Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #4

Game: May 4, 2014

Buzzards prevail over Solons, 11-4

The month of May is already here and game number four of the season pitted the Gold Country Buzzards against the Sacramento Solons. The morning game at James Field required the Buzzards to flock-over early and get the field ready and warm-up in the cool low 60° temps. The Solons, managed by John Mason, continue to improve and recently added a top-notch catcher to go along with their solid pitching. The improved Solons showed up early and really wanted to beat the Buzzards.

The pitching match-ups for the game were the tough southpaw, Tom 'Fozzy' DeFazio #31, throwing hard and working fast for the visiting Solons, while the Buzzards sent the hard-throwing crafty right-hander, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1, to the mound.

The Solons went on the attack early and scored two runs in the top of the first inning. The game opened with a tough infield error on a speedy lead-off batter. One out later, back-to-back hits mixed with a throwing boo-boo scored two runs before another out was made. A terrific play on a hot come-backer by Surf Dawg got the second out, which mimicked the first out earlier in the inning. The inning ended on a fly-out to center field with a runner in scoring position.

The 'starting to feel it' Solons began the second inning with two stinging hits, putting runners at first and second. Next, a grounder up-the-middle was snagged right behind second base by Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir. A step on the bag and throw to Jim 'Milli' Milligan at first base, turned the timely play into a rally snuffing double play.

The pesky Solons still managed a two-strike, run-scoring sharp single to right to score a run in the inning. The sharp liner was fielded cleanly by Paul 'General' Lee playing short right-field, but the speedy runner just beat the strong throw to first base.

After a 1-2-3 Buzzard second inning, the score after two was Solons 3, Buzzards zip.

The sprinklers surprisingly, starting along the line in right field, came on between innings. It took over a 10-minute delay to find the field guy to turn off the auto-timer and resume the game. The delay and the water spray may have helped cooled off the Solons.

After a quiet top half of the third for the visitors, the Buzzard bats heated-up and then pounded out five runs to take the lead. The big inning started with a base-on-balls to Mike 'Mickey' Wilson. Up next, General Lee spanked a bouncer to third that was muffed, putting runners at second and first. Barry 'Crush' Forman followed with a hard-swinging flare hit to left(?) field to drive in a hustlin' Mickey with the first Buzzard run. Next, Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley singled to short center to load the bases with no outs.

Batting next, Wookie hit a high chopper to short for a force-out at second that scored the General from third. The subsequent throw to first was late and wide of the bag and bounced to the dugout fence, allowing an alert Barry to score from second on the play and tie the score at 3-3. With one on and one out, Wookie stole second base before Dave 'Evy' Everingham singled to center putting Buzzards at the corners. Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray, with his family watching, then smoked a 1-0 pitch into deep left-field to score Wook and a racing Evy. Norm 'Burner' Tucker then followed with a five-pitch walk to put two runners on, but the inning ended quickly with two infield outs to make the score 5-3 Buzzards after three.

The Solons threatened in the fourth, but did not score. The Buzzards kept the pressure on by adding two more runs to the scoreboard in the bottom half of the fourth frame.

With one out, General Lee started it off with a base hit to left. After a passed-ball put the General at second, Crush slashed another hit to left-field to drive in the speeding General, who scored on a head-first slide in a close play at home plate. After two were out, Wook hit a bloop-single into no-man's-land on the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners. Batting next, Evy singled to right-center to knock in Crush with run number seven. The Baron then hit a screamer to left-center that loaded the bases with two outs. Up next, Burner's huge swing at the first pitch resulted in a nice breeze and a worm killer grounder to the pitcher's mound to end the dig with the score 7-3 Buzzards.

The Ol' Buzzards changed pitchers to start the sixth inning. The mix-'em-up right-hander, Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri #6, took the mound with a four-run lead. The Solons fought back, though, in the top of the sixth starting with a two-out double, that was hit way over the left fielder's head. Then a seven-pitch walk was followed by a single to center-field to score a run for the 7-4 score.

In the seventh dig, the 11-man Gold Country gang notched two more runs. Evy led-off with his third hit of the game, a single to left, and then stole second base before the Baron walked with a full-count. With one out and after a wild pitch moved the runners up, Milli roped one to left- field to score Evy. Salmo followed with a hard slap into left-field for a run-scoring single to plate a hustlin' Baron. With two outs, the General got on base for the fourth time with his third hit of the game, a rope into left-field to load the bases before the inning ended with the score Buzzards 9 and Solons 4.

