First Games back at the Diamond Plex

It was great to be back playing at the DiamondPlex again. The fields were in excellent condition given that we had about 12 hours of rain. The work the crew did in prepping for the National Womens Softball Tournament has really paid off as the fields are void of weeds in the outfield and the infield having been rebuilt, drains magnificently. Tomorrow we will show the boys from Lakeland how awesome our complex truly is. While hyping our field and crew I must say how much the BOD appreciated the Lakeland staff for allowing us to use the Southwest Complex during the tournament. Their crew worked hard to make sure we got to play despite poor weather, and gave us great fields to enjoy the game we love.

Rain threatened but held off long enough to get a cloud covered if windy game in.  We had over 65 players show up and thus three games going on in warm up for tomorrow's Lakeland vs Winter Haven games.  

If you're playing tomorrow, check the rosters after this post, be there at 8:30am wearing your grey shirt.  If you're not playing, just be there before 11:30 or so for lunch or if you want to watch the games, we start playing at about 9am. 

Servicemaster Field

The Visitors had Coffman, Gazarek, Toro, DeRidder, Giordano, Wiltshire, Brock, Drouilard, Rivera, Poke, and Pinnick playing against the Home squad of Gonzalez, Hamilton, Seguin, Wolfe, Busch, Witmer, Jacobson, Smith, Butler, Constantine, and Wells.  

As you can see by the lineups this game promised to be a slug-fest but as usual, what you see on paper often works out the opposite way.  While there certainly was some good hitting, there was also some excellent defense turned in, especially for the Home boys.  Ron Butler made a great diving catch of a dying quail in short right field, Tom Hamilton ran down a deep shot in the center-field gap and Brian Busch made several outstanding plays at 3rd base including a leaping grab of a hot liner to his back-hand side.  The Visitors also turned in a few nice plays including a nice 6-4-3 double play by Mike Wiltshire, Rick Brock and Gerry DeRidder.

The Home team gave up 1 run in the top of the first but then posted 4 of their own in the bottom half and never gave up the lead after that.  The closest the Visitors got was 8-9 after the top of the 5th inning but then the Home squad posted a 5 run 5th.  The Home Boys took care of business shutting out the Visitors in the 6th and 7th while posting 7 of their own.  

The Visitors attempted a late come back rally in the 8th putting up 6 runs but then went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to end the game there at 14-21.

Winning Pitcher was Larry Wells, who as usual, brought his own cheering (jeering) section. It's always more fun to be on Larry's team when he's got that going for him.

Leading hitters on the Day included:

Gonzalez  3 for 5
Hamilton 3 for 5 2B
Seguin 3 for 5 2-2B
Wolfe 5 for 5
Busch 4 for 5 2B, 3B
Witmer 3 for 4 2B,SAC
Jacobson 4 for 5
Butler 4 for 5 2-3B
Gazarek 3 for 5
Toro 2 for 3 2-2B, 2 SAC
Wiltshire 4 for 5
Brock 3 for 5 2B
Drouilard 3 for 4
Rivera 3 for 4

Gold's Gym Field

As I said, tomorrow we will host the Inter League Games . Today we had 67 ball players come out to work out the kinks and get their batting eye back. We had one American League game, one National League game, and one game with composite teams. The composite team played on Golds Gym field. The visitors  (Torres, Reagan, Lopez, Shaffer, Marino, Simon, McLellan, Andrews, Powell, Mills, Zakrowski, and Marinacci) were ably managed by Larry Powell and started strong by scoring the first two runners. That was all as they stranded three baserunners. The home team (M Gonzalez, Scarbrough, D'Herin, Jacobs, Denny, Zelazny, Carpenter, S Hill, D Hill, Harbaker, and LoPiccilo) were merely managed by Bob Z as despite his stacking the deck (ha ha) could not pull this out. They did start strong with five runs in the first, but they never reached that total again. With neither team scoring in the second, the score remained two to five. In the third the visitors again scored the first two runners but then were shut down. The home team managed to win the inning by scoring three.

