Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #4

Game: May 6, 2012

Buzzards pounce on Miners early, win 14-9

On another great spring day for baseball, the Gold Country Buzzards gathered in Colfax for an afternoon game against the Gold Country Miners. However, due to some league and umpire notification confusion as a result of the Free Agents bailing-out of our 10 am game the night before, there were no umps for the 2 o'clock game. The league called about an hour before the game to inform us - to make do with players as umps.

Turning lemons into lemonade, the Buzzards convinced Steve Cook, a renowned and reliable arbiter/coach/former player living in Auburn to come to Colfax and umpire a 3-hour game, vintage style, behind the pitcher's mound with just the protection of his ol' reactions. The game's officiating actually worked out well with Steve as the umpire. Thanks Cookie.

The Miners and Buzzards are in different divisions this season. The Miners dropped to the single A division, while the Buzzards remained in the AA division. This year's schedule has the AA teams playing the A teams just once. So, this game was the Gold Country show-down and local bragging rights game.

The starting pitcher for the Miners was their manager and big righty, George Bettencourt #27. Taking the mound for the Buzzards was former Miner, right-hander, Terry 'Caveman' Kelley #40.

As the visiting team on the schedule, the Buzzards went to bat first and immediately began to hammer the Miner pitcher. Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz opened the game with a looping single to left-center for a single. Batting next, Scott 'Donut' Reeves bunted hard down the first base line. The first baseman rushed the pick-up with Donut burning down the base path. He bobbled the ball and Donut beat it out putting two runners on.  Dave 'Keppie' Kephart then walked to load up the bases.

Coming to the plate next was the clean-up hitter, Bob 'Woody' Wooden. Woody put down his cigarette and hit an 0-1 pitch on a line to short center field for a single driving in Speedee. With the bases full, Caveman followed with a 2-2 base hit to left field knocking in Donut. Next, Jim 'Milli' Milligan hit a first-pitch sacrifice fly to center scoring Keppie from third. Later with two outs, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir hit an 0-2 pitch bouncing high up the middle and hustled down the line to beat the throw at first to re-load the bases. With the inning still alive, the next five batters got on base to score five more runs.

Batting next, Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe walked forcing in another run. Ray 'Bull Dog' Henry followed with a base on balls to push across run number five. With the bases still loaded, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray hit the 1-1 offering on a line to left field for a solid single scoring Wook. Mark 'Weed' Fowler continued the parade to the plate as the 12th batter and walked on six pitches forcing in the seventh run. With Speedee batting next, that meant the Buzzards had batted around. Kevin hit a 2-2 pitch into the hole on the left side for an infield hit and scoring Bull Dog on the play for the final run of the first inning, scoring eight times on six hits with four walks.

The Miners came back with two runs in their half of the first inning. A led-off single then a strike-out was followed by a hard hit comebacker that hit Caveman's left thigh and ricocheted sharply past a diving Wookie playing second base into right field scoring the first run.  Caveman was ok after a practice throw and continued in the game, however, the ball was tossed out due to the deep bruise. Kelley's bruise was big and blue on Monday. A double and single followed for the second run before a strike-out and pop-up ended the inning.

The Buzzards continued the onslaught of early runs with a lead-off double by Keppie to the gap in right-center. After an infield out advanced Kep to third, Caveman knocked him in with an infield hit. Next, Milli walked on a full-count. Mike 'Bake' Baker then blasted the first pitch to the fence in right-center field for a run scoring double putting runners at second and third. Batting next, Wookie went with the outside 2-1 pitch and hit a line drive to left field for a run-scoring single. Wook stole second before Big Mac walked on a full count. After an infield pop-up for the second out, the Baron singled driving in two runs for a five-run second inning. At this point the Buzzards were thinking the route was on, but it turned out a little differently. The score was 13-2 after two innings.

The Miners fought back with seven runs in the next two innings. The three runs in the third were a result of an error at first on a ground ball, two singles and a double wrapped around two strike-outs and a pop-up. In the Miner fourth inning, a one-out walk started the rally. Three singles and a double later with a groundout produced the four runs. Even Newman, the big belly black guy that struck-out wildly swinging at off-speed pitches two previous times, hit a 1-2 pitch to the fence in center for a long single scoring two runs to make the score closer at 13 to 9 after four.

