Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #7

Game: May 17, 2015

Ol' Buzzards shot down by young Colt .45s, 13-12

On a cool and cloudy Sunday afternoon, the Buzzards returned home to James Field in Auburn for game seven of the season. Still feeling down with the loss of Dave Kelley and not quite in sync with missing players, the Buzzards were playing the top team in the 42+ division, the undefeated Colt .45s. The short-handed Buzzards dipped into the Pirates' reservoir and picked up Mike Baker and Scott Reeves for 11 players for the tough game.

The visiting Colt .45s used their nasty southpaw ace, Pat ' Big Chin Whiskers' Taylor #08 to start and pitch most of the game. The Gold Country Buzzards sent veteran righty, Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri #6 and 3-1 on the season to the mound to take on the high-octane team. The Buzzards were going to have to play excellent defense against the running and gunning, Colt .45s team.

The top of the first started with a full-count walk, then a tough-bounce infield error and a looong fly out. A 'no man's land' infield dribbler then loaded the bases before consecutive doubles, blasts to the fence and a deep gaper, put four quick runs on the board for the .45s.

The Buzzards bounced back in the bottom half with two quick scores of their own. Kevin 'Flash' Krantz led-off with a scorcher down the left field line for a double. Up next, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir drove a single up-the-middle to knock in Flash with the first run. Dave 'Evy' Everingham then dropped one into right-center-field for a base hit.

Batting clean-up, Mike 'Bake' Baker hit a grounder to the right-side that was heading into right-field, but the ball jumped up and hit Evy as he ran to second for an unfortunate out. With runners on the corners and Flash running for Bake at first, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray was at the plate. The Baron got to watch Flash in a 'pickle' and Wookie score before ending the inning with the score 4-2.

The Ol' Buzzards only notched a run in the second after loading the bases with one out. Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley started it off with a crisp single to left. Tomahawk moved to second on a wild pitch. Next, Jim 'Milli' Milligan sliced a single to left-center, but the resultant play was a throw-out of a sliding Tomahawk at home for out number-one. Batting next, Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia hit a tough grounder to third that was bobbled for an error. Scott 'Donut' Reeves followed with a walk to load the bases. Up next, Flash bounced an infield hit to the left-side hole to get Tomahawk home for the only run of the inning. The score after two frames was 4-3 with the six-shooters in the lead.

The Colt .45s added three to the scorebook in the fourth frame with eight batters going to the plate. A lead-off hit batsman, three singles, a walk and a bad 'pickle' led to the long inning.

In the second half of the fourth inning, the Buzzards fought back with four runs to tighten the game. Milli led-off with a line-drive to left-center for the hit. Tomahawk ran for Milli. Up next, Cagey slammed a double down the left-field line that scored a hustling Tomahawk from first base. Donut, batting next and swinging left-handed, stroked a single to left-center with KG going to third.

Donut stole second before Flash crushed one into the left-center field gap for a double that scored Tomahawk and Donut. Wookie followed with a flare into right-center for a single to put runners at the corners. Flash then scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Evy to tie the exciting game at 7-up.

The gold country gang used the fifth inning to take the lead with a two-out three-run rally. After two ground outs, Milli started it off with a sharp single past a diving third baseman. Tomahawk ran for Milli. Cagey bounced an infield hit into two on and two out. Donut followed with an infield hit to load the bases for hot-hitting Flash. Kevin's smash toward the left-side hole was flagged down by the third baseman, but he was staggered a little on the play and had to rush his throw. The wide throw got past the first baseman as Tomahawk and Cagey scored on the play. Batting next, Wookie choked-up on the bat with an 0-2 count and hit a hard grounder through the hole on the right-side for a single to score Flash easily from second and gave the Buzzards a lead at 10-7 after five digs.

The feisty .45s stormed right back with three runs in the sixth to tie the game again. Three singles, a double and sloppy defense allowed the runs. Salmo was up to 113 pitches by this point, so the call to the bullpen brought the versatile, righty Scottie Reeves #4 to finish the sixth. A three-pitch strike-out later and the sixth was over with the score knotted at 10-10.

The Ol' Buzzards put up a good fight and scored twice in the seventh to take a late lead. Cagey started it off by getting on first via an infield error. Up next, Donut bunted toward third and a rushed low throw allowed him to get on first base and moved Cagey to third. Flash's chopper to third put Cagey in a 'pickle' that did not end well. Wookie followed with a sizzling laser toward the left-field line for a double that rolled to the fence and scored a hustlin' Donut and Flash to give the Buzzards a 12-10 lead.

