Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #18

August 1, 2010

Buzzards defeat Coyotes on radio, 10-1

The annual radio game was upon us. The later start time at 3:30 pm and playing at James Field in Auburn was to accommodate KAHI. The station’s earlier broadcast of the Oakland A’s at the Chicago White Sox game preceded the Buzzards’ game versus the Coyotes. With the radio play-by-play announcer, Dave Rosenthal, setting up the radio broadcast equipment in the stands behind home plate and with extra fans gathering for the game plus radios tuned to 950 AM in the stands and in the dugouts made for a little excitement, certainly something different and special. The game was delayed for a few minutes while KAHI worked out the remote broadcast kinks. The radio station experienced the dreaded sound of ‘dead air’ for a few moments, so we waited while Dave and the station ‘fixed it’.

The field was in good shape, thanks to a small (Pete & Kep) work party on Saturday, and the weather was good at 90°, making the setting ideal for the third annual KAHI radio game, plus there was Gold Country braggin’ rights for the year at stack. The 10-7 Buzzards needed to keep winning for a shot at the playoffs, while the 4-13 Coyotes wanted to clip the Buzzards’ wings.

Both teams used their ace pitchers for this game. The visiting Coyotes sent hard throwing (45 year old) righty, Terry “Caveman” Kelley #22 to the mound to face the harder throwing southpaw, Dave “Keppie” Kephart #21.

The Buzzards scored first in the bottom of the second inning. Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue started off the inning with a deep double. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir got the bunt sign and sacrificed Freddie to third on a good bunt for a close play at first base. Next, Pete “Baron” Von Zboray hit a hard grounder to short that bounced past the glove into left field driving in the run for an early 1-0 lead.

Caveman Kelley was throwing well with three strikeouts and a double play in the first three innings, while Keppie was perfect with nine up and nine down, five strikeouts, three grounders to short and an infield pop-up. The Ol’ Buzzards did score two runs in the fourth inning. Taylor “Welzy” Welz led off with a line drive single to left-center field. Batting next, Bob “Woodie” Wooden’s infield pop-up landed untouched but Welzy was forced at second on the play. Woodie then stole second base and scored on Dave Everingham’s 0-2 pitch, line drive base hit into center field. With one out, CJ then blasted a double to right-center field scoring Dave from second for a 3-0 lead.

The Buzzard pitching and defense continued to shut down the pesky Coyots and held them scoreless until the last inning. Meanwhile, the Buzzards scored three more in their half of the sixth inning. Donnie “Redondo” Colbert led off with a hard single up the middle on a 1-2 count fastball. Scott “Donut” Reeves, the game’s starting catcher, got the bunt sign from coach Taylor and laid down a good one. The pitcher fielded the ball and then threw wildly to first base putting runners at second and third. Batting next, Welzy drove the next pitch into right- center field for another single scoring both runners. T-Welz hustled around the bases on the throw home that got away and when the play ended he was at third base. Next, Woody smacked the ball thru the infield to score the third run. The score after six was 6-0 Buzzards.

After the no-hitter was broken by Dave “Dink ‘em” Kelley in the fourth inning by his ‘wounded duck’ into short left field, the Coyots were then getting runners on base in every inning. Solid defense and tough pitching was preventing the other Gold Country team from breaking thru with a run.

The Coyotes changed pitchers in the seventh inning and Tom “Usually Lucky (with the girls)” Luck #16 took the bump for the team. The Buzzards kept up the pressure and pushed across another run in the inning. The Baron hit a two-out single to left and then stole second base. Batting next, Keppie smoked a double to right-center to score Pete from second. Von Zboray, the token non-citizen on the team (Dutch birth), stole his first base of the season with a hard head-first belly flop. The cloud of dust, a dramatic safe signal by the base ump and a slowly standing-up Baron would have made for great TV; however, this was a radio game.

The ‘no mercy’ Buzzards added three more runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. With one out, Donut walked. Batting next, Mark “Ronnie” Wronski hit a nice line drive into right-center field putting runners at the corners. Welzy then singled into center field driving in Scottie with Mark moving to third. After a fielder’s choice and second out, the newest Buzzard, Everingham, singled to center to drive in Ronnie. CJ then hit a towering pop-up on the left side of the infield. Norm Tucker, the Coyot third baseman, appeared to have it, but he dove to his left at the last second as the ball hit the ground and Woodie scored the third run for a 10-0 lead.

