Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #11

June 14, 2009 

Buzzards Sweep Free Agents, Win Second Game 8-3 

For the second game of the double-header, the Free Agents sent hard throwing Don “High Kick” Rogers #26 to the mound to face Bob “Woody” Wooden #22 of the Buzzards.  The Buzzards were the visiting team for the second game and started the scoring right away with three in the opening round of the seven inning battle. 

Rogers was throwing harder than we’ve seen in a long time, but the first two batters, Taylor “Welzy” Welz and Dan “Wookie” Wukmir walked.  Woody singled Welzy home for the first run of the game.  Milli hit a liner that the shortstop caught, but the wide pick-off throw back to first base allowed Wookie to score from third and Pete “Baron” Von Zboray, running for the pitcher, to move to second base.  On the next pitch, Pete showed lots of hustle in scoring from second base on a deep sacrifice fly by Gary “Stoney” Stonebrook for an early 3-0 lead. 

In their half of the inning the Free Agents scored one run on three hits with Big Tim getting the RBI on his fifth consecutive base hit today.  The Buzzards bounced back with another run in the second.  Brooklyn hit a loud double to right field on a Rogers’ fastball with one out.  Steve “Cookie” Cook singled to right to drive in Buzzman Barry.  The Baron then smashed a shot off of the pitcher’s leg that ricocheted towards first base.  The fielder then alertly picked it up and shovel passed it to the covering pitcher for the called out on a very close play.  The pitcher, Don, then rubbed his upper leg where it appeared the ball was partially deflected by his glove for a 1-3-1 put out.  He was alright and pitched the rest of the game. 

In the third inning the Buzzards scored to take a 5-1 lead.  The inning started with Wookie leading off with a line drive single to right.  Wookie stole second before Woody hit a sinking line drive to a charging left fielder.  It appeared the ball was going to drop before the left fielder stuck his arm out and the ball hit his glove but it did not stick.  Wookie ran half way to third and was returning to second on the seemingly great catch.  Since the ball bounced out of his glove and in front of the left fielder, Wookie returned to second after doing at least two pirouettes in the base paths.  Welzy ran for Woody at first base.  Wookie then witnessed a good pick-off move by High Kick Rogers and was nailed going back to the bag.  After an out, Gary “Stoney” Stonebrook knocked in the fifth run of the game with a single up the middle.  After three innings, the score was 5-1 Buzzards. 

Woody pitched a hell of a game against the big bats of the Free Agents.  The FA’s got hits in all but one inning, but only scored in two of them.  Woody held them to one run until the sixth inning.  Two doubles and a single accounted for their two runs.  Woody threw 106 pitches to 32 batters, 71 for strikes and 35 balls, with two strike-outs.  With his “I think I broke my foot kick-boxing” story before the game, we were worried about his pitching performance and his staying power.  But as they say in Australia - No Worries, Mate - as Woody looked solid all game long.  He gave up 11 hits with one walk and three runs (one earned) in winning his third game of the season. 

The Buzzards were not done scoring yet and added one more in the fifth inning.  Welzy started it off with a double down the left field line.  He advanced to third on Wookie’s grounder to the right side.  T-Welz scored on Woody’s sacrifice fly to left field for a 6-1 advantage. 

In the sixth the Buzzards scored two.  Stoney led off with a walk and brought his cheering section to their feet when he stole second base.  After an out, Charles “CJ” Jackson singled to left moving Stoney to third.  Brooklyn knocked in Stoney with a fielder’s choice to the second baseman.  Forman then scored on a nice double to left-center by Cookie for the last Buzzard run of the day. 

The Buzzards were out hit again 11-10 by the Free Agents.  However, the hits were timely and the defense was strong to match the pitching performance by Woody.  Eight Buzzards got hits in this second game of the day.  The multi-hit group included only Wookie and Cookie with two hits each.  

