Finally a game with enough players so we weren't running back and forth covering the defense the whole game. 17 players, that is like a plethora of players these days!
I showed up late due to bridge traffic, and they were still in the top of the first, so I hadn't missed much. Sonny was on the hill, but he wasn't happy about it. His arm was feeling pretty off, and I promised to take over for him once I had a chance to warm up. Carter was throwing for the other team, after appearing out of the blue. He brought one of his kids with him, so hopefully this is a good sign for the future, though we have been fooled by the Rockwell's before.
The game was sort of close for a bit, surprising given that Chris P was on the other team, and he is usually good for a run an inning, as well as some good pitching. That being said, I don't know if the visitors ever had the lead, but I do know that we tacked on runs at a pretty good clip. The game wasn't slow, per se, but I think it started late, and we all had a case of the fog drowsies.
We decided to end the game after 7 innings, Sonny threw 2 and I threw 5. Catchers were a premium, especially after Chris L took a foul ball in the twig and berries.
What we did have was a lot of new guys, recruited by HR, and Carter: Tyler (?), Eduardo, the Blue Bomber (bedecked in Dodgers gear, and swinging from the heels like a madman), and a bearded guy whose name I didn't get, but who was an interesting final out of the game. Nick W had taken over for Don behind the dish after a quad injury seized him running to first. I threw a pretty perfect fastball to the outside corner, and Nick shrugged and called it strike 3. The batter disagreed, and Nick felt bad for ending it that way, and I figured it wasn't that big of a deal, so we kept going. Suddenly I couldn't throw strike three (four) and then he hit a double to left to score two runs.
Mercy is for the weak.
Soon after, it ended for real, the final score a soft 11-8.
Highlights:
* Thank you to everyone that came out, and for the new blood!
* No band this week, hopefully they have not given up on us
* New guy dove in center for a ball, we explained to him soon after that sort of thing tends to injure more than help, and he would soon lower his standards if he came out more
* Anna had a great rope to left
*Don and I managed to communicate for an entire game with him calling signs for what he thought was sliders and me throwing changeups.
* Adam had some real nice digs at first, but we also had a lot of passed balls at first
* Don kept playing after he hurt himself, thanks for the guts!
* Marcie had a nice situational at bat and netted herself a RBI
* Chris P laid off all the cheese I was serving him, to my surprise.
* Carter ran out of gas on a particularly frustrating inning that his team could not get a out. He was shotputting the ball by the end. I promised that I would get that 3rd out, and I did.
* He also played me at 380ft in left to catch my hardest hit of the day
* We successfully made a "check the runner, go one" play.
