Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #8

Game: June 22, 2014

Buzzards skunked by young A's

The Buzzards resumed the season, after the Reds forfeited the Father's Day game, with a morning game against the super young A's. The game at C-Bar-C Park pitted the over 52+ Buzzards with the A's, a team in their 30's and 40's, and that has dominated the 42+ division. The Buzzards do well against teams in their mid-40's, but many on the A's were as young as 34, and not a fair match for a team with most players in their later 50's and several players in their 60's. The oldest Buzzard is 63, almost a 30 year difference on the field.

The first game of the summer was a warm one, but the breeze made it feel fine. The temps during the game in Citrus Heights were in the low 80's. The pitchers for the match-up were the lanky, hard throwing righty, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26, starting for the visiting Buzzards. The A's sent their oldest pitcher to the mound, 43-years old righty, Bill 'Slinger' Frazell #5.

The A's jumped on the score board first with a run in the bottom of the first with a leadoff 'seeing-eye' single through the middle and followed by a long double to take a 1-0 lead.

The Buzzards threatened in the second inning with a leadoff single to left by Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray. Batting next, Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley hit a long fly ball to right-field that was dropped for an error putting runners at first and second with no outs. The next three Buzzards then struck-out with two looking at strike three.

The strike zone never became consistent during the game, thereby leading to five 'looking' strike-outs of the eight in the game. The A's scored two runs in the second inning on a leadoff double, a walk, single and sac fly. They scored two more in the third on a leadoff single and a home run over the left-field fence by their 34-year old left fielder. That was the first homer of the year hit against the Buzzards. It came on a curveball and cleared the 300 foot fence by 30+ feet.

The A's pitcher was keeping hitters off-balance and made the Buzzard offense sputter to a shut-out. The opportunities were few and far between. In the third and with two outs, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir reached first after a slapped high chopper to the left-side was bobbled by the third baseman. Wookie stole second on the next pitch, but was stranded on the base path.

In the fifth frame, a two-out rally built-up nicely when Paul 'General' Lee walked on four pitches. Batting next, Welzy singled to center to put runners at second and first. Wookie followed with a six-pitch walk to load the bases. However, a nice play by the second baseman on the next play ended the inning without a score.

The swinging A's were held scoreless in the fourth dig, but scored four runs in the fifth frame. After a leadoff walk, four consecutive hits followed before a nice double play slowed the rally. Two more hits followed before a fly-out ended the long inning. The A's scored the tenth run in the sixth on a one-out single, stolen base with a throwing error, then scored on a ground-out.

The Gold Country gang's other scoring chances came in the sixth with a leadoff walk to the Baron, but a strike-out and then a double play with slick glove work by the shortstop started the inning-ending play. In the seventh, the newest Buzzard, Fred 'Freddie' O'Donoghue, lined a single to right-center to start the inning. After another 'looking' strike-out, General Lee followed with a base hit putting Buzzards at first and second.

Welzy then hit a sinking line-drive to center that was controversially caught with a sliding scoop of dirt and ball by a hustling center fielder. He made two spectacular catches against the Buzzards during the game. This time his glove brought up too much dirt and dust, so the catch did not look clean. However, the ump called it a catch as the Buzzards were running forward and the A's were able to easily double-up one of the runners to end the game.

The final score was 10-0 and was stopped after seven-innings due to the 10-run mercy rule. That is pretty rare to 10-run the Buzzards, but the A's did it and made it look easy.

Buzzard pitching had a rough day against the hard-hitting A's. Taylor started the game and threw 51 pitches (34 strikes & 17 balls) in three innings of work. Welzy faced 18 batters and was nicked for five runs (three earned) on seven hits, and one walk with three strike-outs. Everingham threw the fourth and fifth frames while facing 13 A's and threw 44 pitches (25 strikes & 19 balls). The A's got five runs (three earned) on eight hits and one walk with one strike-out. Salmeri threw the final inning and faced just four batters while throwing 13 pitches (9 strikes & 4 balls). Rick gave up one hit and struck-out one batter.

The Buzzard offense was anemic against the slinging Frazell. No runs on four hits with three walks is not really an offense. The hit club for the game included: the Baron, Freddie, General and Welzy. The eagle-eyed Buzzards getting a free pass to first base were: the Baron, General and Wookie.

Ol' Buzzard defense made the plays when they weren't chasing the 17 base hits. The six stolen bases also prevented several double play chances. The Buzzards had only one double play. In the sixth with runners on the corners and no outs, a grounder to Wezly at short was then shoveled to Wook at second for a force-out and then throw to Freddie at first to complete the double play.

Another defensive highlight occurred in the third with a leaping snag on the mound by Welzy of a hot high-chopper. The catch fooled Freddie at first base as he thought the ball got through for a base hit. In fact, the runner was barreling down the line and Welzy had the ball and was running toward first base. Freddie was still not aware that a play was coming to his bag. Taylor yelled-out to Freddie in the nick of time to get the out.

The other defensive highlight was General Lee's long running catch in the left-center-field gap to end the sixth inning. Paul reached high for the snow cone catch with Tomahawk closing in from center-field. The outfield made good plays and all the possible catches during the game with four fly-ball outs. The infield hung-in with the bad hops and made eight big outs.

This will be a good game to forget quickly as the Buzzards get ready to face-off with the Gold Country Miners next Sunday for the Radio Game. After the next game, the schedule shifts back to teams in our own age-group and division.

Buzzard Note #1: Management will be seeking a head-count for the upcoming game and barbecue. The excellent dry-rub ribs with side sauces, coleslaw and the fabulous potato salad will be coming from the award-winning, Bam Dazy bbq restaurant in Auburn. Drinks will be beer, diet and regular soda, and water. If you want wine or something else, feel free to bring it.