Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #15

Game: August 17, 2014

Buzzards do the Yankee stomp, 28-6

On a warm Sunday afternoon in Auburn with temps in the low 90s, the first place Buzzards were up against the last place Yankees in their final regular season meeting of the season. The Yanks brought a large contingent with some fans and actually travel quite well, especially for an 0-14 team. The Yankees are a friendly bunch of older guys that like to chit-chat with the other team. They have two players over 70 and several in their late 60s that start, so they are easy pickings for the Buzzards and the rest of the league. Some of the fans were not as nice and were taunting the Buzzard batters throughout the game with stuff like, hey batter, batter, ..... swing. Which probably never worked, even in the old days in Little League? Pretty funny actually.

The starting pitcher for the visiting Yankees was a rubber-armed right-hander, Mike 'McMuffin' McHenry #14. The Gold Country Buzzards sent the hard-throwing righty, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1 to the hill with a 7-0 record this season as a starting pitcher.

The Buzzards started the scoring with six runs in the bottom of the first inning. The lead-off hitter, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz doubled on a 1-1 count to right-center and then advanced to third base on the throw from right-field. Batting next, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir hit the second pitch sharply through the right-side for a base hit and scored Welzy for the first run. A hit parade then followed with the next five Buzzards getting hits and the sixth a walk before the first out was registered.

Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley led the hit barrage with an infield hit down the third base line. Fred 'Freddie' O'Donoghue followed with a liner to center to score Wookie. With a smooth easy stroke, Norm 'Burner' Tucker, knocked a run-scoring single to right-center-field sending Tomahawk across the plate. Up next, Dave 'mMumbles' Kelley smacked a line-drive into left-field for a single to load the bases. Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia then looped a single into left for a hit to score Freddie and re-load the bases.

With no outs, Mike 'Mickey' Wilson walked on a full-count to push in Burner for the fifth run. The next two batters hit into fielder's choices driving in one more run before the inning ended with a long fly ball out and a six to nothing lead.

The Buzzards scored two more in the second inning for an 8-0 lead. Tomahawk started it off with a screamer to left-field for a single. Two outs and one steal later, Tomahawk was on second. mMumbles then knocked in Tomahawk with an infield hit through the left-side. Up next, Cagey sent a scorcher down the third baseline for a run-scoring single. Mickey walked on a full-count again to put two runners on before the inning ended on a running catch in right-field of Paul 'General' Lee's long drive.

The Yanks scored three runs in the top half of the third frame. The Yankees' hitting sequence to score the three runs was interesting. Base hit, strike-out, base hit, strike-out, base hit, eight-pitch walk for a run, and a first-pitch single to score the final two runs. Score: 8-3 Buzzards.

The Gold Country gang of 10 scored those three runs back in their half of the third dig. Welzy led-off with a first-pitch bunt single. Taylor then stole second and moved to third on the over-throw by the catcher. Wookie walked on a full-count before Tomahawk knocked in Welzy with a single to left-field. Next, Freddie singled to load the bases with Ol' Buzzards. Paul ran for Fred. Wook then scored on a fielder's choice by Burner. With one out, the General scored on a fielder's choice by Cagey to end the scoring in the inning. The Buzzards now led 11 to 3.

The Yankees bounced back in the fourth with three more runs to make the game closer at 11-6. After an out, four straight singles followed by a tough infield pop-up for Welzy on the outfield grass playing short, then a two-run single to right-field closed the Yankee scoring for the day.

With only a five-run lead entering the fourth frame, the Buzzards were determined to add more distance on the scoreboard and end this game early with the mercy-rule. The General led-off with a hard single to left. Surf Dawg hit an infield single before Welzy sent a flare to right-center to load the bases with no outs. Wookie then bounced a single through the left-side to knock-in General Lee. Tomahawk followed with a run-scoring fielder's choice. Freddie, up next, banged out a liner to left-center for a single and scored Wook from second to make the score 14-6 after four frames and over two hours of time.

In the fifth dig, the Ol' Buzzards dumped a boatload of runs on the Yankees to tilt the score board with 14 runs and make for a long inning with three pitchers. The run parade started with a leadoff walk to mMumbles. The next batter struck-out, but the following four: Mickey, General, Surf Dawg and Welzy walked on 16 straight balls. Up next, Wookie swung at the first pitch and sent a liner into left-field for a hit and scored Lee. Tomahawk then hit a 1-1 outside offering to right-field for a two-run single that scored Surf Dawg and Welzy.