Los Coyotes did not give up and scored a run in the top of the ninth inning. On the mound for the Buzzards was Donut making his Buzzard pitching debut. Caveman Kelley started the inning with a single up the middle. Terry moved to second on a wild pitch then stole third base within a few pitches and was now dancing around at bag. A pitch in the dirt got away and rolled to the backstop allowing the speedy Kelley (not to be confused with brother Dave) to score the lone run. Then after a line shot to Dave at shortstop for out number one, the next two batters walked. The defense then held with another good hustlin’ catch, this time by Woodie with a running shoe-top catch playing first base, and then the game ended with a terrific back-hand catch by a running Baron in traffic in right field, making that tough catch look easy.

Good game with tough pitching and solid defense (no errors). The 12 hits were good too. That Coyotes’ pitching was tough. The Buzzards were swinging good bats the last two games. And had just come off two games in a row against top divisional teams while facing their ace pitcher and knocked out 18 or more hits in each game. But not against Caveman Kelley, who gave up seven hits in seven innings of work with no walks and four K’s, while the Buzzards scored six runs in those seven innings, some with the help of three errors. Lucky pitched the last two innings giving up four runs on five hits and one walk with one strikeout.

Buzzard pitching was superb. Keppie pitched a strong game facing 33 Coyotes in eight innings, throwing 121 pitches (70 strikes & 51 balls) giving up seven hits and six walks but with no runs scored. Kep made the last out in the eighth inning with a close play at the plate. With Coyot Norm at third base and dancing up and down the line, Keppie threw a wild pitch. Norm charged home while Freddie quickly tracked down the ball at the backstop and threw to a sliding Kephart at home plate. Kep slid on the third base side of home right before Norm’s feet-first slide got to the plate and effectively blocked it from the hard sliding Tucker. The throw was on the money and Keppie made the tag for the out. Wow, great play, but weren’t those sharp steel cleats that Norm was flashing on the slide.

In the ninth, Scottie “I can play everything” Reeves took the mound and was now showing he can. Donut started the game behind the plate and was now finishing up the game on the mound throwing to the plate. Donut threw 25 pitches (14 strikes & 11 balls) in facing six batters giving up one run on two hits with two walks.

The offense was good enough to win. The last four runs were scored on hits with two outs – excellent. The 12 hits were spread among eight Buzzards. The only multi-hit players this game were Woodie -2 and Welzy -3. The RBI’s were knocked in by the Baron, CJ -2, Dave -2, Keppie, Welzy -3 and Woodie. Good game guys.

This was a good game to have broadcast on the radio. Dave Rosenthal of KAHI said the station loved doing the game and expect to be back next August to do it again. Only a few early cuss words by Barry and Woodie, on swinging misses at the plate, were heard. Quick story. Before Barry led-off the third inning, Coach Wook told him two things: #1 no f-word and #2 no throwing of the bat. Then, on the first pitch he takes his big swing and misses followed quickly by a loud F-word. Then, on the second pitch he swings and misses sending the bat flying off a good 15 feet toward the backstop on the first base side. What can ya do?

The next two games are a soft spot in the schedule with the Sultans and the Astros the next two Sundays. We then finish with the Reds at home. Our record is 11-7 and we are now in 4th place by ourselves. The Dragons lost last week to the Valley Cats and are now 10-8. We need to keep winning and lock up this playoff spot.

Buzzard Note #1: We will get CD copies of the radio game in a couple of weeks. KAHI is the radio home of the Oakland A’s and the Raiders in the Gold Country. They are also the radio home of the Gold Country Buzzards.

Buzzard Note #2: Donnie and Emily Colbert have invited the Buzzards to their home in Auburn for a BBQ and to show off their new pool. The afternoon swim party is set for Saturday, August 14th at 1 o’clock. The Colbert’s will provide the meats (burgers, dogs/links). Bring a side dish or dessert and what you want to drink. The address is 7055 Big Hill Road in Auburn. Phone numbers are (hm) 916-543-0926 and (cell) 916-813-8980. Directions will be attached separately. Donnie’s other team, the MSBL Braves, are also invited.