Finally, a day of baseball, and nowhere as wet as we all were expecting. It's been a long time since I made the trek out to Crocker Amazon, and the field was in good shape, if you didn't count the outfield, which seemed to have been strafed with carpet bombs for the last month. But we had 20 players at one point, a nice tight game, and a nail biting 9th. We had a group of guys who kinda watched us from the stands, and one crazy dude who watched us from the gate and seemed to be a running a constant commentary of our game. Always nice when the fans come out.
Johnny and Sean started on the hill, and while we got off to a early lead, Sean's visitors seemed to have a lot more confidence in their abilities than we did. It helped that Sean was his usual overpowering self, and was backed by a solid defense. Johnny, no slouch himself, had a good number of strikeouts and kept the ball inside-out as is his want to do.
The ball did no rolling, if it hit the grass it stopped, so balls to the outfield were quickly swept up and the hardest hit ground balls in the infield became races to who could get the dribbler. After losing the lead, the homers stayed tight on the heels, until Sean took a ball to deep right center for a two run home run. It was a real beauty. It's nice when we get a fence to shoot for. I know I saw a lot more use of the new metal bats than I have in the past....
So there we were, down 6-4, in the 6th. We lost Dennis, picked up Tyler, and got new life as Tyler ripped a triple to center, scored and we had a one run ball game. Satch had taken over for Johnny and decided the best course to take in keeping the game close was to float changeups for the big hitters to twist themselves up on trying to put it over the fence. It seemed to work, and I got more than my usual quarry to swing at knuckleballs, helped by the humid day.
The 9th inning saw the visitors turned away, after Tony and Sean both sky-balled pop ups to Chris. Greg, now pitching for the visitors, had us under control since entering the game, and then something changed. Before any of us knew what was happening, there were doubles being hit one after another, and with a mighty wallop over Mitch's head, the two runners scored and the game was victorious for the homers.
Highlights:
* The infield and dirt were in great shape, although I have never played a glad at C.A. when there wasn't a pool of water in the dugouts.
* Bob, Ed, Adam, Tim all did a great job of catching, its a real chore when there is a real backstop and lots of space for the ball to roll when it get by
* Sean struck me out on a really nasty knuckle dropper. I haven't struck out ina while, always nice to remember what that feels like. It was a great day for the knuckle, as Rick would attest to, if he wasn't telling me to go fuck myself under his breath.
* Hopefully everyone who played in the outfield didn't hurt their ankles, it was ugly out there.
* New guy Joe came out and got himself a MBC hit, pop up behind second, looks like a scorching line drive in the scorecard! Thanks for coming out!
* Adam somehow managed to get doubled off third with one out, he ran really hard, just the wrong direction. And broke another bat.
* Tony had a serious rope to right, one of many well struck balls of the day, the stadium seating at C.A. really amplifies the sound of the connection I think.
* Sean, Chris, Adam, Tyler, Mitch all had loud hits
* Rick, Satch, Stoner and Greg did not.
* I think what really helped was being able to make sure to get an out with each play, we had some weird ground ball, possible double plays opportunities, but just making sure to get that lead runner is tantamount to limiting damage.
* Lots of overthrown balls at first, must be all the space over there.
* Chris made a great cross body throw on a play at first, somehow it hit in the middle of Adam's glove and dropped out, bummer
* Stoner missed a ball in deep center, but made up for it in the same inning with a much needed third out.
* The consensus seems to be that our games are going to start at 1pm for a while, until the days start to get longer, alright with me, but it makes it a little harder when doing the scramble back from the mountains, hung over and battle weary from seeing the family.
Rain this week, but could be a nice weekend again, St Mary's drains well in a pinch, as does C.A., apparently....well the infield anyway.
Big Rec, 1 pm next Sunday, see you there.
S. Paige
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