MCSN: June 18, 2011

Non-Repeat Offenses

Week 3 Recap

Fri, Jun 24, 2011

Although the Week 3 matchups were the same as the Week 1 matchups due to the Moody Men's Golf Outing, the lineups all day were different enough to avoid any feelings of deja vu.

The week's opener saw The Franchise snag their first win of the season, trumping the Home Invaders 10-9 and avenging their Week 1 loss.

Despite missing both Ryan & Ali Dollard, the Franchise (1-2) showed more power than the vaunted Invaders offense, with Jeremy Huntington and Steve Haake powering back-to-back over-the-fence home runs in the top of the 7th inning to break a 7-7 tie.

"[Those home runs] were the plays of the game," said acting Franchise manager Kristen Huntington. "I'm very proud of our team both offensively and defensively. It was a super-competitive game, with many lead-changes. We finally got our bats going and started scoring runs...it just felt really good to win such a close game. It was awesome! Our team had a lot of fun and we're starting to play well together."

Home Invaders manager Ovi Tisler agreed. "[Those back-to-back home runs] really took the wind out of our sails."

Lost in the jubilation of Jeremy Huntington & Steve Haake's power display was the significantly lower offensive Invader output, scoring barely half of their previous matchup's run total.

"Our offense was pretty dismal," said Tisler, whose team was missing David Cho. "Can't win a softball game scoring only 9 runs... We had too many lazy fly balls."

Both teams liked their respective defensive performances. "Our pitching and defense did pretty well," Tisler said. "Keeping The Franchise to 10 runs is a pretty good showing."

"We played well as a team," Kristen Huntington said. "Everyone contributed and was encouraging one another. We were very focused on what we had to do each inning, stuck with plays defensively and didn't make any costly errors."

Having suffered their first loss, the Home Invaders' Tim Kerr mused, "We're 1-1-1. We tried all of the permutations of outcomes... I think we like winning better than the others."

The middle game pitted the Minor Prophets and The Usual Suspects once again, though the lineups were a bit different this time around. Prophets manager Dan Coughlin was out, as was the Suspects' Rob Tong, though the Suspects were reinforced by Bill Van Tuinen, Katie Beeh and Matt Wagoner's season debuts. And while the faces changed from last time, the contest was just as close this time, with The Usual Suspects squeaking by with a 7-6 victory.

"We had a tough time breaking through on [Prophets pitcher] Nick Ploegstra early on," said Van Tuinen. "I think his macho headgames impacted us for the first few innings, but we finally got some breaks and scored some runs."

The Usual Suspects (2-0-1) pounded out 22 hits but only had 7 runs to show for it.

"The well-coached Usual Suspects were able to get a couple runs every inning to reach a nail-biting 6-6 tie going in to the seventh," said acting Prophets manager Dave Zuperku. "Even without Rob Tong's place-hitting, the Usual Suspects squeezed out a win and the teams quickly departed for the Moody Church men's golf outing."

The Minor Prophets (1-1-1) started off the game well, notching 5 runs thanks in part to a poor Suspects defense. But the Prophets' euphoria didn't last long.

"What looked like a 'Usual Suspect' route by the Minor Prophets ended as a disappointing 1 run loss for the Prophets," said Zuperku, as the Suspects defense rebounded, holding the Prophets to only one run the rest of the game. Led by Suspects' pitcher Gary Lockwood, the Suspects also held the Prophets to a total run output that was 67% less than what the Prophets had been averaging coming into the game.

"Luckily, our defense held after some struggles early on," Van Tuinen noted. "Supposedly we have a shortstop named Rob Tong who is pretty good, but I haven't seen him yet this year."

One of the Suspects' defensive keys involved manager Tim Kurtz.

"I knew we were in trouble when Tim Kurtz was playing catcher in the last 3 innings of the game," Zuperku said regarding Kurtz's two great tags at the plate. "I knew they would have something up their sleeve but catcher Kurtz? Who knew?"

The final Week 3 game saw the Friars win their first game of the year, an impressive 21-8 drubbing of the still-winless Nitros.

The Nitros jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second inning but it was all Friars after that. The Friars caught up by the end of the third inning and outscored the Nitros 15-2 the rest of the way, thanks to a new-season-high 29 hits. Every batter in the Friars order got a hit.

“Their logo suggests they are as good as 'Delivery' but I expect them to look more like DiGiorno.”

- The Usual Suspects' Bill Van Tuinen on The Franchise

"[E]veryone on our team had a bad defensive day all at the same time," said Nitros manager Sam Baturoni about his team's play after the Friars tied the game.

The Nitros dropped to 0-1-2 while the Friars are now 1-1-1.

For Week 4, the Minor Prophets hope to keep the Nitros out of the win column. The Nitros, though, have a good scouting report on the Minor Prophets.

"I know what we are up against," Baturoni said. "We are facing a team with 2 HR hitters (Chris Cormier and Jeff Martin), a guy who played college baseball (Les Carter), and a guy who didn't pick up his team's t-shirts until 30 minutes before the first game (Dan Coughlin)."

The Home Invaders and the Friars expect their game to be a barn-burner, although the Friars will be short-handed.

And The Franchise has already done their homework on The Usual Suspects.

"We got a good scouting report from Vince Colada, and so we know we're going up against a power-packed team," Kristen Huntington said. "We're looking forward to the challenge."

"We're looking forward to cementing our position in first place against The Franchise," Van Tuinen countered. "It looks like their logo suggests they are as good as 'Delivery', but I expect them to look more like DiGiorno."