MCSN: July 16, 2011

Getting Defensive

Week 6 Recap

Fri, Jul 22, 2011

Nitros' Eric Bartl takes a cut against The Usual Suspects From the Week 6 scores, you'd think it was Moody Baseball instead of Moody Softball.

Five of the six teams couldn't crack double-digit runs, averaging just over 4 runs of offense.

"In regards to the general lack of scoring amongst the 3 games, it makes entering the stats much easier," cracked statmaster Sam Baturoni.

But one team, The Usual Suspects, didn't get the memo about low-scoring games as they were closer to 20 runs than they were to single-digit runs. As a result, The Usual Suspects easily handled the Nitros 16-4 in the first game of the week.

The Suspects racked up 24 hits despite nearly not having enough players to start the game. Fortunately, the Friars' Sarah Watts arrived early and was initially reeled in to sub for tardy Suspect Magda Reman. And without an ump, ten-year-old Ethan Tong was being briefed on the softball strike zone. But Reman showed up, shifting Watts from sub player to sub ump where she excelled.

"Sarah was like a friendlier Jerry Hodge," deadpanned the Suspects' Rob Tong. "She made correct calls, took charge of the game and knew what she was doing. She did a phenomenal job."

So did The Usual Suspects (4-1-1), who survived with only 9 players on defense. The Nitros' Baturoni lamented the lost opportunities on offense.

"We were not able to take advantage of the vast open spaces due to The Usual Suspects being shorthanded," he said. "We were done in by the fact everyone on The Usual Suspects had extra at-bats."

Indeed, the Suspects got to bat more often and they took advantage after slumbering through a scoreless first inning. Each Suspect had at least one hit, and all but two Suspects had at least two RBIs. Meanwhile, Suspects pitcher Gary Lockwood and the Suspects defense held the Nitros potent offense to just 8 hits, keeping Nitros slugger Eric Bartl in check. The Nitros (0-4-2) are still in search of their first win of the season.

The remaining two games of the morning scored fewer combined runs than the Suspects-Nitros game. Instead of a lack of offense, we'll call it superior defense, shall we?

In the middle game of the morning, the Home Invaders beat the Minor Prophets 5-2. Last week, the Friars shut down the Minor Prophets offense, holding them to just four runs. But this week, the Home Invaders did even better than the Friars, limiting the Prophets to a scant two runs.

"Our defense played extremely well," said Home Invaders skipper Ovi Tisler. "Giving up only two runs in softball is unheard of, except for those losers 'Global Warming' in last year's championship game (losing 11-2). Andy [Tisler] pitched well, inducing many popups and easy groundouts."

The Invaders defensive success was even more noteworthy considering that the Minor Prophets (2-3-1) were at full strength offensively with Chris Cormier, Jeff Martin, Les Carter, Vince Ramirez and Nate Crozier all in action.

"If you just told people the score, they would have thought you were telling them the score of the Moody Church soccer league, not softball," noted Prophets manager Dan Coughlin. "You aren't going to win many games when your 1-5 hitters go 5-for-14 and only score 2 runs."

Coughlin filled in admirably at pitcher for missing starter Nick Ploegstra, holding the Invaders to just five runs, thanks in part to shutting down Invaders cleanup hitter Steve Portokalis and Tisler himself.

"I attribute my struggles, going 0-for-2, to Coughlin's cleaver taunting tactics," Tisler explained. "He threw me off my game with their pre-game chant of 'Ron Paul'. I was so distracted thinking about the only principled man in politics, I couldn't hit the ball! But I did take down Minor Prophet's Nate Crozier with me. We talked about Dr. Paul and he was so distracted, he went 0-for-3! At least I got on base with a walk!"

Politics had nothing to do with the Prophets' defensive job against the Invaders, who scored ten runs just the week before.

"I am ecstatic about our defense," Coughlin said. "If we didn't have a few errors at key points, [the score] would have been 3-2. We had several situations where they had runners in scoring position and we held them, [such as] Karly Miller's great play on a foul ball back to her in the catcher's position. It got us out of the inning and was a great heads up play. Now we just need to hit. I am going to have the team practice hitting tops before our rematch so they are used to hitting that crazy spin ball of Andy. I am a big believer in momentum and if we can get some hits early in the next game I am confident we will turn the hitting around."

Coughlin isn't the only one concerned about his team's offense. Tisler also wasn't satisfied with his team's offensive performance.

"It helped to have Rob McMahon and Simon Micula back after 2 weeks off," Tisler said. "They each went 3-for-3 to help out our struggling offense. Without them, we might have lost 2-1! Other than those guys & Ethan [Sinemma], our offense continues to struggle. We left a lot of guys on base, and couldn't hit with runners in scoring position."

After the Home Invaders (2-3-1) win, Tisler invoked some Coughlin smack talk from the week before.

"Last week, Coughlin gave us as much chance at winning as Ron Paul's chances of winning the presidency," he recalled. "After our dominating win, I expect to see Dan wearing a 'Revolution' pin and volunteering at the Paul campaign. Don't forget to signup at RonPaul2012.com!"

In the last game of the morning, the Friars met The Franchise in a battle of three-game winning streaks, with the Friars prevailing 7-3.

Franchise pitcher Mat Smith kept his team in the game by limiting the Friars to only seven runs despite facing league-leading RBI leaders Robert Martinez, Erik Summers and Jerry Hodge along with other potent bats in Jacob Dodds and Chris Carter. But for one five-run inning in the 4th, the Friars scored only two other runs.

Unfortunately for The Franchise, Friars pitcher Bruce Riegel was up to the duel himself, shutting out Franchise slugger Steve Haake and limiting the Franchise to a mere eight hits total.

This coming Saturday will see some hot contests...literally. With forecasts calling for 90 degree temps, expect sweltering action, especially with double-headers on the docket. Due to an annual Clarendon Park festival, the July 30th games have been folded into the July 23rd schedule.

On the main diamond, The Franchise face the Minor Prophets, followed by the battle of first-place teams between the Friars and The Usual Suspects, and concluding with the Home Invaders vs. the Nitros.

On diamond #1, the Home Invaders take on the Friars, the Nitros challenge the Minor Prophets, and wrapping up with the Franchise against The Usual Suspects.

Tisler has one novel solution to avoid the heat.

"We have an hour break between our second game against the Nitros this Saturday," he said. "I'm going to ask Sam if they would be nice enough to just concede that second game. Seeing how they're still winless, the game would just be a formality in 100 degree heat."

This weekend contains big games for Suspects manager Tim Kurtz.

"Friars are on a big (four-game) winning streak and The Franchise is the only team to beat us," he said. "This
will be a good test to see how much we've improved."

“It makes entering the stats much easier.”

- Statmaster Sam Baturoni on the general lack of scoring in Week 6

And Coughlin welcomes this weekend's rematches.

"The first half of the season showed us we can play with anybody," he said. "The second half is about getting ready for the playoffs. We have a great opportunity to get above .500 with the doubleheader this weekend."

No matter what the outcomes will be, all teams will be hot by the end...guaranteed.