Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #8

Game: May 31, 2015

Buzzards take revenge on Solons, 13-3

The eighth game of the season put the NABA divisions into the second round of the schedule. That means the Buzzards play the Solons again. The last time was opening day on March 22nd when the Solons used 20 hits to spoil the home opener, 16-12. The Sacramento Solons (3-4) were a game behind the Gold Country Buzzards (4-3) in the standings. The game was moved to Auburn late in the week due to a league field problem in Rocklin, so the Buzzards were the visiting team at James Field.

On a very pleasant afternoon with temps in the high 70s and a breeze, the pitching match-ups were set. The Buzzards sent their hard throwing righty, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26 to the mound. The Solons surprised the team by starting their roly-poly right-hander, Ken 'Wrong' Wright #1.

The Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard first with two runs in the top of the first inning. Welzy led-off with a soaring double to left-field. Next, with a big swing, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir scratched out a roller to the right-side between the pitcher and first baseman for an infield hit. With runners at the corners, Dave 'Evy' Everingham banged out a run-scoring single to right-center-field easily sending Welzy across home plate. Wookie advanced to third when an errant pick-off throw to second base sailed into center-field. One out later, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray lifted a sacrifice-fly deep to left-field to score Wook from third for an early 2-0 lead.

The Ol' Buzzards added another crooked number to the scoreboard in the third frame. Kevin 'Flash' Krantz started it off with a bunt single up the third base line. After the aggressive Flash stole second and then third base, Welzy followed with a sharp single to left allowing Flash to cruise home. With Welzy on second via thievery, he then moved to third on a ground-out. Up next, Evy's smash to short was knocked down and he barely beat the throw to first for an error, while Welzy scored for the second run. With two down, the Baron was up to bat and ripped a clutch single to right-center that scored Evy. Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley followed with a sizzling double to right-center, but both Buzzards got stranded to make the score 5-zip in the third.

The gold country gang tacked on three more skins in the fourth dig for an 8-0 lead. Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia led it off with a high infield sun-ball that the third baseman lost in the sun. The ball landed untouched 10-feet away for a sunny single. After an out, Mike 'Mickey' Wilson walked. Flash bunted for a single, again, taking advantage of the left-handed third baseman. Batting next, Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri reached first on a bouncer to the second baseman that forced the fielder to rush the throw, while Mickey scored from third on the play. Welzy followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center-field to score Flash to finish the scoring.

The Solons battled back with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to close the gap to 8-2. An infield error, a walk and two hits was all it took. In the fifth the Solons added another run with a single, a walk, and another hit before a double play ended that scoring threat with the score 8-3 after five frames. The Solons changed hurlers in the fifth and brought in the tall righty, Tim 'Lanky' Mosburger #3 to take the bump.

In the top half of the seventh inning, the Buzzies scored three more to take control of the game. Flash started the rally with a flare to right-center for a single. Flash stole second before Salmo walked to put two runners on base. With Welzy at the plate and the second baseman planted at the base, holding Flash especially close to the bag, the bunt play was on. However, the pitch was unbuntable and even Flash could not steal third without a decent lead, and was out sliding on a close play. With one out, Welzy then singled and put Buzzards at first and second. After two were out, Evy singled into left-field to score a hustlin' Salmo from second. Welzy and Evy then pulled off a double steal to move into scoring position. In response, the Solons intentionally walked the clean-up hitter, Mark 'Thunder' Weathers. Batting next, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny slapped a clutch two-run single through the infield to give the Buzzards an eight-run lead, 11-3.

The Buzzards were looking to add two more runs in the eighth inning and put away the Solons a little early with the 10-run mercy rule. Jim 'Milli' Milligan led-off with a line-drive single to left- field. Tomahawk ran for Milli. Cagey followed with a single to left for his fourth hit of the game. One out later, Mickey got to first base via an error by the shortstop that also scored Tomahawk on the play. Next, Salmo followed the same form and picked on the shortstop for a blunder to get on first base and Cagey scored from third for the 10-run cushion goal.

Welzy and the defense then put away the Solons quickly in the bottom half of the eighth for the 13-3 win. The 2-hour and 45-minute ballgame was a nice sweet victory over the rival Solons.

The pitching was superb as Welzy put-it to the Solons all day. Taylor allowed three runs (one earned) on six hits with two walks and seven strike-outs. Welz faced 31 Solons in throwing 117 pitches (69 strikes & 48 balls). Welzatron was responsible for half of the 24 defensive outs in the game with the seven strike 'em outs and two put-outs and three assists on the mound.

The Ol' Buzzard offense scored the 13 runs on 18 hits, three walks and five Solon errors. The hit club for the game included: Baron, Evy-2, Flash-3, Milli, Surf Dawg, Thunder, Tomahawk, Welzy-3, Wookie, and Cagey with four hits. The extra-base hits (doubles) were muscled up by: Cagey in the sixth, Tomahawk in the third, and Welzy to open the game. The ribbies were knocked in by: Baron-2, Evy-3, Mickey, Salmo-3, Surf Dawg-2, and Welzy-2. The 13 runs were scored by: Wookie, Wezly-3, Salmo, Milli, Mickey, Flash-2, Evy-2, and Cagey-2. The three Buzzards taking free passes to first base were: Mickey in the fourth, Salmo in the sixth, and Thunder's intentional pass in the seventh that set up Surf Dawg's two-out bases-loaded two-run knock to open up the game.

The Buzzard defense without direct assistance from Welzatron made half of the game's put-outs. There were three double plays to brag about. Each one followed base hits and were in brewing rallies, so the DPs were daggers to the Solons' offense.

In the first, the lead-off batter lofted a single into right-field, the next batter bounced one back to the mound. Welzy vacuumed up the ball, threw a strike to Evy covering second base before completing the double play with a strong throw to Thunder at first (1-6-3). In the fifth, the Solons had already scored once and had runners at the corners with only one down and up to bat was the Solons' manager, John 'Grumpy' Mason #11. Grumpy then smacked a full-count pitch up-the-middle. Evy quickly swopped to his left to pick up the ball near second base. Some fancy foot-work nailed the bag and was then followed by a bullet to Thunder at first base to pop the rally balloon and end the fifth inning.

The third double play occurred in the seventh frame with runners at first and second and one out. Surf Dawg, playing third, went to his far left to snag the bouncer headed to left-field. The runner at second was running for third, so Gregg reached out and tagged the runner before firing to Cagey at first base for a close two-out play to end the last Solon rally.

There was only one fly ball out by the Buzzard D in the game. It was a nice running basket-catch by Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman in short left-field to end the first inning. 14 of the outs were ground balls and two were pop-ups. There were 12 assists spread out amongst six defenders: Cagey, Evy-4, Salmo, Surf Dawg-2, Wookie, and Welzy-3. The 24 put-outs were handled by: Brooklyn, Cagey-2, Evy-3, Milli-7, Surf Dawg, Thunder-7, Wook, and Welzy-2.

Terrific pitching, a solid defense and good hitting were the Buzzard ingredients for this victory. That recipe is the simple plan for Buzzard success on the baseball field. Beware of the Buzzards.

Buzzard Note #1: The Radio Game Bios will need to be filled-out before the game. Sending them back updated or prepared is preferred over bringing them to the game on Sunday. The food will cost $10 each. A separate email will go out later this week requesting tables and chairs for the food and gathering after the game.

Buzzard Note #2: Half of the fun of being a fan at the game on Sunday is listening to the radio and watching the game. Remind the family to bring a radio to the game. The recording of the game will be available soon afterwards on kahi.com.