Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Buzzards Game Report #12

June 21, 2009 

Buzzards Slaughter Astros, 22-0 

On a gorgeous Father’s Day morning in Colfax, the Gold Country team was giddy with the fact that the Dads were ‘king for the day’ and they got to spend part of it playing baseball with a bunch of Ol’ Buzzards.  The Buzzards were hosting the Astros in a match-up on paper that foretold of an easy Buzzard prey.  The League Commissioner, Barry Spiller, and his Astros gave it a shot, but the Ol’ Buzzards put it to them all day in an easy 22-0 victory.  With plenty of fans out to watch the Father’s Day game, the Buzzards were looking to feast on Astros’ pitching.  The Astros sent big, no make that huge, Steve Bredy #27 to the mound to face the Buzzards’ southpaw, Dave “Keppy” Kephart #21. 

The Buzzards started the scoring in the first inning with three runs.  The Astros’ Big Man Bredy was having a hard time throwing consistent strikes.  Taylor “Welzy” Welz walked then stole second before Dan “Wookie” Wukmir got his base on balls.  Keppy hit a 2-0 pitch to left field for a deep double scoring two runs.  Mike “Bake” Baker then walked on five pitches.  With one out, Gary “Stoney” Stonebrook hit a pop-up to the third baseman, who tripped trying to catch the drifting pop-up.  With bases loaded, Steve “Cookie” Cook walked on five pitches to force in the third run.  The Astros changed pitchers after Cookie’s base on balls.  They brought in Ron Turner #13 from first base to take the mound against the Buzzards.  Turner struck out the next two batters on questionable calls to end the inning. 

In the second inning, the home team scored six runs to take a commanding 9-0 lead.  Mark “Ronnie” Wronski started it off with a nice line drive single to center off a very low 3-2 count pitch.  Welzy then singled to center to put runners at second and first.  With one out, Keppy singled sharply to right field to load the bases for Baker.  Mike did not disappoint when he crushed a double to the fence in center field driving in two runs.  Pete “Baron” Von Zboray followed with his own double to the left field fence sending in two more Buzzards.  Stoney followed with an infield hit and Cookie was then hit by a 1-1 pitch on the back of the leg to load the bases again.  Charles “CJ” Jackson, today’s catcher, hit a screaming liner to the left fielder playing real deep for a sacrifice fly-out knocking in a run.  CJ hit the ball ‘scary’ hard all day, but usually foul.  CJ got some tough calls with two strikes from the ump during the game.  Barry “Brooklyn” Forman ended the scoring by hitting a soft liner to right-center field driving in Stoney. 

Many of the Astros were flailing at Keppy’s pitches.  The first hit was an ‘excuse me’ to right field in the third inning with one out.  The runner advanced to second on a wild pitch, but he was stranded there with a fly-out and strike-out to end the inning.  The Astros did get two hits in the next inning, but a nice defensive play shut them down.  The fourth inning started with the top of the order getting two solid singles.  The next batter #23 bunted a ball off of his foot and gimped around for awhile before finally getting back in the batter’s box.  This pesky batter not only points his bat at the pitcher until the wind-up begins, but he also tried to call a quick time-out and jumped out of the box as Keppy was in his motion.  He was asking to get plinked, but Keppy threw wicked strikes instead to get him to pop-up in front of home plate.  Keppy made a nice running, stretching catch of the short pop-up.  Their clean-up hitter then hit a sharp grounder to Cookie playing second base.  Cookie fielded the ball nicely and threw a strike to Welzy covering second base from shortstop.  Welzy’s toss to Bake at first made a sweet looking 4-6-3 double play and squashed any attempt to score by the Astros.  That was the last hit and scoring threat for the visiting team from Citrus Heights. 

The Buzzards added two more with one out in the third when Wookie scored from second base on Baker’s single to left-center field and the Baron knocked in Welzy, running for the pitcher, from third on a fielder’s-choice to make the score 11-0.  

The fourth saw the Buzzards explode for seven runs as they sent 14 men to the plate.  The inning started with Cookie gettin’ hit by a pitch again.  Something was attracting that ball to Steve today.  The second time it hit him was in the rear end on a 1-2 pitch.  Cookie needs to work on his dodge ball routine and avoid those pitches better.  Cookie did lead the team last year in being hit by pitches and is now tied for the lead this season with two bruises along with Welzy and Woody. 

