Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #1

Game: April 3, 2011

Buzzards drop the Dragons in the bottom of the ninth, 5-4

On a perfect Spring Sunday morning, the Buzzards began to gather early at James Field in Auburn for opening day of the 2011 NABA baseball season. The Dragons were historically a tough opponent and showed up with 16 players looking to start their season by clipping the Buzzards’ wings. The Dragons just missed the playoffs last year so manager, Larry Whitmer, added a couple of all-stars from the defunct Sultans plus super stud John Daly to make them a much stronger all-around team.

The Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards were opening the season this year at James Field in Auburn - breaking a five-year tradition of opening in Colfax. The Buzzards have lofty goals for the 2011 season and are aiming for a fourth straight appearance in the Sacramento NABA finals - champs in 2008 and losing to the Reds in the third and final game of the championship series in 2009 and 2010. The Buzzards open this season with three new players to strengthen the line-up and they were sending one of the new guys, southpaw Jim “Moxey” Steiger #13, to the mound for the season opener at home. The Dragons countered with their ace, right-hander Jeff “Big Red” Hansen #11 on the hill.

The Dragons started the game aggressively with a first pitch single to left field by the lead-off hitter. Following a fielder’s choice, then a surprise stolen base by the ‘sneaky slow’ Alan “Rocketman” Van Ness, and then a groundout left the runner at second base with two outs. On a 3-2 pitch, the clean-up hitter, Ted “Pretty Boy” Peart, hit a liner into left field scoring Rocketman for the game’s first run.

The Dragons scored a run in the second inning starting with an eight-pitch lead-off walk. Batting next, Mark “Flat Nose” Parsons, playing catcher today, hit a 2-2 pitch into left field for a single. Mark broke his nose last year in the second game of the season against the Buzzards on a bazaar play. He swung a little early at a high hard curve ball from Dave Kephart and fouled the ball straight into his face - flatting his nose. With a bleeding flat nose and a short-handed team, Mark had to drive himself from Colfax High to the nearest emergency hospital in Auburn that morning. He used to be a good looking guy, but that crooked nose does add character.

After a balk? and a strikeout, there were two Dragons on base with one out. The next batter bounced a tough grounder to third that was bobbled allowing the runner to score from third base for run number two for the green Dragons.

The Buzzards put two runs on the board in the bottom of the second inning to tie the score. With one out, Scott “Donut” Reeves hit a first-pitch fast ball over the left fielder’s head for a good looking double. After a ground-out moved Scottie to third, Taylor “Welzy” Welz drove a 1-2 pitch into left field for a two-out, run scoring single for the first Buzzard run of the year. Welzy then stole second base before Dave “Evy” ‘like Chevy’ Everingham knocked him home on a line drive single into right field. Evy then stole second base before the inning ended with the score knotted at two after two innings.

The Buzzards changed pitchers in the fifth inning. Moxey had a family gathering in Sacramento so the Buzzards sent Mark “Weed” Fowler #11 to the bump. It took Weeder a couple of batters to get his bearings on the mound - putting the first two batters on base. After a wild pitch moved the runners up a base, Fowler tried a pick-off at second base that sailed into center field allowing one run to score. A strikeout followed by a nice defensive play by Weed to knock down a hard hit ball up the middle and to then throw home to nail the Dragon coming from third (nice tag Milli) really put a damper on that Dragon rally. Mark then killed the rally by picking off the runner at first for the third out. That play included the runner using his good jump to continue hard into second base and making the play close with Evy running over from shortstop and with a lunging catch put the tag on the sliding Dragon’s foot right at the bag for the out. Nice play.

The Gold Country gang also scored in their half of the fifth inning. Jim “Milli” Milligan started the inning by lining a 3-0 pitch into center field for a base hit. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir, running for the catcher, took first base. In a pick-off move to first, Hansen threw the ball wildly down the line allowing Wookie to take second base. With one out, Barry “Brooklyn” Forman lined an 0-1 fastball sharply into center field. With runners at the corners, Scottie hit a hot grounder to the third baseman. After the nice glove work, the third baseman’s throw to second was a little wide of the bag toward the outfield. Wookie, on third, had a good angle on the developing play and took off for home. The second baseman had to back-hand his catch for the force out, but had no chance to get Wook scoring the needed run. Game tied 3-3.

