Pizza Party Day

Yes today was pizza party day and the first games of the fall season.  We should say thanks to the famous Baker Boys for the work they put in.  Of course, Lee Baker set up both fields as usual and Gene Baker did the pizza pick-up chore.  Thanks Guys.  Also thanks to Nick Matta for serving as umpire today and writing up the "C" field game.

We squeaked by with enough players to field 3 teams of ten plus one team fielding 11.  I guess the pizza brought 'em out to the old ball game.   

The contest on field B had a Visiting team fielding ten including Chrest, Merritt, Duff Hill, Gibson, Kline, Mills, Bloom, Bess, Lopez and Terry Smith.  

The Home Squad also with ten fielded Marino, Mundy, Moots, King, Thompson, Fulton, Barnes, John Smith, Bowley and Lee Baker.

A few of our snowbird friends are back in town  and it was even cool enough to bring Marshall Bloom out to play.

It was almost a like a double header with the team posting the fewest zeros winning.  The Visitors didn't score until the third inning when the came up with 5 runs to take the lead but then the home team responded with 4 of their own lead by a Chrest homer and a Kline triple to retake the lead 5-6 after three. The home squad added 5 more in the 4th to go up 5-11 but the visitors held them to zeros while posting 3 in the 5th, 2 in the seventh (Chrest contributing a triple and Hill a Homer) and finally taking the lead with a 5 run 8th inning highlighted by Eddie Kline's second triple of the day. They posted one more in the ninth on Bess' triple and a timely hit by Lopez.  Meanwhile the Home Boys went to sleep and failed to score for 4 innings until they put up a pair in the ninth. Alas too little too late.

Final Score  Visitors 16 Home 13.  Good Game Guys.

Top Hitters
Chrest 5 for 5 Homer, 2 doubles, triple
D. Hill 4 for 5 Homer, double
Kline 4 for 5 2 triples, double
Mundy 4 for 5
King 4 for 5
Thompson 4 for 5 triple

 

September is winding down and just maybe the hot weather, here in Florida, will let up as well. It certainly did today, for the last day of September softball, in Winter Haven, the temperatures were mild, the sky was cloudy and we had a light wind blowing to right field.

We welcomed back a few of our northern ball players today, Terry Allen, Steve Pinnick, Eddie Kline and Jack Benson all came home, to the Diamond Plex. They helped to make the games a little better than it would have been without them. Our new super knee duo, Sammy Lopez and Nick Matta also showed up at the ballpark, after having knee replacements this summer in June and August. Sammy came to play, Nick came by to visit the guys and to umpire. Dave Hartley came back to play some Fall ball, after taking the summer off.  Now, we need to get the rest of our northern ball players in town and we will really have a party. I guess that will happen soon enough.

The Visiting  team, on the American League game, consisted of Gonzalez, Grabb, Alumbaugh, Edwards, Hartley, S. Hill, Dampier, Osterreid, Pinnick and  Lopiccolo.

The Home team had Coffman, Laffoon, Butler, Duff, Schapeler, Scarborough, Wise, Diaz, Wells, Simon and Benson.

The first few innings saw just a little bit of offense from the Visitors, as they scored 2, 3, 2, 2  and 1 run in the first five innings. Well it turns out that scoring a little bit here, and a little bit there, was a much better performance than the Home team could muster. The Home boys scored 0, 2, 0, 1 and 2 over that same span.  At the end of five innings, the score was Visitors 10- Home 5.

In the next two innings, the visitors decided that doubling the score, after five innings, was just not enough. Just like you guys did when you were teenagers, and dad was nowhere to be found, you took the car and put the petal to the metal and tore up the road. The visitors revved up their “little deuce coupe” and showed them what they got. Credit here to the Beach Boys, 1963 song, Little Deuce Coupe.

Gonzalez, Alumbaugh, Edwards, Hartley, S. Hill, Dampier and Osterreid all said, “we are not braggin' babe, so don’t put us down, but we got the fastest set of wheels in town.” All seven guys came up with a hit, their inning ended when the 5 run rule was invoked.

If that was not enough, the Visitors shut out the Home team, in their half of the sixth inning. Then the Visitors came back up to bat in the seventh inning and “slipped the competition clutch, with four on the floor” and made the offense “purr like a kitten until the lake pipes roared”.  All that means they scored 5 more runs with hits from Pinnick, Lopiccolo, Gonzalez, Grabb and Alumbaugh, Hartley and Hill.

By the bottom of the 7^th, the Home Team was down by a score of 20-5. Ouch! The Home squad was bruised, but not beat’n. They threw out their chest and called out the chant of that famous American sailor, Popeye, “that is all I can stands and I can’t stands no more.” After opening a can of spinach Benson, Coffman, Laffoon, Butler,  Schapeler, Scarborough, Wise, Diaz and Wells strung together a series of hits and scored 6 runs.

The score after 7 innings: Visitors 20- Home 11.

There just was not enough spinach to go around for the rest of the game. The Visitors scored 1 in the eighth inning and the Home team scored 3 in the bottom of that frame.  Chuck Duff, pulled off a slight Popeye impression, by hitting a two run triple in the 8^{th ,} for the Home team. He scored Laffoon and Butler, both players had reached base before Chuck came up to bat. Coffman had also scored earlier in the eighth inning, on Butler’s single.

The game ended after the 9^th inning, when both teams were shut out. The ninth inning was the only dry inning for the Visiting team, as they scored in each one of the previous 8 innings.

Final Score: Visitors 21 – Home 14.

“And comin' off the line when the light turns green                                                    

 she blows 'em outta the water like you never seen   

She's my Little Deuce Coupe, you don't know what I got".                                    

Leading Hitters for the Visiting team.

Gonzalez, 5/5 with 3 doubles and a walk.

Herb Osterreid, 4/5.

Rodger Edwards, 3/5 with 2 doubles.

Larry Grabb, 3/5.

Brent Alumbaugh, 3/5.

Dave Hartley, 3/5 with a double.

Steve Hill, 3/5 with a double.

Freddy Dampier, 3/5.

Pat Lopiccolo, 3/5.

Leading Hitters for the Home team.

 

Don Scarbrough, 4/5.

Kirk Coffman 3/5 with a double.

Jim Laffoon, 3/5.

Chuck Duff, 3/5 with a triple.

Ed Diaz, 3/5.

Jack Benson, 3/ 4.