Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #13

Game: July 15, 2012

Buzzards fall in Mudville, 11-4

The Ol’ Buzzards circled in on Lembi Field to meet the Mudville Nine in a game pitting the third and fourth place teams in the double A, 45+ division of Sacramento NABA baseball. The late 5 o’clock start time with temps in the mid to high 90s on an abused field (third game of day) and that had not been kind to the Buzzards in the past, was the setting for a home game for the younger Mudville Nine team.

The visiting Buzzards were going to use the group plan for pitching starting with lefty Jim ‘Moxey’ Steiger #13, still on limited duty from the elbow tune-up late last year. Throwing for the Mudville team was big right-hander Steve ‘Goofy’ Goggans #26.

The Buzzards jumped on top in the first inning with two runs. Dave ‘Evy’ Everingham started his umpteenth game with a base hit. This time it was a line drive single to left-center field. Batting next, Taylor ‘Welzy’ Welz bunted for a hit. Troy ‘Action Figure’ Nogosek followed with a shot to right(?) field on a 3-2 pitch, scoring Evy from second and putting runners at the corners. One out later, Kevin ‘Flash’ Krantz knocked in Welzy with a grounder to short.

The Mudville gang tied it up in the bottom of the third frame with a walk, two hits and a sacrifice. The score remained 2-2 through the fifth inning.

Mudville Nine pitching was effectively gettin’ the Buzzards to ground out to the shortstop and hit catchable fly balls. Except for a couple of wild throws from the lanky shortstop, M-9 consistently made the defensive plays to stifle the Buzzards all game.

The Buzzards did not score again until the sixth dig. With two outs, Terry ‘Caveman’ Kelley got aboard on a high shortstop throw. After a passed ball put Caveman at second, Scott ‘Donut’ Reeves hit a 3-1 pitch sharply to left field for a single with TK holding at third. Now with fast runners at the corners, the double steal was called. With both runners going on the pitch, the catcher threw to the cut-off infielder, but Caveman had a good jump and scored on a high throw to make the score 3-2, Buzzards.

Mark ‘Weed’ Fowler entered the game in the fifth for Moxey. Weeder needed just eight pitches to dispatch the M-9s in the inning.

The next inning was a different story. The bottom half of the sixth inning looked like a chapter out of the “Bad News Bears” baseball book. Nearly everything that could go wrong did. On the first batter, the ball skimmed his baggy jersey for a free trip to first base. A balk followed by a couple of ‘shoe box size strike zone’ walks and the inning was off to a bad start. After a single, an infield fly-rule out, and a walk, it was time for some pitching relief.

Southpaw Dave ‘Keppie’ Kephart #21 entered the game. Things didn’t get much better for a while. A base hit followed by a true baseball rarity, an Everingham fielding error, then a terrible call at third on a simple force-out, then a ball bounding off of a leaping Kep’s glove and the bad news continued until seven runs had crossed the plate. The score after six was now 11-3.

The Buzzards sent righty Mike ‘Big Mac’ McCabe #32 to the mound to start the seventh inning. The hot hittin’ Mudville Nine scored two more in the next inning on a bunt(?) single and some sloppy infield work followed by a run-scoring single and walk.

The Buzzards scored one more in the ninth inning. With one out, Keppie got on base via a shortstop over throw. Another out later, Big Mac singled putting two runners on. Running for Mac at first was Wookie. Caveman then walked on four pitches to load the bases. Batting next, Donut hit a 3-2 pitch toward first base for an infield hit driving in Keppie. On the play Wook rounded third base hard and tried to score, but the third out was made in a cloud of dust at the plate, leaving the Buzzard’s look-a-like to Mudville’s ‘Casey at the plate’ story, Tony ‘Honey Badger’ Brashear in the on-deck circle with the final score 11-4.

The Mudville Niners scored 11 runs on only 10 hits with five walks, two hit batters, two(!) balks, and three Buzzard infield errors. The Buzzard offense got nine hits on pretty good M-9 pitching. After Goofy pitched five innings for the M-9s, lefty Pat ‘High Kick’ Taylor #29 also stymied Buzzard batters for a total of just four runs.

The Buzzard hit club in the game included Action Figure, Bake, Baron, Big Mac, Caveman, Donut (2), Evy, and Welzy. The ribbies (in order) were knocked in by Action Figure and Flash in the first inning and Donut in the last inning.

The Buzzards have a winning record on every other field in the area except Lembi, and the deteriorating conditions of the field in Folsom makes this baseball ground to avoid. However, the eye candy was special on the adjacent softball games and the beer tasted pretty good after wards with fellow Ol’ Buzzards and some interesting fireman stories.

The Buzzards remain in third place with a record of 9-5-1. Next Sunday will be another tough game against the Free Agents.