5 May 2007 - Alternate Field

ONEs: 1st Uboat, 2nd Maglite, SS Fisk, LF Rugburn, RF Knees
TWOs: 1st Indiana, SS DT, LF Rube, CF Sandman, RF H

Pitcher: Wild Thing

Game 1: ONEs 11: TWOs 14

The rain over the past week without the benefit of sun left our primary field in an awful condition. It was so awful that the frisbee players even moved to the lower soccer field instead of hogging their usual spot. We decided to move to the alternate field since the chances that it would be less wrecked was higher. We had to move deeper into the field that we usually did, and with some creative placement of the diamond, managed to find ourselves a nice, relatively dry, mud-free spot.

It was a late start, even for us. Numbers only started streaming in after 3, and we didn't start the actual game till 4. Even so, we should've been able to squeeze in at least 1 game + 3 innings. But somehow, we seemed to play at a sloths pace and we only finished 9 innings after 6. Game was called and we moved to Joes.

Numbers was quite dismal, with only 10 fellows showing up. Not sure what happened, as rumour has it that there were 14 last week. Guess it must be because it was the Spiderman 3 weekend, and many a parent might have taken their children to watch the crapfest rather than come onto to field. Too bad for us as we had to make do with Indiana and Prof Zen rules.

It was a unique situation in the field as both teams decided on different strategies for defense. Numbering only 5 a team, the ONEs decided on a 3-infield, 2-outfield lineup while the TWOs went for a 2-infield, 3-outfield. The bats on the opposing team probably played a big factor in the defensive strategy with the ONEs having the bigger bats of Rugburn and NewJohn.

However, it was the TWOs that opened up accounts early, taking a 6-0 lead by the first inning. They were not about to give up their lead at any point in the game, and even came close to winning by mercy twice. It wasn't till the 8th inning that the ONEs finally struck back. They managed to score 6 runs to bring the score from 12-5 to 12-11. But the TWOs were not about to give up the goat. They put on 2 insurance runs to take a 14-11 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

Lili showed up in the 4th inning, and she earned herself her nickname of 'Wild Thing'. She went 7 scoreless innings pitching all time for both teams. She was merciless on the mound, even striking out NewJohn, for his first career jug. Not only was her location superb, she also varied the speed of her pitches causing batters quite a bit of discomfort. Strange enough, the only person who could effectively hit off her was Maglite. Everyone else was having difficulty reading her pitches.

The 9th inning was all about Indiana. Playing 1st/2nd. He singlehandedly stopped the ONEs rally by making 2 beautiful diving grabs for the assisted out to 2nd. Meanwhile, DT was having the worst case of knoblochitis ever. While he showed good range at short, none of his throws were even close to 1st base. Several spectators were hit by wild throws.

Due to the creative positioning of the diamond, right field was short, leading to the drain and a 20 foot drop into a huge storm drain. In order to prevent the bigger hitters from taking advantage of the short porch, any hit that went past the drain was ruled a ground-rule-double instead of a HR. Even with this rule, Rube went to the drain twice, and so did Rugburn. In fact, Rugburn managed to get one down the slope. Thankfully, it stopped right before the storm drain, or that would've been another ball lost to Indonesia. It was one of his attempts at the short right field when H made the best catch of the day. She was so focused on getting to the ball that she was inches away from stepping into the drain. It wasn't till after the play that we told her how close she was to falling in.

Looks like NewJohn picked his own nickname. He had trouble straighening out his hits, pulling the ball foul at least 3 times at every at-bat. He must have hit about a dozen balls down the wrong side of the foul line. Rube and DT were more tired running to pick up the foul ball than hitting and fielding throughout the entire game.


DY: Wild Thing (Struck our Fisk)
Gold Glove: H (Best catch of the day off Rugburn)
Biggest Bat: Rugburn
MBP: Indiana
Play of the day. Indiana dives for an opposite field ground ball from Rugburn. Snags it, and tosses it backhand lying facedown to DT to get NewJohn out.