The relentless Dragons took the lead for the third and last time in the top of the seventh inning. The inning started with a high chopper toward third that a charging Welzy fielded with his bare throwing hand (wow) but then threw low and outside to the first baseman, Mike “Bake” Baker, putting the runner at first. Next, the left-hand hitting Mike “Chubby” Pearson doubled with a drive near and down the left field line scoring the runner from first base for a key fourth run, and putting a Dragon in scoring position with no outs. No worries mate, Fowler then got the next three batters to keep the ball in the infield with two groundouts and a pop-up to end the inning.

The Ol’ Buzzards tied the score again with one run in the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out, Donut hit a deep grounder in the hole at third. With his speed Scottie beat the throw for a hit and advanced to second on the high wild throw from the third baseman. Batting next, Pete “Baron” Von Zboray took a base on balls with a wild pitch thrown in to move Donut to third. With Buzzards at the corners, Welzy followed with a run scoring, fielder’s choice to short to tie the score once more. After eight innings of good baseball the score was 4-4.

The Buzzards changed pitchers at the start of the eighth inning. Bob “Woody” Wooden #22 took the hill for the team. Woody shut down the Dragons the last two innings allowing the Buzzards to claw their way back into the lead. The ninth inning started with Evy lining a 1-0 pitch for a base hit into left field. Woody, batting next, got the bunt sign from the coach. On the second pitch, Woody squared again to bunt and this time took one for the team; with the inside pitch hitting his right thigh and putting Bob at first base. With two on and no outs, the Buzzards played the percentages and had their clean-up hitter, new Buzzard Tony Brashear #15, bunt the first pitch. Tony dropped a beauty and the runners advanced to second and third with one out.

The Dragons huddled for a long while and then intentionally walked Bake to load the bases. The next batter was the oldest Ol’ Buzzard - Wookie. With the game on the line, the lefty hit a 1-2 pitch roller toward shortstop. Rocketman charged the ball and threw to second hoping to start a double-play. Welzy, on first base running for Baker, got a good jump and ran hard then did his job by sliding hard (and clean) into the bag, while the second baseman tried to make it look like runner interference as he did not throw to first base. Meanwhile, Evy scored from third and Wookie crossed first base to seal the victory with a walk-off fielder’s choice. Nice win Buzzards.

The game was well played on both sides with pitching having the upper hand over batting in the season opener. The Buzzards pitching was excellent. Steiger pitched four innings throwing 68 pitches (38 strikes & 30 balls) giving up four hits with two walks and two strikeouts. He also picked-off one runner. Fowler threw three innings with 53 pitches (25 strikes & 28 balls) allowing two hits with three walks and one strikemout with one runner picked-off. Woody, in his fourth year as a Buzzard, closed the game with two shutout innings. Bobio, Bob with the Fabio build and flowing locks, threw 28 pitches (15 strikes & 13 balls) giving up one hit with one walk and one K.

The defense was solid especially for an early season game. The double-play, Evy to Welzy to Bake, (6-4-3) to end the second inning with a run already scored and Dragons at the corners was huge. A nice dive in center by Donnie “Redondo” Colbert in the sixth to scoop that ball, but alas it came flying out of the glove on the bounce up. It could have been called a ‘loose ball during transition’, but the umpire was adjusting his glasses and had a bad angle. Redondo’s catch of the second out in the last inning made us hold our breath on the back pedal, but he stayed with it and hung on to the ball. Speaking of back pedals, Wook’s catch at second while falling backwards on the sloping edge at the outfield grass to end the eighth inning will be hard to top this year. Way to hang on. No circus music please. All pop-ups were caught during this game and there were several. Both pickles from the two pick-offs resulted in outs. The catching was superb with Milli (good to have ya back) going six innings and Donut showing his stuff behind the plate for the final three innings by throwing out the final Dragon runner trying to steal second base in the ninth inning. Good D Buzzards!

The hitting will improve and getting one more run than the opponent is a good thing. The Ol’ Buzzards got eight hits off of the two Dragon pitchers, Jeff Hansen and Ted Peart, with five walks and nine strikeouts. The hit club for this first game included Barry, Milli, Welzy and Woody with one hit each, with Evy and Donut getting two hits. The all important ribbies were courtesy of Donut, Evy, Welzy (2) and Wookie. There were not that many opportunities to score in this game, but the team came through with clutch and timely hits. There were only 10 Buzzards in scoring position during the game and five were knocked in. Good job with the nice come-from-behind victory. Now the hard and fun part, do it again.