Very Nearly Rained On or Out

Field D

A little sun, very little, some rain, lots of clouds, some good hitting, better defense and great pitching is a near perfect description of the day at the Winter Haven Diamond Plex. Taking the field, for the game, was a combination of National and American Leagues.   

The visiting team, Managed by Richard Moots had trouble all day putting crooked numbers on the board, getting just 20 singles.  While the home team, Managed by Jeff Simon had a lot less trouble, collecting 19 hits, 7 for extra bases during the game.  More impressive than the hits, the home team, got very good defense from Rich Woodard, Frank Miller, Duff Hill, Bob Zelazny and Larry Chrest.  Richie Marino and Herbie Oesterried's outfield play kept the visitors close while the bats slept the day away. All the while Richard Sessnick kept the visitors off balance all game with some stellar pitching.   

Ron Thompson pitching for the visitors, wasn't as lucky as his defense made 7 errors behind him, leading to multi-run innings by the Simon led team.  To hear Ron tell it he was close to a no hitter (wink-wink).   

In the final inning, the visitors mounted a valid attempt to win the game sending 9 batters to the plate, scoring 6 runs, when the home team's defense showed some cracks, but it was too little too late.  The home team won 16-12.

Leading Hitters

Visitors

Bill Wolfe 4 for 5

Lee Baker 3 for 5

Clause Hearn 3 for 5

Ed Kline 3 for 5

Bob Hite 2 for 3, SAC

Home Team

Jeff Simon 3 for 5, 3B

Bess Vassuri 3 for 4, BB ,2B

Duff Hill 3 for 4, 2B, 3B

hite1955@gmail.com

Submitted By

Bob Hite

Field  ??

Why did Sleeping Beauty go to the photo store?        She was waiting for her “prints” to come.

You know the old saying, actually, there are a lot of old sayings and you guys are old enough to know them all.  The old saying I am referring to, regarding this game is, “sometimes you just get up on the right side of the bed”. Here is another one,” sometimes you are better off not even getting out of bed”. Those two statements can sum up each teams perspective on today’s American League game.

Manager Tommy Hamilton’s visiting team, we will call that team “Sleeping Beauty”, although the beauty part may be a stretch. They played a lethargic game against Nick Matta’s home team. We will call Nick’s team “The Poison Apple”, because their defense and pitching helped put “Beauty” to sleep.

The main stat of the game: 7 goose egg innings for team “Beauty”.  Maybe those “0’s” were left over Easter eggs?  Many of those scoreless innings can be credited to the solid tag team pitching of the “Poison Apple” boys, Larry Wells and JD Davis. These two pitchers kept the hitters off stride, by moving the ball around the dish and by constantly nipping the front corner of the plate.  Wells and Davis definitely got up on the right side of the bed, everything went their way. Jose Rivera, Juan Toro, Danny Parker, Les Jacobson and Dennis Borowicz all had big defensive plays for the “Poison Apple” bunch.

Tommy Hamilton’s team also made some nice defensive plays. Tommy played a strong shortstop for the visitors, catching both liners and ground balls that were hit deep in the hole at short.  Showing his ability to also charge the ball, Tommy threw out a runner on a slow roller that was fielded just past the mound. Left fielder, Roger Edwards, made a fantastic catch of a deep liner off the bat of Terry Smith.  Roger went way back and caught the ball over his head while on the run.

Other points of interest in the game, we had a 7 minute rain delay. It looked like the game was going to be washed out, but after a short delay the rain held off so we could finish. The flip-flop rule was used to close out the contest. Juan Toro ran like a race horse, stretching singles into doubles and triples and running for other players. Thanks to Don Witmer for doing a good job as home plate umpire. Terry Smith headed back up north after the game, safe journey Terry, see you next winter.

The final score was Visiting Team 4 - Home team 18.

Leading hitters for the Visitors:

Roger Edwards, 2-3, with a double.

Steve Hill, 2/3.

Larry Powell, 2/3.

Leading hitters for the Home team:

Juan Toro, 4/4, with two doubles, one triple and a HR.

Les Jacobson, 3/3 and a sac fly, (scoring Juan from 2^nd base).

Chuck Duff, 3/ 4, with a double and two triples.

Jim Laffoon, 3/ 3, with a sac.

JD Davis, 3/ 3.

Larry Wells, 3/3.