MCSN: July 13, 2013

Upsets scramble the standings

Week 4 Recap

By Bill Van Tuinen

Thu, Aug 8, 2013

Cross The Bases' Terron Wright takes a swing at a pitch from the Roosters' Sam Baturoni Play resumed this week after a 4th of July holiday break.

As noted by 8am umpire Dan Coughlin, the fireworks didn't end on the 4th of July as Cross The Bases and the Killer Beehs each opened with strong offensive showings, with the Bases leading 15-10 after only three innings.

Cross The Bases certainly lived up to their name as all 12 members of their team reached base and scored a run. Due to the heavy offensive production, the game only lasted five innings and the Beehs could not replicate the magic of their last comeback, with only three runs in the bottom of the 5th to lose their first game of the year 17-13.

Juan Cruz led the Beehs with seven RBIs, helped out by Jeremy Huntington and Chris Thomas each going 4-for-4 in front of him.

"Overall competent defensive play punctuated by outstanding line drive catches by Ethan Sinnema and Matt Terry helped the Bases withstand a furious end-of-game swarm by the Beehs. It was a good job by everyone," said Bases' manager Lockwood in his typical understated manner.

Beehs manager Bryan Beeh's season-long media boycott continued. Rumor has it that every time he hears the umpire yell "strike", he gets flashbacks to sitting on street corners wearing a sandwich board at 6am.

[Editor's note: both teams are tied for the league lead at 4-1.]

In the 9am game, the Roosters lived up to their name as the all-male revue of eight players squared off against 3:16 Mafia.

The Roosters jumped out to an 11-5 lead after three innings at which point Orange Crush manager Tim Kurtz reminded Mafia boss Bill Van Tuinen that a team with eight men in the lineup was required to take an automatic out at the end of their lineup. But three innings of competent management proved too little, too late for the Mafia who lost 13-9 despite getting hits from 11 different players during the game.

The turning point of the game was Rob McMahon's lunging catch in left field of David Fowler's bases-loaded screaming line drive. McMahon also did some damage at the plate with three hits and three RBIs.

“The team clearly didn't need me.”

- Witness' Rob Tong on his team's 23-15 victory in his absence

It was the Roosters' first win of the season (1-4) and dropped the Mafia to 2-3 in a disappointing start to the season. League newcomer Keshia Richardson proved effective quieting the Roosters' bats late in the game.

The Roosters were right back in action at 10am and
strutted onto the field with newfound bravado.

With their offense still clicking, or clucking as the case may be, the Roosters jumped out to a 6-2 lead with a five-run second inning and never looked back against the stinger-less Beehs who had entered the day as the league's lone undefeated team and exited the day in 3rd place.

Both teams played with eight people, and we were unable to confirm by press time whether the lack of manpower was because some players were too chicken to show up. Nathan Maddela did more than his share for the Beehs with six RBIs.

[Ed: the Roosters won their second in a row, improving to 2-4; the Beehs lost their second in a row, falling to 4-2.]

The day ended with even more fireworks than which it began as Witness saw to it that Orange Crush did not lose another close game, pounding out a 23-15 victory.

Erik Summers and Randy Ruffolo provided the pop for the Crush, each getting four hits. [Ed: Witness was an offensive powerhouse without manager Rob Tong, who was coaching his younger son's youth baseball team, and Nate Arnett.]

"The team clearly didn't need me," Tong said.

[Ed: Witness improved to 3-1 while the Orange Crush dropped to 1-5.]