The defense shined with several excellent plays to hold down the Free Agents.  In the bottom of the second, Woody shook-off the catcher’s sign from Milli three times before throwing a slow curve for an inning ending strike out.  In the third with the runner going, Cookie chased down a short pop fly behind second to make a tumbling over-the-shoulder catch.  Wow, great catch and  concentration to snag that ball as he fell and then landed ‘not very softly’ on his butt and hung on to the ball.  In the fourth, Gregg “Surf Dawg” Novotny playing second base, made an excellent catch of a line drive and then stepped on second to end another Free Agent threat.  In that same inning, Stoney made a strong throw to Wookie covering third to nail a runner trying to advance to third after Mark “Ronnie” Wronski went far to his left to make the initial play on a grounder in the hole.  Wookie also made a nice back-handed catch of a line drive running toward third in the sixth.   

There were only three fly ball outs in this game.  One high fly to Barry in left field in the second, one to Welzy in center in the fourth and a running catch by the Baron in right field to end the game.  The infield was busy with eight put-outs at first base to Stoney.  Stoney also had an assist with the strike (what else would he throw) to third base to nail the aggressive runner for the first out of the fifth inning.  Cookie made two of the three outs in the third - one was a tricky bouncer to open the inning and a pop-up to end the inning.  He also made a nice double play turn at second base for a 6-4 and almost a -3 in the first inning. 

Surf Dawg played some second base and made a nice double play in the fifth inning when he caught a line drive near second base and stepped on the bag to end the fifth inning with two runners on base.  Wookie was busy at short with three assists (1^st, 2^nd, & 4^th innings) and four put-outs (Stoney’s throw to third in the fifth, two pop-ups in the sixth, and the back-handed snag of a liner for the first out in the seventh inning).  David “mMumbles” Kelley returned from the Disabled List and played some third base late in the game and had an assist, 5-3, to end the fifth inning.  Kelley is still looking for that guy that stole his good wheels.  He used to be much quicker and faster.  The ol’ beat-up wheels he has been using for the last couple of years on the field probably need to be upgraded either with HGH or bionics.  Woody not only pitched well hurt, he grabbed both ‘hot’ come-backers hit toward the mound in the first inning, the second one knocking him down with a nice recovery and throw to get the speedy runner.  Milli was nicked by a foul ball off of his wrist playing catcher.  He finished the game, but will likely miss the next one with a swollen wrist. 

Another solid game and a Buzzard win.  The season record at the half-way point is 10 wins against 1 loss.  Good job you Ol’ Buzzards. 

Buzzard Note #1: Thanks to Ray and Liz for hosting last week’s team party.  The kids swam, but it was too cool for the adults.  We just got splashed a lot by cannon ball kids.  Tri-tip with fixin’s and drink worked out real well.  Pete manned the grill and did a fabulous job.  Everyone behaved themselves pretty well. 

Buzzard Note #2: The next game will be on Father’s Day.  Several Buzzards have to run to family affairs after the game, but there will be cold drinks and munchies afterwards at the Colfax Ball Park.  Game time is 11 am vs. Astros.  

Buzzard Note #3:  Wag’s Buzzard & family party is June 28 after the home game against the Patriots – probably an early game.  You will be asked at this week’s game if you plan to come the following week.  A-J bring an appetizer or chips and dip or salsa, K-V bring a salad or side dish, W’s bring dessert.  If you have something different you want to bring, that’s OK.   

Buzzard Note #4: All star voting is June 28.  The game is July 8. 

Buzzard Note #5:  The afternoon radio show on KAHI 950 AM is hosted by Dave Rosenthal.  His show runs 4-7 pm daily and features local news, sports, etc.  Last week David Kelley provided game information for broadcast and Rosenthal used it twice an hour during the show.  They want more, so we will be providing a press release each week to the radio station for their Afternoon Show.  If you live or work out of range of the radio signal, the station is available to you and the rest of the world at kahi.com. 

Buzzard Note #6: Don’t forget about advertising on KAHI during our radio game coming up on July 26.  The station does a good job of producing the commercials, not just reading them.  The ads will be broadcast frequently during the afternoon game and a CD of the game will be available as a keepsake or a Frisbee.  Bring your radio that day, it’s pretty cool to listen to the game in the dugout or for the fans in the stands, while it’s being played.