Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #4

April 25, 2010

Buzzards Swoop In From Behind To Beat Sultans, 11-8

On another gorgeous Sunday for NABA baseball, the Gold Country Buzzards travelled to Antelope High School to do battle with the Sultans. The Sultans have good pitching, but are not strong defensively. Larry “Chief” Rehberg, their catcher and a former Buzzard, flew in from his new job in Las Vegas as general manager of the Desert Rose golf course for this game. The Sultans were going to give it their best shot to take down the Buzzards.

The Buzzards were without their ace, Dave “Keppy” Kephart, so the plan was to pitch by committee to hold off the Sultans and to hit like we can to out-score them. Good plan, now we play the game. The starting pitcher for the Ol’ Buzzards was righty Mike Hayworth #13. On the bump for the Sultans was southpaw Mike “Sidewinder” Bishop #30.

The visiting Buzzards went down in the first inning on just one hit, a liner to left field by catcher Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue. The Sultans jumped on the scoreboard with four runs in the bottom half of the inning on three errors, a hit batter, and three hits, including Chief’s two-out double to the fence scoring the last two runs.

After the first inning smack across the mouth by the Sultans, the Buzzards played better baseball, but had a tough time getting ‘good wood’ on Sidewinder’s assortment of nasty pitches and speeds early in the game.

The Buzzards did score two runs in the second. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir led-off with a short flare to left. Mike “Bake” Baker followed with a hot-one up the middle and off the glove of the pitcher for a single. Next, Pete “Baron” Von Zboray walked to load the bases with nobody out. After a strike-out and a swinging bunt for a force out at home, there were now two outs. Mike Colbert #8 then hit a hard grounder to the left side that was bobbled by the third baseman who then over-threw first base on the rushed throw to try and nail the speedy center-fielder. Two runs scored on the misplay to make the game 4-2 Sultans.

The pesky Sultans scored again in the fourth inning with two runs on two walks and two errors to the bottom of their line-up. Ouch again.

The Buzzards scored one run in the top of the fifth on a lead-off single to left by Mark “Ronnie” Wronski. Several fielder’s choices and two Sultan infield errors later, Scott “Donut” Reeves found himself in a pickle between second and third on the ground ball to short by Taylor “Welzy” Welz with two outs. Donut stayed in the run-down long enough for an alert Colbert to race home from third with the valuable run.

In the bottom half of the inning, the Sultans efficiently scored a pair on a walk, single, stolen base and two ground ball outs. The score after five innings was 8-3 to the fired-up Sultans.

The Ol’ Buzzards fought back in the sixth with three runs to close the gap. With one out Bob “Woody” Wooden walked and stole second base. With two outs, left-hitting Wookie hit a sinking slider sharply over first base and down the right field line for a stand-up triple scoring Woody. Bake then got on board with an error by the three bagger, putting runners at third and first. Baker gets a runner, so Charles “CJ” Jackson came in and stole second base, setting up both runners in scoring position with two outs. The Baron, batting next, drove both runners in with a hot grounder to the left side that resulted in a wide throw to first base trying to get the hustling Baron. The score was now 8-6 Sultans.

The pitching and defense held the Sultans to no runs for the rest of the game, while the Buzzards scored in each of the last three innings. Chipping away at the Sultans lead, the Ol’ Buzzards scored once in the seventh frame.

Donut started the action with a two-out single down the left field line. Welzy followed with a line drive to center field to put two runners on. Freddie knocked in Scotty courtesy of a misplay by the first baseman. Donny, running for the catcher, stole second base before the inning ended with the score 8-7.

The eighth inning started promisingly with a lead-off double to the fence in center field by CJ. With Sidewinder bearing down, he got the next two batters to strikeout before the Baron came to the plate. After watching a fast ball for a strike, Pete dug-in and then lined the next pitch into left field to tie the score at 8-8 in the eighth. A huge clutch hit by the Baron.