The Buzzard defense continued to make nice plays behind the solid pitching to prevent a come-back attempt by the Solons during the game.

By the eighth inning, the Buzzies added to the score again with two more runs to put the game on ice. Surf Dawg started it off with a lead-off walk. Tomahawk followed with a knock to center-field putting two Buzzards on. Wookie then pulled a pitch sharply down the line that bounced off of the first baseman and into right-field to score a run. Later with one out and Tomahawk at third, the Baron launched a high-fly to deep left-field to score Tom with the last run of the game. The score after eight frames was 11-4 Buzzards.

The Solons attempted a rally in the ninth inning, but Salmo bore-down and struck-out the last two batters to end the 9-inning, 2¾ hour game with a final score of Buzzards 11 and Solons 4.

Buzzard pitching was excellent again against this good hitting team. Surf Dawg won his fourth game of the season. Gregg threw five innings and faced 22 Solons while throwing 68 pitches (43 strikes & 25 balls). Novotny gave up three runs (one earned) on five hits and only one walk with one strike-out. Salmo pitched the last four innings and finished the game for the Buzzards. Rick faced 17 Solons while throwing 69 pitches (41 strikes & 28 balls). The Solons got one run on three hits and two walks, while Salmeri struck out five. Fabulous pitching for the entire game held the swinging Solons in-check with just eight hits and three walks.

The Fightin' Buzzard offense produced 11 runs on 16 hits and five walks. The hit club for the game included: Baron (2), Crush (2), Evy (3), General (3), Milli, Salmo, Tomahawk (2) and Wookie (2). The ribbies were knocked in by: Evy, Crush (2), Milli, Salmo, Wook (2) and the Baron with 3 big ones. The all-important 11 runs were credited to: Baron, Crush (2), Evy (2), General (2), Mickey, Surf Dawg, Tomahawk and Wook. The five eagle-eyed Buzzards getting free passes to first base were: Baron, Burner, Mickey, Surf Dawg and Wookie.

Another good offensive effort against a tough and hard-throwing opponent. It's apparent, Ol' Buzzards still like hot ones across the plate.

The defense was a little shaky at the start, but the Buzzards woke up and played well once the feathers warmed-up by the second dig. There was only one double play pulled off (4-3, Wook-to-Milli) in the second, but there were several opportunities and one badly blown call by the ump at second base earlier. Pete made several amazing plays and stretches at first base to get 10 critical put-outs with that great vacuum-feature on his mitt. Milli, showing off his versatility, had nine put-outs at three different positions - first base, third base, and catcher during the game. Evy had only four assists, but every single grounder needed excellent glove work and a strong accurate throw to get the out. Wookie was busy at second with three put-outs and two assists.

Surf Dawg handled the mound defense well with three tough assists and one hot liner before moving to third base for another assist. That play needed a yoga-stretch that looked like a full-splits by the Baron on the throw to open the seventh. There was at least one micro-millimeter of distance to spare on the throw. What a catch!

There were four fly-ball outs; two in the fourth inning. The first out was a nice catch by Mickey in left-field with a runner on. And followed later by General Lee's catch in short right-field to end the inning with two runners going on the pitch. Tomahawk had two catches in center-field. A high-fly to end the first frame with a runner in scoring position, and an impressive running-sliding catch for the second out of the eighth to show-off for his wife, Sherri.

Another excellent Buzzard victory with no injuries. This one was a come-from-behind version. Good job, so far, with a 4-0 record in the early 2014 season.

Buzzard Note #1: No game on Mother's Day, next Sunday. The game on May 18th is a 6 pm start time at Playfields Park in Davis, the only evening game of the season. Drinks and snacks afterwards in the smoking section of the parking lot.

Buzzard Note #2: The 2014 Buzzard baseball schedule is attached. The Radio Game this year will be June 29th. If no more rain-outs, the play-offs will start on September 14th with the championship game the following Sunday on September 21st.

Buzzard Note #3: The Buzzard web site is not quite ready yet. Coming by Mother's Day.