Defenders Rocked
Week 9 Recap
Tue, August 7, 2007
Rock Salt's Paul Petschelt grounds to third
Well, that was a letdown.
The big showdown at 11 AM between the league's first- and second-place teams fizzled to a runaway Rock Salt win over a shorthanded YMYF Defenders team 13-5.
Rock Salt got off to a quick start with 4 runs in the top of the first inning, but the Defenders responded with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Rock Salt added another 4 runs in the top of the second inning, but the Defenders responded with three runs in the bottom of the third inning to close the gap to 8-5.
"When the score was 8-5, it still could have gone either way," said Rock Salt pitcher Paul Petschelt.
However, the Defenders' offense went to sleep the rest of the game and Rock Salt iced the game with five more runs in two of the final three innings.
The Defenders, playing only 9 in the field, were without pitcher Steve Adie, whose wife delivered their baby that day, and Brian & Jenny Pace.
"We apologize to all the fans who packed the stadium, as well as all the fans who paid good money on pay-per-view, to watch the heavyweight bout," said Defenders manager Rob Tong. "It was kinda like paying to see Mike Tyson fight Lennox Lewis but getting Mike Tyson vs. Mark Pirrie instead: still somewhat entertaining, but not exactly what you were expecting."
Defenders outfielder Steve Portokalis pitched in Adie's absence and gave up the team's first out-of-the-park home run by an opponent of the season, a two-run shot by Rock Salt's Ryan Varney.
"In our two losses, a Portokalis has pitched," noted Defenders third baseman Brian Stolzenbach of Steve's effort against Rock Salt and Anya's effort against In Focus Classic. "Hmm...."
Petschelt didn't take much stock in Rock Salt's decisive win.
"[They] were playing sans two starters," he said.
Rock Salt's win avenged their only loss of the season, a 17-2 drubbing at the hands of the Defenders in the season's opening game. In that game, Rock Salt themselves were shorthanded, playing without Eric Liu, Brian White and Petschelt.
On the strength of an 8-game winning streak including a 5-0 road record, Rock Salt moved to 8-1 while the Defenders dropped to 6-2-1.
The other YMYF team took on the other Salt team in the 10 AM game, and this YMYF team came away victorious as the YMYF Mustard Seeds avenged their earlier loss to Saltier, this time coming away with an 11-7 victory.
With the score tied 2-2, the Seeds pounded home 6 runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning to go up 8-2. Saltier quickly responded with two runs in the top of the 3rd inning to cut the Seeds' lead to 8-4 but Saltier could get no closer.
Seeds' manager Joshua Hall contends not much was different in this game compared to their previous matchup, a 9-2 loss in Week 1.
"I think the major difference is that we had more of the team available for the game this time," said Hall. "We had to pull two subs in the first game to prevent the forfeit. During that game, Saltier took advantage of our lack of players and inexperience. This game, we were able to field all 10 spots."
Naturally, Saltier manager Bill Van Tuinen had a different perspective on the second matchup.
"The biggest difference between this game and our previous game with the Mustard Seeds as well as our last few games is that our bats have gone silent recently," he said. "And, in the spirit of it being better to give than receive, our fielding has also been a little bit 'generous' to our opponents. We've also really enjoyed being able to share the thrill of victory that our opponents have experienced the last few weeks. I think it's safe to say we peaked a little early, but hopefully, this swoon we're experiencing will pass by the time the playoffs come."
Van Tuinen suffered a strained oblique during his first at-bat and said it got worse as the game wore on. He finished the game stuck on 9 home runs.
"I hope I'm ready to play Saturday," Van Tuinen said. "I've been receiving some of the best treatment available consisting of scented candles, hot oil, and the strong, yet gentle and healing hands of Pastor Bertsche. I'm just glad the injury is near the rib cage. Pastor Steve has also insisted on playing guitar during a couple of the sessions, although I'm not sure why. Unfortunately, it's not covered by my insurance since Bertsche has no formal training and it's not a recommended therapy. But I'll tell ya, if this treatment is wrong, I don't want to be right."
"We didn't know he was injured," Hall said. "So mentally, it didn't affect us at all. Thinking back to the game, I could see how this might have had some bearing in the double he hit early on. Normally, he would have been to third, if not home, by the time we got the ball back in...so I guess you could say it did have an impact."
There's more to the Mustard Seeds' victory than meets the eye, according to the Seeds' Jeremy Bautista.
"We won our game on National Mustard Day," he explained. "Certainly, the day was OURS! As Miguel [Rodriguez] said: 'Hot Mustard!'"
The Duchess of Mustard
on Mustard Day
In the 9 AM game, Crossroads fought In Focus Cowboys to a tight 7-6 victory.
The game was 2-1 Crossroads heading into the bottom of the 5th inning. That's when Crossroads added 4 runs to seemingly put the game away. But while trailing 6-1, the Cowboys didn't give up, scoring 5 runs in the top of the 6th inning to tie the game. Crossroads pushed a run home in dramatic fashion to secure the win.
Let's allow Crossroads' shortstop Michael Thate to elaborate.
"After Ricky Hutton hit a double to right center and advanced to third on a sacrifice, Kelly 'Da Killa' Conlin stepped into the batter's box with her usual calm," Thate said. "The banter throughout the stadium was deafening, but Conlin's throwback batter's stance displayed a rapt repose rivaled only by the early Stoics. Sonia Soto wound up, and as the ball left her hand, time slowed to a crawl as the theme music from The Natural could be heard throughout Clarendon Park. If there were a light box in the outfield, Da Killa would have shattered it; but because we were playing in a day game, she hit a strategic dribbler between the pitcher and third baseman. Da' Killa ambled down the first base line, beating the throw and scoring Ricky Hutton from third. The Crossroads bench cleared, and Howard Cosell could be heard from that long forgotten country saying, "Crossroads wins, Crossroads wins! Oh my goodness, Da' Killa wins the game for Crossroads!"
