MCSN: June 20, 2015

Something For Everyone

Week 3 Recap

By Rob Tong

Thu, Jun 25, 2015

Fellowship's Scott Veigel takes a cut against the Reapers If you like offense, there was plenty to enjoy in this week's action. If you like defense, this week had some impressive moments. If you like games hanging in the balance in the final inning, this week's action had that too. And if you like runaway games, well, this week had that too. A little something for everyone...

8am game

Playing with only eight team members, the Fellowship Of The Ring faced off against the, uh, Red-hot Reapers.

Harvest's Red team managed to reap just one run in the first inning and only two runs after that the rest of the way.

"The Reapers offense lacked some caffeine, mustering only three runs, two of which were scored by Tim Gibbons," said Reapers manager Rufo Calimlim. "On one run scored, Tim executed a fundamentally sound slide at home plate and commented, 'That's why you wear pants!'"

The Fellowship took on the reaper role instead, scoring in each of its five offensive innings to cruise to a 14-3 win.

Alyssa Martinez chipped in with two hits and a walk and Ashley Veigel scored a run as well to help balance the Fellowship attack.

The Reapers were without team members of its own. The Reapers are the only team in the league to boast having two players batting a perfect 1.000 so far this season, and both of them (Matt Chandler and Zach Phillips) were missing from the Reaper lineup this day, easing the burden on the Rings' short-handed defense. The Reapers did get three other team members, though, who contributed in other ways.

"Mike Barbati, Vince Barbati, and Nick Lalos made their season debuts with the Reapers," said Reaper manager Rufo Calimlim. "The Fellowship of the Ring warmly welcomed Vince to the league by providing a lot of action in right field and he didn't back down with a web gem-worthy diving catch to his left robbing [Robert Martinez] of an extra-base hit."

The Reapers' girls were nothing to sneeze at either. Irene Rosal smacked a shot into the outfield that won't show up in the stat sheet, Jenny Archuleta played solid defense at first base and Merissa Seefried displayed her usual magic in left field.

9am game

The Holy Walkamolies came back from their bye week rested and rarin' to go against Caravan 2.0.

After shutting down the Caravan in the first inning, the Walkamolies (who still don't have a walk) put up four runs in their half of the frame. Caravan eventually tied the game in the top of the third but the Holy team scored eight runs in the next two innings to effectively put the game away. The Walkamolies led 17-5 before Caravan salvaged four more runs to make the final score 17-9.

The Walkamolies pounded out a week-high 24 hits and all but one Walkamolie (or is it spelled 'Walkamoly' if it's just one of them?) got a hit. Their first seven batters were an amazing 19-for-26 (.731 batting average).

"The Caravan finally got the bats going, scoring nine runs," said Caravan captain Randy Ruffolo. "But the defense struggled to catch the ball. Bright spots for the offense: Michael Schneider, Sam Baturoni and Gene Yau combined [to go] 6-for-7 with six RBIs."

10am game

In a battle of unconventional mascots, the In Focus Ospreys took on FROG.

It was not a good sign for the Ospreys when their father-son duo, John and Josh Fraats, led off the top of the first both striking out looking.

"The pitcher on FROG when warming up was throwing nothing but balls and when the game started he put a weird spin on the ball and was throwing strikes," explained Osprey manager Dan Cameron. "It just threw them off."

“That's why you wear pants!”

- Reapers' Tim Gibbons on his slide.

Despite the 14-10 loss, In Focus is Focused on the positives.

"Even with a much smaller team this week those who were there stepped up big time!" Cameron said. "Melody McCumber made some good catches and stops playing 2nd. We started the game slowly but began to gain Focus as the game went. This was
Seth McCumber's first game with us this season and he came up with three RBIs!"

11am game

The Crossroads/Veritas Flames faced off against the dangerous Mustard Seeds in the 11am game.

The Seeds gradually took control, getting three runs in the first and three runs in the third before posting five runs in the fifth and a league-record 11 runs in the seventh inning to win 23-0.

"Everyone got a run [and] everyone got an RBI," said Seeds' Dave Neely. "And then we had a lot of fours: four players had four hits, four players had four RBIs, and one player [Rebecca Reed] had four walks."

Reed's four free passes in one game set a new league-record.

Neely did point out a highlight for the Flames: "The Flames center fielder caught a lot of long fly balls. Cool as a cucumber."

Wait...are they the Flames or the Ice Cubes? And when did people start thinking 'cucumber' as the first thought that comes to mind when you think 'cool'?

In any event, the win puts the Mustard Seeds at 2-1 while the Flames dropped to 0-3.

12pm game

The day's last game was a battle between the "circular references": the Dugout Donuts and Team America, both of which use circles in their team logos. And the game seemed to be in a loop as well, as the two teams battled hard.

The Desserts only scored two runs in the first but the Americans only scored one run in their half. The Donuts added two more in the second but Team Blue added two of their own in the third to keep it a one-run game. The Donuts scored five in the fourth inning but Team America scored two in their half and another four in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game. But that's when the Donuts, um, rolled to victory, putting up five runs in the seventh and holding the Harvest team scoreless to secure a hard-fought 14-9 win.

"Another great game from Team America though we ended up with a loss," said Rachel Campbell. "It was close all throughout the game with several three-up-three-down innings by both teams, but once we each got in a rhythm, it was hard to stop scoring. Josh Patterson started off our home run streak with a power-shot over the fence in the third. Dan Untch continued it in the sixth with an in-the-park home run (the man has some wheels!) and later in the inning, Ben Piatt and Janson Roberts both had out-of-the-park homers. The Donuts just found one more scoring streak than we did."

As you would expect in a tense game like this, solid defense had to make itself known. "Some shout-outs go to Liz Eidem for a solid catch out in right field, Dan Untch for continuously strong plays at shortstop, and Ben Piatt for a great leaping catch in left field," Campbell said. "I also want to recognize Alex Piatt for some great at-bats which resulted in her first ever single."

Looking ahead

The Fellowship Of The Ring challenges Team America in the 8am game, and Team Blue's power display has them mighty confident that they can not only keep up with the Fellowship but top them too.

"We hope to split up the Fellowship next week or at least keep them running through the green after our hits," Campbell said. "I am definitely going to have to buy some more balls! I wouldn't want to discourage my team from putting them over the fence, now would I?"

The plethora of American sluggers certainly has the Rings' notice. "If they keep hitting like Steve Rogers, we'll be in trouble," Tong said.

The 9am game pits the Holy Walkamolies against mighty Covenant. The 10am game features the In Focus Ospreys against the Dugout Donuts.

"Edgewater Donuts have a good team," conceded Cameron. "What really terrifies me and my team is the one guy who has a 1.143 batting average! That is incredible! So we are preparing now to make sure that when he gets up to bat we are ready to throw the double play on him;) With a full team back I believe that we have what it takes to 'Edge' this team and take our first win of the season!" [Editor's note: Doug Ferguson's stats have since been adjusted so he has the more accurate 1.000 batting average, which, hey, is still incredible!]

In the 11am game, FROG takes on the Crossroads/Veritas Flames. And in the 12pm game, Caravan faces the Mustard Seeds.