Still in the fifth, an error by the third baseman put Freddie on board first and scored Wookie. Burner then hit a high pop-up that fell in the infield untouched for a single. mMumbles batting for the second time in the inning, singled up-the-middle on a tough hit. Cagey then hit a flare to left for a single to drive in Freddie. Mickey walked for the fourth time in the game before the General laced a two-run single to right-field. Surf Dawg, batting next, blasted the first-pitch into the left-center field gap with the ball rolling to the fence to score Mickey. Batting next, Welzy doubled to deep left-field and drove in the General and Surf Dawg for the final two runs of the inning.

The Yankees did not score in the top of the sixth, but the three-hour time limit was just about up, so the umps called the game with the final score 28-6.

Buzzard pitching was excellent and consisted of three pitchers with Wilson getting his Buzzard debut on the mound. Novotny pitched the first four innings and faced 24 Yankees in throwing 85 pitches (60 strikes & 25 balls). Surf Dawg gave up six runs (three earned) on 10 hits with two walks and five strike-outs. Freddie threw the fifth frame and faced three batters in throwing 12 pitches (8 strikes & 4 balls). O'Donoghue gave up no runs or hits and had one strike-out. Mickey pitched the final inning for his Buzzard debut. Wilson threw 19 pitches (9 strikes & 10 balls) in facing five Yanks. Mickey gave up no runs on one hit with one walk and one strike-out to end the game.

The Buzzard's swung their hittin' sticks with aggressive patience. The 26 hits showed good hard contact and kept the line moving for much of the game. The hit club for the game was impressive with lots of base hits for: Burner (2), Cagey (3), Freddie (3), General (2), mMumbles (3), Surf Dawg (2), Tomahawk (4), Welzy (4), and Wookie (3). The many RBIs were knocked in by: Burner (2), Cagey (3), Freddie (2), General (2), Mickey (2), mMumbles (3), Surf Dawg (2), Tomahawk (3), Welzy (4), and Wook (3). The always important runs were scored by: (in batting order) Welzy (4), Wookie (4), Tomahawk (3), Freddie (3), Burner (2), mMumbles (3), Cagey (2), Mickey (2), General (3), and Surf Dawg (2). There were 10 walks issued by Yankee pitchers. The Ol’ Buzzards using their eagle-eyes were: General, Mickey (4), mMumbles, Surf Dawg, Welzy, and Wookie (2). The bats stayed hot and the Buzzards scored in every inning.

The Buzzard defense was solid and supported the good pitching. With only six defensive innings played, there were only 18 outs made. There were seven strike-outs, six for outs. Surf Dawg had to get four outs in the second inning. After the second batter got aboard via a wild pitch strike-out in the dirt, he was eliminated by the only Buzzard double play of the game. Welzy fielded the up-the-middle grounder behind second base and then stepped on the bag and threw a strike to Cagey at first to end the inning.

There were two fly ball outs during the game. The first out of the fourth frame was a ‘can of corn’ for mMumbles in right-field. The other fly-out, the first out in the sixth inning, was more challenging as a running catch in right-center with Tomahawk looking into the sun. It was a tough catch made to look easy by a hustlin’ Keatley.

There were two plays made at third. Wookie made a good play on a slow chopper by charging hard and throwing a strike to Cagey to end the fourth. mMumbles made a nice play on a tough bouncer in the fifth and threw to first to complete a rare - Kelley to Kelly play. At shortstop, Welzy had only two assists to go with the one pop-fly put-out. Burner had the only assist at second base, showing off his range with a hard grounder to his right, for the first out of the second inning.

The pitchers also defended their position with come-backers and pop-ups. Surf Dawg snagged a come-backer in the third frame for the final out, and Freddie made the third out in the fifth inning with a nice play and throw to Cagey at first base. Not to be out-done, Mickey made an excellent catch of a high pop-up standing on top of the mound in the sixth. Freddie and Burner did fabulous jobs, as usual, calling and catching this game.

Good game Buzzards, plus no one got hurt. Game number 16 is in the books with a 13-2-1 record. Just four games left to play including the playoffs.

The next game is Sunday at James Field at 10 am against the Solons.