The Buzzards quit scoring when the Miners changed pitchers to start the third inning. John 'Lefty' Vargas #11 (new to the Miners from the Valley Cats last season) was effectively keeping the Buzzards off-balance with a mix of pitches and speeds retiring 9 of the next 10 batters allowing the Miners to make it closer.

In the top of the sixth, the Buzzards finally scored again. With one out, Bull Dog, batting right-handed, belted a line drive to right that bounced over the head of the right fielder for a double. The Baron, hitting next, got his third single of the day with an infield hit to the hole on the left side. With runners at first and second and two out, Dave 'Evy' Everingham tagged the first pitch for a line drive single to left-center field scoring Bull Dog from second base. The score was now 14-9 entering the last half of the sixth inning.

Both pitchers shut down the scoring the rest of the way. Vargas throwing for the Miners and Keppie throwing for the Buzzards. The 3-hour time limit kicked in during the eighth inning, so the game ended after eight with the final score Buzzards 14 and the Miners 9.

What a crazy scoring game. Buzzards score 13 within the first two digs, the Miners bounce back with nine runs in the third and fourth and then only one more run is scored the rest of the game. But, a win is a win, and the Buzzards got two wins today with the Free Agents forfeiting the first game.

Buzzard pitching was solid. Caveman pitched the first three innings and faced 18 batters in throwing 54 pitches (38 strikes & 16 balls). Kelley struck-out four and walked one in giving up six hits for two earned runs. Big Mac threw the middle two innings and threw 38 pitches (26 strikes & 12 balls) in facing 11 Miners. Big Mac mowed 'em down in the fifth 1-2-3 with two Ks, but the inning before took eight batters with four runs on four hits and a walk. And the inning started so nicely with a ground ball down the line that hit the bag and bounced up to Bake playing third for an easy 5-3 play. Keppie finished the game throwing 48 pitches (27 strikes & 21 balls) in facing 12 batters in the last three innings in earning the save. Dave gave up just one hit with two strike-outs and one walk to close out the game.

The offense was awesome through two innings and then the Ol' Buzzard bats took a nap. 12 of the team's 16 hits were in the first two innings. The hit club for the game in batting order included Speedee (2), Donut, Keppie (2-doubles), Woody, Caveman (2), Bake (double), Wookie (2), Bull Dog (double), Baron (3) and Evy. Eagle-eyed Buzzards got seven walks: Bull Dog, Keppie, McCabe (2), Milli (2), and Weed. The ribbies were plentiful and tasty and driven-in by Bake, Baron (3), Big Mac, Bull Dog, Caveman (2), Evy, Milli, Speedee, Weed, Woody and Wookie.

The defense was solid as the Miners tested the Buzzard's ability to catch balls in the air at the higher Colfax altitude. Of the game's 24 outs, nine were fly balls or pop-ups. There were only seven ground ball outs in the game with one double play in the seventh - a sweet looking 6-4-3, Evy to Welzy to Bake. There were also eight strike-outs. A nice game and two wins before the Mother's Day break. The Buzzard record is now 4-1.

Buzzard Note #1: Thanks to Ray and Liz Henry for inviting the team over after the game to devour enchiladas, cold drinks, chips with home-made guac, salads and cookies. Fabulous food and ump Cookie joined us.

Buzzard Note #2: The next games will be a split double-header on May 20th. Due to the early season rain-outs, the schedule now includes one split double-header for each team. Ours is coming next. That means the Buzzards will play two games (9-innings) at two different sites that day. The schedule is not complete yet, but we have been told we will play the Valley Cats at 10 am in Elk Grove at the new sports park next to Franklin High School, Bartholomew Park; then a 2:30 second game in Galt (not far from 1st game) or a 3 pm second game at Antelope or Citrus Heights against the Astros. More to come, but this may help you plan for that upcoming long day.

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