After an out, Barry smashed a double to left field scoring Cook.  Brooklyn advanced to third on a wild pitch and Ronnie knocked him in with a single to left field.  David “mMumbles” Kelley brought his brand new bat to home plate and walked on five pitches.  Welzy followed with a deep double to left field driving in a run.  The Astros then changed pitchers for the third time.  This time little hot head, John “former 2008 Valley Dog and 2009 Yankee” Lenzie #44 was going to the mound.  We faced John in the second game of the season, April 5^th, at Antelope High when he was a Yankee.  Wookie then walked on a nine pitch at-bat.  Keppy, wasting no time, blasted the second pitch to deep left field scoring two more Buzzards.  The Baron kept it going by hitting a line drive to center field scoring two more runs to make the score 18-0 Buzzards. 

The circling Buzzards struck their Astros prey once more in the sixth inning.  Ronnie led it off with a towering blast to deep center field over the head of the tumbling commissioner, Spiller, for a huff and puff triple.  Kelley then hit a liner to the shortstop moving toward third.  The shortstop made a nice catch but then knocked the ball out of his own glove with his knee while still running to allow mMumbles to get to first.  Strange play.  Welzy then singled home a run with his line drive to left.  With one out, Keppy then hit his third double of the day, this time to right field and pushed two more runs in for a total of six ribbies today.  Bake then finished the scoring by knocking in the 22^nd run with a flair to left field.  Wow, that’s a lot of work for our scorekeeper.  Thanks Diane. 

Proud Keppy, returning from his daughter’s graduation at UC Irvine, had a terrific Father’s Day performance.  Not only did Big D throw a three-hit shutout with nine strikeouts and no walks, he got four hits, scored five times and knocked in six runs.  Wow!  Keppy faced 23 Astros in the seven inning (mercy-rule) game, throwing 82 pitches (61 strikes & 21 balls). 

The defense was excellent with no errors and good plays when Kep wasn’t striking out the batters.  Of the 12 defensive outs only one was a fly ball out - to Barry in left field in the third inning.  Bake was busy at first base with seven put-outs plus two throws from the catcher, CJ, on loose balls after a swinging third strike.  Ronnie had the first assist of the game on the opening play of the game.  A nice play on the slow roller up the line followed by a strong throw to nail a fast runner, and a solid play on Big Steve Bredy’s huge swing ground ball to third in the fifth.  Wookie caught a line drive for the third out of the first inning at shortstop and got an assist playing second base with a grounder for the first out of the fifth inning.  Cookie played second base especially well today.  Steve caught a liner in the first, a 4-3 in the second, a good looking 4-6-3 in the fourth inning to stop a rally, and he showed good range in making the last two outs of the game as 4-3’s. 

The offense was very impressive – scoring early and often is always a good goal.  Eight Buzzards got 19 hits and everyone got on base.  The multi-hit group includes Keppy-4, Welzy-3 Ronnie-3, Baron-2, and Brooklyn-2 hits each.  There were seven extra base hits with six doubles, three by Keppy, and the triple by Ronnie to open the sixth inning.  Today’s ribbies were brought to you by Keppy-6, Baron-5, Bake-4, Welzy-2, Barry-2 plus Cookie and Ronnie with one.  Lots of hits and runs make for fun score keeping and a long game report. 

The fans seemed to enjoy the one-sided game, while the Buzzards enjoyed scoring 22 runs.  An 11-1 record is the important point, so good job again, Buzzards. 

Buzzard Note #1: The Father’s Day game brought out family and friends for Stoney, Welzy, Ronnie, Cookie, Wookie and CJ.  The Baron’s family was there in spirit as they called Pete dozens of times during the game – to report that his daughters were winning the Folsom national qualifier softball tournament.  Pete is missing the next two games taking the girls team to Colorado and may miss more games now as they have qualified to go to Las Vegas next month.  

Buzzard Note #2: Wagner’s team and family party is this weekend, right after the Patriots game.  Jim will be providing the ribs, burgers and dogs plus soft and hard drinks.  We get to bring the other stuff.  A-J bring an appetizer or chips and dip or salsa, K-V bring a salad or side dish, W’s bring dessert.  If you have something different you want to bring, that’s OK.  It will be warm-hot this Sunday, so cooling off in the pool is advised.  You will be getting a phone call for RSVP purposes prior to the game. 

Buzzard Note #3: All Star voting ballots will be passed out prior to the game.  The Buzzards will get five spots on the National Division team plus a manager.  You will get five votes.  The All Star game will be Wednesday, July 8.  

Buzzard Note #4: The KAHI radio game is coming up on July 26.  Bios will be needed for the announcer to use when you come to bat and make that great play in the field.  Bio sheets will be passed out to be filled out and turned into Kelley.  The radio station is receiving weekly press releases from the Gold Country Buzzards Baseball Club to use on the daily, Afternoon Show, from 4-7 pm on 950 AM or at their web site: kahi.com. 

Buzzard Note #5: The Wednesday night Auburn baseball league starts on July 1.  If you want to play some baseball and get some more swings, this is a casual and enjoyable way to do it.  See Kelley for more details.