Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #9

Game #1: June 24, 2012

Buzzards claw Valley Cats with pitching, win 5-1

On another perfect Gold Country day to play baseball, the Buzzards played two at Colfax Varsity against a tough opponent, the Valley Cats from Elk Grove. In a contest between two of the top teams in the division, the second place Cats (7-2-1) showed up with their top players including a new good-sized big hitter wearing Gums' jersey, that turned out to be the baseball coach at McClatchy High. The third place Buzzards at 6-3-1 needed to at least split the double-header against last year's champs to keep pace in the division race.

The visiting Valley Cats starting pitcher was Craig 'Hittable' Parker #20. The Buzzards sent ace lefty, Dave 'Keppie' Kephart #21 to the mound to open the game.

The feisty Cats got on the scoreboard first with a run in the top of the first inning. A one-out walk to Dave Nutter, who later scored on a fielder's choice, after a hit to right field by Vance Pascua put runners at the corners.

The Buzzards matched the run in their half of the inning. A one-out bunt single by Kevin 'Flash' Krantz started the offense. Flash then stole second. The next batter, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz singled on an 0-2 pitch to score Flashy from second base to tie the score at 1-1.

The Buzzards scored again in the next inning. Tony 'Mongoose' Brashear led-off the frame with a single to center. Keppie followed with a groundball through the left side for a single putting runners at first and second. After a double-play, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray hit a clutch single up-the-middle to knock in Mongoose from third. Lefty swinging, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir followed with a first-pitch single through the left side putting two runners on, but the scoring ended with the Buzzards up 2-1.

The Ol' Buzzards tacked on three more runs in the fifth inning. Flash led-off with an infield hit. Welzy then blasted his third triple of the season to score Kevin. Two-outs later, Keppie came through with a base knock, line drive single, to right field to score Taylor from third. Bob 'Woody' Wooden then ran for Kep at first. Next, Jim 'Milli' Milligan hit a grounder to second that was misplayed putting runners at first and second. The double-clutch Baron then singled sharply to left field to score Woody for a 5-1 lead that would hold.

The whinny Cats could muster only six scattered hits against the hard-throwing Keppie. Ground balls were the order of the day, as Kep kept gettin' the Cats to pound the ball into the ground resulting in six nifty and effective double-plays. Interestingly, there were no fly ball outs during this game. Two pop-ups in the infield were caught by Wook and Welzy for the only up-in-the-air outs. The outfield got so desperate for action that the only Buzzard error was the result of a collision between the right fielder, Don 'Redondo' Colbert, and Wookie playing second for a looper into 'very' short right field.

Kephart held the high octane Valley Cats to one run on six hits and three walks with four strike 'em outs. He faced just five batters over the minimum with 32 feral Cats coming to the plate while throwing 103 pitches (66 strikes & 37 balls).

The five double-plays were the talk of the game. The pitcher's 'best friend' was displayed in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th innings. And with almost a triple play in the eighth dig. With a late Valley Cat rally brewing with runners at first and second and no outs and the clean-up hitter, Mike Lehtola, coming to the plate. Lefty Mike, swinging hard at the first pitch, sent a hot grounder to Welzy playing third this game. Taylor fielded it cleanly to his left and ran toward the stopped runner from second base, Nutter, to tag him out and then shuffle the ball to Wookie covering second for the force out. Wook, with a quick throw to first, was hoping that he wasn't hustling to first and get a triple play to squash the rally, but Mike beat the throw by half a step.

With all the ground ball outs and the five DPs, the defensive was tough and the stats were interesting. Dave 'Evy' Everingham had 'wow' 10 assists and two put-outs to account for almost half of the game's outs. Keppie had four assists and started two double-plays, one from his knees in the seventh after knocking down a hard come-backer. After picking up the ball, he then threw a strike to Evy covering the bag for a sweet looking DP with Dave leaping over a hard-sliding runner in completing the throw. Wook had four assists and five put-outs at second base to go with the 'collision' error in the fourth inning.

The 15 put-outs at first base were shared by Bake, Baron (7), and Milli (7). Welzy played a solid third again handling all chances. Scott 'Donut' Reeves is getting a lot of catching time with the Buzzards and continues to improve. Donut called and caught a good game and in the words of his pitcher, Keppie, "this was the best game that Scottie has ever caught". After a first batter pow-wow - with both talking into their gloves near the mound for awhile - the battery was in sync the rest of the game. The outfield of Terry 'Caveman' Kelley, Flash and Redondo watched a good game, picked up an occasional rolling ball in the outfield, and provided a nice back drop for the fans.

The Buzzard's hittin' sticks did well against Parker through five innings and then went silent against the young hard-throwing Mike 'finally 45 after two seasons in the division' Watari #2. The Buzzard offense produced five runs on 12 hits with one V-Cat error and no walks. The hit club for the game included Evy, Mongoose, Weed and Wookie with one hit each and the Baron, Flash, Keppie and Welzy with two hits in the game. The five valuable ribbies were knocked in by the Baron (2), Keppie, and Welzy (2).

A solid game with great pitching, terrific defense and timely hitting for a good win against the tough Valley Cats. Good job, Buzzards.

The nine-inning game was played in less than 2 1/2 hours, so the next game was scheduled to start after a 45 minute break at 1:15 pm.