Oktoberfest?

Ahhh, October is here, there are many words and occasions associated with the month. Here are some of the most common images associated with October; baseball’s post season, Octoberfest, cooler weather, breast cancer awareness month, fall foliage and Halloween. There are many other lesser known and somewhat wacky occasions associated with the month. Two obscure days include the Do Something Nice day, (October 5^th), when you are supposed to do a kind deed for someone and the It’s My Party Day, (October 11^th), when you have a party just to have fun.

 On October 6, In the American league at WHSS, we played a fall classic. We had an Octoberbest game.

The Visiting team, was the It’s My Party team included the following players: Dampier, Rad, Reagen, Keller, Zelazny, DeRidder, Giordano, Farinas, Capozzi, Hite, Ocetta, Ociollahano, Lopiccilo and Matta.

The Home team, was the Do Something Nice team, this team was made up of Coffman, Constantine, Hicks, Laffoon, Pepin, D’Hern, Crowell, Shierer, Alumbaugh, Davis, Poke, Kallister Boswell and Wells.

 The Visiting team got the party started in the first inning scoring five runs. Dampier, Rad, Reagen, Keller, Zelazny and DeRidder all had hits. No outs were recorded and the first five players that batted crossed the plate.

The Home team, did something nice for their opponents, they went down, almost in order. In fact the nice guys were too nice; they were nice to a fault. They were shut out for the first three innings and only managed a single run in the fourth inning. The pitching of NJ Pat Lopiccilo and the defense of Nick Matta helped to neutralize the nice guys. You might say Pat put up a Jersey wall to stop the Home team. After 4 innings of play the score was Visitors 9- Home 1.

In the 5^th inning the Home team was tired of walking to homeplate and then walking back to the dugout. They decided to get in on the party by scoring 6 runs. Hicks, Laffoon, Pepin, D’Hern, Crowell and Shirer all rocked the house. Davis added a hit latter in the inning to complete the inning. After 5 innings the score was Visitors: 9-Home 7.

Both teams bats cooled off in the sixth inning, neither team scored. In the 7^th inning the Visitors took out their party bats for their last big inning. They score 5 more runs off of hits by Reagen, Keller and Zelazny, then the next three batters, (DeRidder, Giordano and Farinas),  all doubled to tear the roof off the party. The Home team answered back in the bottom of the 7^th with three runs. Pepin, Crowell, Shirer and Alumbaugh were responsible for the rally. Alumbaugh’s hit was the key hit of the inning; Brent came up with two outs and knocked in 2 runs, with a sharp line drive to right. After 7 innings the score was Visitors 14- Home team 10.

Both teams traded goose eggs in the 8^th inning. In the 9^th inning Fred Dampier delivered a key insurance run when he hit a deep fly ball into right field that rolled to the fence. Fred turned that into a homerun. In the bottom of the 9^th the Nice guys turned up the heat. They rallied to push 3 runs across the dish. It wasn’t enough. The Visiting team partied, as they celebrated the win, 15-13.

Leading Hitters:

Visitors:

Dampier: 3 / 4 with a HR.

Reagen: 3/4.

Keller: 2/ 3.

Zelazny: 2/ 3.

DeRidder: 3/ 3 with two doubles.

Giordano 2/ 3.

Farinas: 3/ 3 with a double.

Capozzi: 3/ 3.

Home team:

Hicks: 3/4.

D’Hern: 2/3.

Pepin: 3/ 4 with a triple.