Tuesday, January 27, 2015


Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire.
Ron Butler’s team started the game today “like a house on fire.” They torched the home team for 5 runs in the first inning to take an early lead. It seemed like every time the Firefighting team tried to combat the blaze, the fire just burned hotter. It was like we threw kerosene on the fire, instead of water. When the Fire team hit the ball it would spin past the infielder, for a base hit, or a line drive would fall just in front of an outfielder. We were caught in a black fire; (This describes a situation where heavy, dense, black smoke is being emitted by a fire. This smoke will be of high velocity, turbulent and high volume.) It was difficult to find our way out of this inferno.
Team Fire, Visiting team: Andrews, Laffoon, Keller, Busch, Zelazny, Butler, Poke, Hartley, Hite, Kallester, Wheeler and Walsko.
Team Firefighters, Home team: Benson, Drouilard, Brock, Held, Erb, Reagen, Matta, Seguin, Dampier, Oesterreich, Coffman and Ing.
 
The Fire team continued to burn hot in innings 3 and 4. They had a four alarm fire in the 3rd inning, scoring 4 runs. They had a 5 alarm fire in the 4th inning, scoring 5 runs. Andrews, Keller, Busch, Zelazny, Kallister, Wheeler and Walsko all had big hits and scored runs in those innings. Andrews and Keller had multiple hits and scored twice, in those two innings. You might describe their hitting by saying, “great balls of fire”. In the middle of the 4th inning the score was Fire: 14- Firefights: 7. It looked like the Firefighters would get burnt in this game.
 
Before the fire got totally out of control and we lost the game, we the Firefighting team, “got fired up” ourselves, on offense and defense. We went to our emergency operations mode and answered back with 5-4-4 runs of our own, in the bottom of the 4th, 5th and 6th innings. Oesterreich, Coffman, Ing, Benson, Brock, Reagen and Seguin all had their “irons in the fire”, getting big hits. At the end of seven innings of play the score was Team Fire: 15- Firefighters: 20. The Fire team’s once promising seven run lead had gone “up in smoke”.
Pitcher Rick Brock did a good job of stamping out the fire that once burned wildly. Rick only gave up 4 runs in the 5 innings that he pitched. He was aided by several good defensive plays. Herb Oesterreich caught two balls in right field that should have fallen in for hits. Scot Seguin made two good catches at 2nd base and threw a runner out at the plate. Other strong defensive plays in the game were turned in by Bobby Reagen, who ran down a line drive, in deep left field. Don Erb pulled one out of the fire, when he caught a hot grounder at short and turned it into an out. For the Fire team, Bobby Hite “set the world on fire” making several great catches, while fighting the sun in right field.
The Firefighters continued to “fight fire, with fire” in the bottom of the 8th inning, to put the game away. Drouilard, Held, Erb, Matta, Seguin and Dampier all contributed to a 5 run inning. The Fire team was now only smoldering, they scored only one run in the top of the ninth. The game ended on a strong defensive play, when Seguin caught a smoking line drive and threw to first baseman, Matta, to complete a game ending double play.
Final Score: Fire: 18 – Firefighters: 27.
Practice fire safety, watch what you heat.
 
Fire Hall Of Fame:
Andrews: 4/5 with a double and a triple.
Laffoon: 3/5 with a double.
Keller: 4/4 with a double, HR and a SF.
Busch: 4/5 with a triple.
Poke: 3 / 4 with a double.
Hite: 3/ 4 with a double.
Firefighter’s Hall Of Fame:
Benson: 3/5.
Brock: 4/5 with two doubles.
Held: 3/4  with a SF.
Seguin: 3/5.
Coffman: 4/4 with a double.
Ing: 3/3 and a walk.
Write up by Nick Matta

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