Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day

All of you guys that got to play today should be grateful that you have understanding wives and/or girlfriends.  They let you play ball on Valentine's Day after all.  If you played today because you're on your own and you don't have someone to love, don't be sad; it's not just today, nobody loves you the rest of the year either.


Today was also water bottle day as the Commish passed out insulated water (or whatever) bottles today.  If you didn't get one mention it the next time you sign in and we'll get you one.  Also if you didn't get last year's micro fiber shirt mention that to Bobby and he'll see that you get one.



Gatorland Field 

Angels at Tigers

At the Gatorland Field today the short-handed Tigers hosted the even shorter handed Angels.  What can you say about a game when there are 64 runs, 91 hits, 2 home runs, 2 triples, 10 doubles?  Talking about defense is mostly out of the question, not that there weren’t some bright spot for both teams with the glove, but just as many more low lights.  The game was back and forth for the entire game until the top of the ninth when the Angels exploded for 12 runs.  The final score was Angels 37, Tigers 27. 



Top Hitters

 Angels:

Jose Rivera 6 for 7, HR

Freddy Gonzales 5 for 7, HR

Joe D’Herin 6 for 7, 3 2B

Gerry DeRidder 4 for 7, 2 2B

Ron Pepin 5 for 7

JD Davis 6 for 7

Keith Linton 5 for 7

Loren Fabian 5 for 7



Tigers:

Mike Wiltshire 4 for 6, 3B

Tom Hamilton 5 for 6

Brian Busch 4 for 6, 2B

Jack Benson 5 for 6

Poke Rodriquez 5 for 5, BB, 3B

Al Andrews 2 for 4, 2 SAC

John Carpenter 4 for 6, 2B, 3B

Dave Hartley 4 for 6, 2B

Bob Hite 5 for 6

Fred Dampier 4 for 6

Russ King 3 for 5

Gessler Clinic Field

  Rangers vs. Rays

Friday’s game, on Gessler Field, was between the Rangers and the Rays. Looking at the lineups your gessler was as good as mine, as to what was going to happen when these two teams faced off.  I bet you would not have guessed that the hardest hit of the day did not come from a batter. 


The hardest hit in the game came off of Steve Hill’s head.  In the 7th inning, Steve, who was playing left field, ran under a towering fly ball, in foul territory.  Under the windy conditions that existed in today’s game, there were no easy grabs.  Instead of the ball falling into Steve’s glove, he caught a cleat on the edge of the warning track grass and the ball hit him square on the top of his head.  It looked like Steve got hit by a nine pound hammer.  Down he went, in one second Steve was looking up at the sky, in another second he was taking a dirt nap.  The ball bounced back up in the air 10 or 15 feet and flew about 20 feet over the foul ball fence in left.  That is how hard of a collision it was, when packed horsehide met bone.

I have been in steel mills, being from Pittsburgh I have an appreciation for the heavy hard metal known as steel.  I can tell you Steven Hill is as tough as any piece of steel, that cooled after it came out of a blast furnace.  We had to force him, temporarily, out of the game, he wanted to stay in and play ball.  In fact, the next inning Steve refused to miss his turn at bat.  He wound up getting  singles in his next two at bats and went back to play a flawless left field.

The rest of the game had some exciting moments as well.  The Rangers opened with a 5 run inning in the first, and closed in the 9th,  with a five spot.  In between those big innings, the Rangers added 12 more runs. The Rays tried to keep pace.  Jim Goodhue had a HR in the 1st inning.  Players like Pat LoPiccolo, Rick Brock and Ken Ota all swung hot bats for the sunshine boys.  It just was not enough to enable the Rays to pull out a win.  The Rangers played good defense, had solid pitching and had triples from Laffoon and Hill, as well as a HR, from Chris Constantine to help their cause.

Final Score: Rangers 22 – Rays 11.

WP: Josh Wells

Leading Hitters for the Rangers:
Coffman: 4 / 6.
Laffoon: 4 / 5 with a triple.
Constantine: 5 / 5 with a HR and a double.
Erb: 4 / 5 with two doubles.
Hill: 3 / 5  with a triple and a lump the size of Texas.

Leading hitters for the Rays:
Brock: 4 / 5.
Ota: 4 / 5.
Lopiccolo:  3 /4.



I hate to mention this but with 5 games left to play in the season, both the Angels and Rangers have 6+ game leads in their division and so by the numbers they have both clinched spots in the playoffs.  It remains to be seen who wins the division but if the odds makers are still taking bets put your cash on the Rangers to repeat.

The Senior Division is much closer with two teams tied at 8 wins and a third team within reach only a couple back.  


Polk State College Field

 The Braves vs Cubs 


The game got off to a slow start considering the game was played on the Polk College Women's field. You would of thought their would be a lot of doubles hit on the short field as balls hit over the 210ft fence only count as two-baggers. 
Also noteworthy, this was Larry Powell's first game of the year after shoulder surgery 4 months ago.

It was the third inning before any runs were scored. In the bottom half of the third inning, the Braves woke up. They scored  5 runs-- no doubles. The Cubs scored 3 in the top of the fourth-no doubles. The Braves scored 5 more runs in the bottom of the fourth -no doubles.
Braves added 4 more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning-one double by Sonny Burrell.
Top of the sixth inning the Cubs started their comeback by scoring 7 runs on doubles by Bernie Peterson and Bill McLellan. The score after six innings was Braves 14 -Cubs 10.
The eight inning saw both teams score 5 runs. Bill M. had another double for the Cubs. 
In the top of the ninth inning, the Cubs scored 5 more runs to take the lead  20-19, on doubles by Bill M. and Sam Lopez.

The Braves didn't give up. They scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth with two outs to win this exciting game. 
                                         Final Score was Cubs 20 --Braves 21.
Jerry Witter and Larry Powell combined their pitching talents to earn the win.

Leading hitters for Cubs:
Bernie Peterson 4-5 two doubles
Bill McLellan 5-5 three doubles
Sam Lopez 5-5 one double

Leading hiitters for Braves:
Dave Abney 5-5 had the winning hit in the ninth inning
Arvil Waddell 3-4 
Sonny Burrell 4-4 two doubles
Dale Bennett 3-4 
Milo Macko 3-4
Larry Powell 3-4

Submitted by 
Larry Powell


Field C

Marlins vs Giants
The first three innings, The Marlins did not score any runs.
The Giants scored six runs in the first three innings on 10 hits and home runs by D. Scarborough and E. Guspyt.
In the fourth and fifth innings, The Marlins erupted for six runs on seven hits, walks and errors.
The Giants came back with six runs also.  They had eleven hits, with walks and errors thrown in.
The sixth and seventh innings, the Marlins did not score.
In the eighth and ninth innings, the Marlins scored four runs on a combination of nine hits.
The Giants sealed the Marlins fate with six more runs in the next three innings.
Marlins Hitters.      D. Hill     3-4 (hr)
                              F. Miller.  3-4

Giant Hitters.        D. Scarborough.    4-5 (hr)
                             E. Guspyt.              4-5 (hr)
                             D. Ragoneese.       4-5

The final score was Giants 18, Marlins 10

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