Monday, December 8, 2008

A See-Saw Battle


Just when you think there's no way to be surprised, a game like yesterday happens. But first a message from Jameson's Irish Whiskey, Player Preferred, Game Tested, that's Jameson's!

Anyway, I ended up on the bump once again, wheeling the ol' soup bone for another week. I felt good, it was a nice, cool winter day, and I was the designated driver on Saturday, so the lack of hangover was working for me. Unfortunately, my eyes were not really warmed up, I missed a sign on the second batter, Chris, who raked a four bagger that was still rolling when he crossed home. But it was early. Turns out for the other clubbers, it was early and often, they started tallying runs by the handful, helped by some 7-out innings, and suddenly the lead was becoming insurmountable.

What was also apparent from the start was the other battery, Dustin and Noah, who had decided to come at our team like it was Game 7 of the Worlds Series. Through the first four innings, Greg and Johnny were our only batters who got a hit, and by the end of the 6th, Dustin had 12 strikeouts. Pretty amazing for this rag tag bunch of players.

We finally got on the board to break the shutout, and started our long slow climb back. By the 5th it was 9-2, and then fortune began to smile for us once more. That, Dustin probably got tired of smoking us, and a few opportunistic duffs and stingers, and all of sudden it was 9-8, and then we took the lead for the first time in the game.

I had decided that it wasn't my day on the hill and turned the game over to Greg in the 6th, who shut down the club for the rest of the match.

The dark began to descend and the ball was getting hard to see, but we made it to the 9th, and were crusing but Dustin's boys weren't out of ginger yet. Next thing you know there are men in scoring position, and we are trying to keep our eyes on the ball. Noah steps up with two outs and wallops one to deep center, surely the kind of thing that ties games up or more. But, in the end, this game was decided by the Mitch Factor. He snares them all, center, left, right, in, out. Many a game has rested on the fact that if Mitch can get to it, it's caught. He was guided by Lattig in left who gave him the right direction "Straight back, keep running." A team victory for sure.

Another Sunday in the books.

Highlights:

*A little player in the making who fetched our foul ball and was intrigued by the game.

*Dustin's heat, poise, and cheering section.

*Nero's muscled up double to the gap

*G. Snyder showing us how it is done when you come back from a surfing vacation

*The home run, impressive Chris, if I hadn't seen it many times before.

*John Carey's first big league hit, which I believe was also an RBI. Nice work kid!

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