MCSN: July 3rd

Extra Salty

Week 4 Recap

Tue, July 3, 2007

Tim Kurtz's Rock Salt
team is near the top
of the standings After Saltier narrowly beat Covenant the week before, Rock Salt did one better, handily beating Covenant 13-2 in the week's opening game. Rock Salt's win propelled them to 3-1, good for second place and just one game behind undefeated Saltier. Covenant (0-2-2) is still looking for their first win of the season.

"I was surprised," Rock Salt manager Tim Kurtz said of the ease of his team's win. "Covenant sports many of the players from last year's 2006 champions. Clearly, marriage has made them soft."

Five Rock Salt players had perfect days at the plate, including Eric Liu, who hit his second home run of the season, and Ethan Sinemma, who hit his first home run of the year. Rock Salt's performance was especially impressive considering Covenant's talented players...of which, one stood out in Kurtz's mind.

"While Covenant has a number of great athletes, our greatest fear was Shannon 'The Shrill' Carter," Kurtz said. "I think our early 6-0 lead effectively muzzled her...but she still managed to go 3-for-3. She's amazing."

According to Kurtz, "Covenant employed a devious strategy: placing Shannon Carter at catcher and Simone Halpin at pitcher. Imagine the horror at being cat-called in stereo!"

Covenant manager Chris Carter could not be reached for comment.

In the next game, In Focus Classic won their first game of the season, defeating a shorthanded YMYF Defenders team 9-4. Classic improved to 1-2-1 while the Defenders lost their first game of the year to fall to 2-1-1.

"I was pretty impressed," said Classic manager Anne Marie Misovich. "We hit consistently and fielded well. We started off the game at the plate and drove in the runs that led to a first-inning five-run cap. The winning team each week seems to have a 'good inning.' That was ours."

Anya Portokalis subbed admirably for vacationing Defenders pitcher Steve Adie and settled down to give up only 4 more runs the rest of the game. Besides Adie, six other Defenders were absent from the game.

The Defenders' Rob Tong notched his second home run of the year. Unfortunately, it was a solo shot.

"Personally, I'm disappointed that the game doesn't allow a six-run home run," said Tong. "We would've won if that was a six-run homer. I was robbed."

The win was a boost for Classic, who faces a surging Crossroads team next.

"I am so excited!" said Misovich. "We had a great time as always AND WE WON! Everyone was pretty pumped. And it was cool when Pastor Milco announced the first In Focus win [in class the next day]. With this first win on the board comes some added momentum as we look forward to next week's matchup with Michael Thate & Crossroads."

At 10 AM, Crossroads prevailed over the YMYF Mustard Seeds 6-0. Crossroads only led 3-0 through the 6th inning but added three insurance runs in the top of the 7th.

The Seeds entered the game as one of the league's best hitting teams but were held to a league-low two hits the entire game.

"We had the Mustard Seeds number today and played our best defense of the year, holding them to [two] hits after they had back-to-back 20-plus hit games," marveled Crossroads manager Anthony Halpin.

"Nothing," said Seeds manager Joshua Hall when asked what happened to the team's offense against Crossroads. "I felt we made solid contact all game, the same as we have all season. The difference is that we couldn't find any holes in their defense."

Actually, said Crossroads' Michael Thate, the difference is the girls.

"Our five ladies are our secret weapon," Thate offered. "I like to refer to them as our Pentagon of Power."

Speaking of Thate, he finally got his first home run of the year...but it was of the inside-the-park variety.

"The moans were audible all the way to the lake each time Thate didn't launch one over the fence," said Tong, who umped the game. "Fans were starting to demand a refund on their tickets. It's a good thing we have good security at the ballpark."

The Seeds actually could have nailed Thate at the plate on his home run but a bad relay throw bounced off the Seeds' Mat Smith's shin, allowing Thate to score. Two batters later, Crossroads' Jacob Dodds launched a two-run home run over the fence in the 7th inning to cap the scoring. Dodds is the 4th different person to go over the fence this year.

"At first, I thought that [Dodds] was simply off to a hot start," said Thate. "But now I am convinced that he has taken the head seat at the table of elite hitters in this league. He is consistently hitting the ball hard, and is producing out of the five spot."

"With Thate and [Dodds], we have [two] of the best true power hitters in the league," agreed Halpin. "They went a combined 6-6 with 5 RBI and 2 HR."

Halpin also raved about his new pitcher.

"Amy Koehler is one of the best pitchers out there and plays defense as good as anyone on our team."

Speaking of defense, the Seeds were feeling good about their own defensive performance, holding the power-hitting Crossroads squad to single digit runs.

"I'm really proud of them!!" said Hall of his team. "I feel we have a really good defense; besides Saltier, we are the only team to hold our oppenant to fewer than 10 points in each game this season. I think that speaks for itself."

“I like to refer to them as our Pentagon of Power.”

- Michael Thate on Crossroads' girls

Halpin, meanwhile, has a warning for the rest of the league.

"People better watch out for Crossroads because we are starting to gel as a team and are going to get hot in the month of July," he said.

The final game of the week saw Saltier beat a depleted In Focus Cowboys team 16-1. The Cowboys were without
Tony Matoian, Karl Coppock and Brian Peterson, among others.

Saltier's Jonathan Hauser hit his first home run while teammate Bill Van Tuinen cranked out two more to pad his ridiculous league-leading total to 6. The win kept Saltier undefeated (4-0) while also keeping the Cowboys winless (0-4).

"There is some pressure to being undefeated, but we have high expectations for ourselves," Van Tuinen said. "Some of the married teams probably have a lot more going on with kids, family, etc, but to paraphrase Rick Moranis' character in Revenge of the Nerds, all we think about is softball."

With Rock Salt nipping at Saltier's heels, Rock Salt has Saltier's attention but Saltier is also careful not to overlook their next opponent.

"Rock Salt is probably the best team in the leauge right now when they have their full roster," Van Tuinen said. "We play them twice and I'm sure they'll be great games. We're looking forward to it. [But] the Defenders will be another tough match this Saturday. They've got a lot of big hitters, so anything can happen."

Once again, Rock Salt returned the compliment.

"Rock Salt is thrilled to join our sister team Saltier at the top of the standings," Kurtz said. "I think the league is better off for it. Heck, everything is better with a little more Salt."

Feel free to gag.

Kurtz was careful not to offend their next opponent, the YMYF Mustard Seeds.

"The Mustard Seeds seem to run hot and cold," Kurtz assessed. "As long as the only hot Mustard is on our hot dogs, we should do fine next week."

The other upcoming game features the In Focus Cowboys at Covenant.