5/30/21 St Mary's

One final time at the old wind tunnel before we move to our new residency in the park.  IT was a great game, the sun made the wind less of a freezing affair, and we had 17 players.  I had some weird elbow tweak that I was nursing, so I told Greg that I had decided not to throw many/any breaking balls.  He liked the challenge.  Sean started for the other team, and that is how it began and how it ended.  

Yep, Sean and I each pitched complete games, like a real ball game.  

There had been concern at the beginning that the teams were mismatched, and they might have been, but in the opposite direction.  Our team seemed to not be able to hit its way out of a paper bag, and Sean's team was crushing the ball.  Our defense held up pretty well, especially under the adverse wind conditions, but still they were averaging a run or two an inning.  We only scored 2 the whole game.  The other team had lefty after lefty, and they made JT run all over right field the entire game.

With neither of us bowing out, the game moved along quickly, and there were some gems made in the field.  Chris P made several catches in short left, as well as an amazing diving catch while covering left for the other team.  Mitch played 2nd, and caught pop ups as well as made the turns on some great plays.  I think we turned 2 at least once, and had opportunities a couple other times. Anna played 1st and made some strong plays, including a perfect toss to me covering the bag on a ground ball.  

We could do everything except score runs.

Final Score: 8-2.  

Highlights:

*  Mike N was at least 4-5, maybe 5-6 on the day

* Anna had a great hit late in the game, and made it count, coming around to score one of our two runs

* T-Shirt Mike also had a great day at the plate, bashing doubles and triples

* Pitching without a curve was good, but not having a 2-strike go to pitch was tough.  I had so many lost 2-strike counts

* I did manage to K about 5 though

* Every bad hop=our team, every good hop=their team

* We had discussed stealing, and how we have not thrown anyone out in a long time, but I think we will keep it, if not just to keep the pitchers on their toes

* Dan may have to go back to baserunning camp, caught twice at first on a day we needed baserunners

*  Tony was back, thumb protected

* Marcie also got a hit, and everyone celebrated, it was great to see 

* No band this week which was disappointing

* The mound at St Mary's officially sucks.  There was a rebar sticking up in front of the rubber, so you had to put your foot to one side or the other, and try not to catch your spike and break your ankle.  And don't get me started on the hole.

* Cap tip to Sean for an impressive day on the mound, a big bat all day with an almost homerun, and for striking me out with a nasty dropball.

See you at Hippy Hill.

S. Paige