“Da' Killa wins the game for Crossroads!”Sounds like a direct-to-DVD movie, my friends.- Crossroads' Michael Thate on how Howard Cosell would call Kelly Conlin's game-winning hit
Thate, the reigning MVP, hit another home run, giving him six on the season and creeping him closer to league-leader Bill Van Tuinen.
The Cowboys managed only 6 hits but were kept in the game by
Crossroads handing out a league-record 11 walks.
With a generous strike mat size, that's quite a feat, folks.
Nevertheless, Crossroads persevered and came out winners anyway. Crossroads improved to 4-5, staying a game behind Covenant. The Cowboys are now 2-7.
In the 8 AM game, Covenant did some magical recruiting, getting approval from In Focus Classic to allow slugger Brian White to play for Covenant, who ended up 13-11 winners despite being heavily short-handed.
Did Classic Manager Anne Marie Misovich feel this game got away?
"13-11 IS too close to have let get away," she admitted. "Personally, I made the mistake of allowing Covenant to [play] Brian White of Rock Salt. That certainly didn't help. He's way too good of a hitter. And to think that I almost allowed them to recruit Bill Van Tuinen! The thanks goes to our assistant manager, John Fraats, for stopping me on that one. There were a couple of other players around that they could have recruited. I just wasn't thinking of all of that at the time. I hated to see them forfeit. But, hey, that shouldn't have been my concern. My 13 players whom I was expecting were ALL there on time. I simply didn't deal very well with the pressure and wasn't alert enough that particular early morning. But God willing, I won't let THAT happen again! Plus, out of the kindness of my heart, I kept score for Covenant as well as my team. That prevented me from being able to accurately focus on my team's game. Let's just say that the Lord is still trying to deliver me from Superwoman Syndrome :) And in the future I plan to be a lot tougher....."
Classic led 7-6 going into the top of the 4th inning but Covenant then scored 7 runs over the next two innings to lead 13-7 before defusing a Classic rally over the last two innings to secure the victory.
"Maybe too much emotion and not enough backing each other up on the field?" Misovich said about her team's loss. "Plus a couple management mistakes on my part. We did well at the plate. Peter Moy got two in-the-park homers for a total of 4 RBIs. Mike Houston got 3 RBIs. We had 19 hits. Almost everyone got at least 1 hit. And Gary Lockwood did that bloody knee thing again. So if you look at the final score, you'll see that we didn't hold them in the field and they didn't hold us in the field and in the end they outhit us a teeny bit, 13-11."
Covenant got major help from Phil Baker, Lauren Zuperku's father. While Lauren chipped in an RBI, the elder Baker pitched. Oh, he also knocked in a league-record 7 RBI while going 3-for-4.
Covenant acting manager Bill Bertsche is now 1-0. Does he have aspirations to being a manager down the road?
"I've always dreamed of taking a rag tag group of underprivileged kids from the Beverly Hills, CA area and having them play in the Little League World Series against those brats from Iceland," he answered. "But who am I kidding? It will never happen."
Since Covenant won the game without slugger Chris Carter, does this mean Carter is overrated?
"I wouldn't say that Chris is overrated because he hasn't been to enough of our games to even be rated yet, has he?" Bertsche answered vaguely. Consider that reply to be a disguised 'yes'.
Covenant is now 4-3-2. In Focus Classic falls to 2-6-1.
Only three weeks remain in the regular season!
This week, the YMYF Mustard Seeds tackle league-leader Rock Salt at 8 AM.
"Rock Salt is an amazing team," Seeds' manager Joshua Hall said. "First place, with a 9-game winning streak says a lot; not to mention that they've scored almost twice as many runs as they've allowed. It's going to be a good game...but with the faith of a 'mustard seed,' anything is possible, even Rock Salt being crushed and being handed their second loss of the season."
In the 9 AM game, Covenant challenges the In Focus Cowboys.
Covenant's acting manager Bill Bertsche has a simple plan to beat the Cowboys.
"Once again it comes down to the fundamentals," he explained. "We have to score more runs than they do."
At 10 AM, In Focus Classic takes on Crossroads, and Crossroads' Thate is a bit leery.
"I am a bit nervous heading into this Saturday's game because I know what awaits us: the mischievous managerial maneuvers of Anne Marie Misovich, and the prolific hitting prowess of Aleris Fraats," he said. "Aren't they due for a vacation?"
Misovich definitely is being coy about her strategies for Crossroads.
"With all of our secret weapons which I'm not going to tell the public about, seeing as how they're secret ;)" she said.
The final game this Saturday features the YMYF Defenders against Saltier.
"As the commish, I got a beta version of the Xbox MCSN game," Tong explained. "You know you've made it big when they have an Xbox game of your league. Anyway, I love picking the Saltier team because I can live vicariously as a over-the-fence home run hitter by playing a digital Van Tuinen. But in real-life, I dread Saltier's team because Van Tuinen and his team can put up video game statistics on us if we're not careful."
Van Tuinen isn't so sure.
"We'll have our hands full with the Defenders on Saturday no matter who plays, and I'm sure they'll be ready to go after their disappointing performance against Rock Salt," he said. "Is it possible that Steve Adie's wife would give birth 2 weeks in a row?"
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