In the next three innings, Larry's team scored 10 runs to take the lead as Bob's team managed a scant four runs during the same period. A double by Shaffer, a triple by McLellan, and a homer by Reagan provided the muscle for the visitors The seventh saw the home team tie up the game as the visitors were shut out and the home boys scored two. With the score tied the visitors recaptured the lead in the eighth when Larry Powell scored on Hectors single. The home team managed but one runner in their half of the eighth so were chasing one as we went into the last frame. Again the visitors started strong and it looked like the open inning could be a disaster for the home team but as fate would have it, after two runs the defense stepped up and got the last two  outs with the bases loaded. So it cam down to the home team and the top of their line up to get three runs for the victory. M Gonzalez did his part and got on and scored. After getting two more runners on, the magic was gone and  the game ended in a great one run game. Larry's visitors besting Bob Z's home team by one.

Key Performances

Raul Torres      4 for 5 with a double and triple

Bob Reagan    2 for 3 with a home run      

Denny Shaffer    4 for 5

Larry Powell        3 for 4 and winning pitcher

Art Zakrowski    4 for 4

Hector Marinacci    3 for 4

Miguel Gonzalez        5 for 5 with a double

Don Scarbrough        4 for 5 with a triple

Frank Jacobs            4 for 5

Duff Hill                    4 for 4   

 

Gatorland Field

Tuesday 25th of March and we are back home at the Diamond Plex Field at Polk College.  When we got up the am the weather was dark clouds and spotty showers, but the field was in good shape so the Play Ball call was sent out.  Right decision Commish.  Home team manager Jerry Witter and Visiting were busy making line ups.  

 

Home team consisted of Merritt, Fabian, Altemose, Kilne, Gisele Seguin, Morey, Bowley, Burns, Ayer, Lee Baker and Witter.  

 

Visitors had Moots, Penny Pelletier, Lautenschlager, Thompson, Taylor, Black, Barnes, McPartlin, LaMay, Gibson, J. Smith and F Miller. 

 

First inning with Gisele Seguin on the mound for the home team.  Moots, Pelletier, Lautenschlager, and Thompson had base hits.  After a fielders choice singles by Black, McPartlin and LaMay drove in the 5th run of the inning.  LaMay on the mound for the Visitors, Merritt lead off with a base hit, Kline singles but the inning ended on a hard hit ball for a force at 2nd to end the inning.  Both teams were scoreless in the second inning.  Moots leads off the third with a double down the left field corner, after an out, a walk and a fielder choice, Taylor and Black single and Barnes doubles in the gap knocking in the forth and final run of the inning.  Witter leads off the last of the 3rd with a single Merritt follows with another base hit.  Then 3 straight walks and two fielders choices bring in 2 run for the home team.  After 3 innings its Visitors 9 Home 2. 

 

Both teams went scoreless in the fourth.  The 5th starts with an error, then a single by Thompson a double by Taylor and a fly out to left.  Next was the best fielding play of the game.  McPartlin hit a pop fly toward second base, pitcher Gisele Seguin races over to make the catch and then dives in to first base to get the batter leading off.  Great play.  Walking man Baker does his thing leading off the last of the 5th, Witter singles, another walk to Merritt, a single for Fabian and some infield outs bring in 4 runs for the home team.  The Visitors tally 3 runs in each of the final 3 innings while the home team added 3 runs in the 7th.  Flip Flop rule in effect and the home team scores one in the 8th.  Final Score  Visitors 21  Home team 10.

 

Leading hitters Visitors

Moots 3 for 5

Lutenschlager 4 for 5

Taylor 4 for 5 with double and home run

Black 4 for 5

Barnes 3 for 5

LaMay 3 for 4

 

Leading hitter Home

Merritt 4 for 4

Kline 4 for 4 with walk

Ayer 2 for 3

Baker 1 for 2 with 2 walks

 

Submitted by Don LaMay