idiots got to the field before we did but the silver lining was that the far away field (with the stands) was in much better condition than our usual field. I guess we haven't abused that end and it has had a chance to recover. The batter's box and the base paths did not turn mushy after a couple of innings. The frisbee idiots are ruining our usual field though, with their incessant drilling and inconsequential running. Most of the ground is now ragged and mushy and it will take quite a bit of sun and rain-free weather to help it recover.
Our numbers weren't very much better from last week, worse in fact since H, Ingo and Sam were missing as well. With a total number of 11, DT played defense for both teams and we pulled in the foul lines about 5 feet for Indiana Rules. DT did the count again, same as last week, without any thought of offensive or defensive balance. Instead, randomly pointing ONEs and TWOs depending on how people gathered around the benches. Somehow it all worked out again, and we had very even teams.
The Twos pulled to an early lead in the first game scoring 6 runs to the ONE's 1 by the 4th inning. However the plucky ONEs managed to even the score by the bottom of the 4th with some inspired singles hitting from their lineup. The score remained the same for 4 innings as both teams showed gold glove defense to stop the other team from scoring. It boiled down to a duel between Kyle II and Rugburn, both trying to out-hit and out-field each other. Rugburn came the closest with a monster hit into LF, that by any standards should have been a homerun. It blew past Kyle II, over his head and was heading for the drains. Kyle II chased it down and fired a gunz-esque throw to third base to a waiting DT, and ball arrived only several microseconds late to tag Rugburn. A sure HR turned into a 3-bagger by a superb throw.
Rugburn didn't give up on the onslaught, and his liner into left field in the top of the seventh led to the best play of the game. With two outs and runners on first and second threatening to take away the lead from the ONEs, Rugburn smashed a flat liner towards leftfield. Kyle II came sprinting out of nowhere and dived into the dirt sacrificing his body to snag the ball half-an-inch from the ground. It was one of the most amazing catches I've seen in my last 10 years playing SAS. Sadly, Kyle II paid the penalty for the hustle, coming up limping with a strained hamstring.
The ONEs made a defensive switch in the top of the 8th, moving Indiana to leftfield and Kyle II to first base. Though a remarkable fielder in all respects, the TWOS ran Indiana ragged in the leftfield, beating up on his at every opportunity. They scored 9 runs in this inning, hitting gappers between Indiana and DY, and short bloopers past the third base foul line and leftfield. It looked like the TWOs were going to mercy the ONEs when the TWOs finally managed to string together 3 outs to end the inning at 15-6.
With Kyle II on the DL, he volunteered to play all time first base, and DT entered the batting line up for the ONES. It wouldn't have made any difference because the TWOs held their lead going into the 9th, and they even expanded on it with another 3 runs, taking a 18-6 lead. The ONEs had no response in the bottom of the 9th, and the game ended with the TWOs winning 18-6
As it was still quite early (not even 5pm), even with the short numbers, we decided on playing a second game. With Kyle II on the DL and sitting out, we decided to bring in the foul lines by another 5 feet to play 2 outfielders and 3 infielders. The TWOs taking home this time and taking the field first. Coming from the bad loss in the first game, the ONEs were hungry for revenge. As both teams were significantly even (except for that one bad inning), there were no trades or changes to the team. Kyle II generously volunteered to pitch for both teams while favouring his now-gimp leg.
The ONEs came out hungry for runs and they strung together hit after hit after hit, loading the bases and advancing on singles, basically playing small ball. Everyone got on base, and they actually went through their batting order 3 times before the side was finally retired. They scored an incredible 11 runs in the top of the first, many of the singles coming from uncharacteristic errors from the Sandman at short. Like hungry sharks smelling blood, the ONEs kept hitting grounders to the Sandman, and he must have taken some of his anesthesia because he looked like he was asleep at his position. Learning from the previous inning, the ONEs decided on a different stratagem for their defense. Instead of playing with 2 man in the outfield, the ONEs decided to sacrifice 1st base and play with Indiana at second and DT at short, DY in centerleft, Bert and centerright and Horfun playing deep rover. This defense worked perfectly and the TWOs were denied any gaps. Grandpa led off and he was allowed to get on 1st, after than, the ONEs shut down the TWOs with 3 back-to-back outs. Mercy was declared and the ONEs won the game 11-0
Best play: Kyle's diving catch off rugburn, strains his hamstring making the play.
Biggest bat: rugburn (1HR over kyle's head held to 3 bases on Kyles amazing throw.)
Dy: none
gold glove: none
MBP: Rugburn
No comments:
Post a Comment