Due to time, the eighth inning was going to be the last. The swinging .45s dropped-in the first hit to short center and followed that with two more singles to quickly load the bases with no outs. The revolvers scored the first run on a terrible bounce grounder that could have been a double play. On the next play, the Buzzards did get a strange double play.

The play started with a slow roller between the Baron at first and the pitcher, Donut. They both went for the ball before Donut found the handle first and tossed the ball to Wookie covering the bag for a close out. The runner at third took a wide turn, so Wook fired over to third base. On the throw, the runner broke for home. Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny, who was playing third base, took the throw, turned and threw a strike to Milli at home to nail the rabbit with a 1-4-5-2 double play.

Two hard line-drives followed, though, to finish putting three runs on the board. The inning ended with runners going on a 3-2 pitch and Tomahawk making a fabulous diving catch in right-field to wow the teams and fire-up the Buzzards for their last at-bats.

Alas, the relief pitcher and another lefty, Dave 'Pokey' Poling #00, had the Buzzard batters hitting just off of the sweet-spot and ended the inning with no runs. The final score of the eight-inning, 3-hour and 15 minute game was Colt .45s 13 - Buzzards 12.

That was a tough game and a tougher loss. A key hit, better defense or better running could have made for a more pleasant ending. The .45s were a good bunch of guys, who really appreciated and raved about the tough competition as they shared the parking lot corner with the Buzzards after the game. Still, that close ... to knocking off the young brats, even when the Buzzards did not play their best. Next time will be different.

There was a lot of action in the game with a high number of batters (93) going to the plate (49 Guns & 44 Buzzards). Both teams hit the heck out of the ball and bruised up the pitchers. The Buzzards banged out 20 hits, while the Colt .45s had 19. Buzzard pitching gave up the hits, but not many earned runs.

Salmo pitched into the sixth and faced 35 pistols. He threw 113 pitches (70 strikes & 43 balls) in giving up 10 runs (3 earned) on 13 hits, two walks and a hit batsman with one strike-out. Donut finished the game after putting out the fire in the sixth. Scottie threw 48 pitches (28 strikes & 20 balls) to 14 batters. T-Rex gave up three runs (none earned) on six hits with one walk and one strike-out.

The Buzzard bats did damage all day. 20 hits is a lot of base knocks, but it still was a few short of a win. The hit club for this game included: Bake-2, Baron, Cagey-2, Donut-2, Evy, Flash-3, Milli-3, Tomahawk-2, and Wookie with 4. The run-scoring extra-base hits were doubles by: Cagey, Flash-2 and Wook. The RBIs were interestingly bunched up in the top of the batting order in this game. The runs were knocked in by: Cagey, Evy, Flash-5, and Wookie-4. The first two spots in the order accounted for 9 of the 12 runs. The 12 runs were scored by: Cagey-2, Donut-3, Flash-3, Milli-3, and Wook. The lone eagle-eyed walker was Donut.

The Buzzard defenders were busy, but missed a couple of opportunities to shorten some innings. The good hitting Colt .45s also flew-out five times, but there were no easy catches. Cagey chased a few in the outfield and caught the last out of the second inning in deepest left-field. Flash in center had two put-outs, one for the first out of the game was a hot liner and the other was a nice grab also on the run in the fourth. Tomahawk in right-field had two put-outs, both at full sprint speed in making the tough catches.

The Baron at first base had 10 put-outs, nine on throws, so the big glove was working hard during the game. Six other put-outs were made by infielders. Evy caught two high evil pop-ups at shortstop and Bake, playing third, caught a sky-higher in foul ground in the second. And there were three put-outs on throws to Wook at second base. There were a high number of assists with 15 to get the 24 outs of the game: Bake-3, Donut, Evy-5, Salmo, Surf Dawg, and Wookie-4. It was a fun and very competitive game and no one got hurt.

The balls were also bruised from all of the hits in the see-saw affair. The lead changed hands five times during the eight-inning game. The schedule shows the .45s and the Buzzards meeting again on July 26th at Playfields Park in Davis.

Buzzard Note #1: The remembrance service for Dave Kelley on Saturday, May 9th, on James Field was touching and worked out well for his family. The Kelley Family sends their thanks.

Buzzard Note #2: The Radio Game is coming soon. We are looking for sponsors to get radio commercial time for their businesses for $50. Previous sponsors can expect a phone call from the Skipper. The BBQ or Mexican feast will cost a few dollars this year. The Miners will be joining us after the game. The Radio Game is on June 7th at 2 pm at James Field.