Entering the ninth inning the game was also bumping into the 3-hour time limit, the Buzzards needed to score some runs now and put this game away. The inning started well with a line drive lead-off single by Barry “Brooklyn” Forman to left-center field. Colbert followed with a solid single to left field putting the first two Buzzards on base. Donut, batting next, sacrifice bunted a tough second pitch to advance the runners to second and third base. Welzy was then intentionally walked to load the bases. Freddie, in a huge at-bat, got two strikes early then battled back against Sidewinder for a tie breaking walk and a 9-8 lead.  Woody then hit a grounder to the shortstop who stepped on second for a force, but then threw the ball past the first baseman trying to get the Wood, which allowed two more hustling Buzzards to score taking an 11-8 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

The Sultans were tamed in their last at-bat and the Buzzards celebrated a hard fought victory on the field and after the game, putting the 2010 season record at 2-2.

The Buzzards used three pitchers in the game. Hayworth started and threw the first three innings. Mike threw 46 pitches (31 strikes & 15 balls) against 18 Sultans and gave up four runs (zero earned runs) on six hits, no walks, and one hit batter with three strikeouts. Ray “Bull Dog” Henry #7 took the mound in the fourth inning. Southpaw Bull Dog made all of the outs that inning. A lead-off strikeout and two come-backers with easy tosses to Baker playing first, however, after the strikeout there was ugly action including a dropped fly ball near the line in right, a stolen base, wild pitch and two walks before the second 1-3 play ended the inning with two runs scoring. Ray faced six batters throwing 25 pitches (9 strikes & 16 balls) with no hits.

Woody started pitching in the fifth inning and allowed the first two runners to get on base with a walk and a single to right. Those two runners scored later in that inning to make the score 8-3 at the time, but Woody shut the Sultans down the rest of the way and finished the game letting only two more runners get on base. Once he got rolling, Woody mowed down Sultans quickly and efficiently (6th inn.- 9 pitches, 7th inn.- 4 throws, 8th inn.- 9 pitches, 9th inn.- 8 throws). Bob faced 18 batters in five innings with 56 pitches (38 strikes & 18 balls). Woody gave up two hits and two walks and had six strikeouts.

The Buzzard offense was slow to emerge. There were 12 hits, but just five threw the first five innings when the score was a gloomy 8-3. The Sultans’ #30 Mike Bishop is a strong lefty with lots of pitches from various arm angles and he threw the whole nine inning game. He lost some of his sharpness late in the game and the Ol’ Buzzards pounced when they smelt weakness.

It ended up being a fairly good offensive showing with 10 of the 11 Buzzard batters getting base hits. The multi-hit group though consisted of only one player this week: birthday boy Wookie got three hits including that nice triple right down the line and into the right field corner with two outs in the sixth to get a 3-run rally going.

The Buzzards remained calm and focused early in game in spite of being down by five runs midway thru the game. The come-from-behind win and scoring over 10 runs are god indicators for the rest of the season. Keep swinging those big bats and the girls will be impressed.

Buzzard Note #1: We have a double-header this Sunday against the Gold Country Coyotes at Colfax High. First game is at 10 am, the second game (seven innings) is scheduled to start at 2 pm, but may start 15 minutes early if we are set to go. That means we are likely to be done between 4 and 4:30. The Gold Country BBQ will start shortly thereafter, up the hill at the Ballpark. Pete and Ray will bring their grills and we will have burgers, potato salad, chips, sodas and beer. The BBQ is for both teams and their families. The cost will be determined by the number of participants, so bring some money, but it should be good weather, good Buzzard food and good fun.

Buzzard Note #2: If you have summer vacation or family plans that will mean missing some games. Please notify Dan know for team planning purposes.

Buzzard Note #3: Last week after the game at Antelope, the Buzzards gathered behind the fence in center field to enjoy the victory with cold drinks and munchies. Just as the bottles were getting opened and we were getting settled to watch the Free Agents and Coyotes play for awhile, the incident with Dave Langness happened. It was heart wrenching even from 100 yards away to watch the valiant efforts of Terry Kelley, Tom Luck and Chris Sanders of the Coyotes trying desperately to save his life. The ambulance seemed to take forever, but apparently his massive heart attack took him by the time he hit the ground right in front of the visiting team’s dugout. Unbelievable but real. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family in Missouri.