Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #3

Game: April 17, 2011

Buzzards get all tied up by Valley Cats, 5-5

Another beautiful spring morning in the gold country was the setting for the third game of the season. The Buzzards were facing the always feisty Valley Cats at James Field in Auburn. The home team starting pitcher was righty Bob “Woody” Wooden #22, while the feral Cats sent Craig “Slider” Parker #20 to the mound.

The Cats opened the scoring in the top of the second inning. Big Tony “Getting Bigger” Jackson led off with a walk and scored two singles later. The Cats added three more runs in the third on three walks and two base hits to lead 4-0. Woody usually doesn’t walk many batters but these walks were more a result of the plate umpire leaving his glasses at home.

Parker pitched well keeping the Buzzards off-balance at the plate with his slider and sinker. Down 4-zip entering the fourth inning, the Ol’ Buzzards got a nice rally going. With one out, Mark “Weed” Fowler entering the game for Woody, singled to get it started. Tony “Bear” Brashear then walked on seven pitches. After a fielder’s choice for the second out, Mike “Bake” Baker hit a high fly into shallow right field that fell-in for a run scoring base hit. Next, Jim “Milli” Milligan hit the first pitch into left for the second run with a single. Charles “CJ” Jackson hit the next pitch on a line into center field knocking in the third run of the inning. Batting next, Dan “Wookie” Wukmir worked a full count from Parker before hitting a line drive single to right field scoring the final two runs. The Buzzards took the lead with the five-spot, 5-4. Nice inning.

The V-Cats tied the game in the fifth on three consecutive singles before the Buzzards’ defense stopped the rally with one run on an inning ending 5-3-2 double-play. With runners at the corners, Bake fielded a hard grounder at third and threw to Pete “Baron” Von Zboray at first for the out. Meanwhile, the runner on third took off for home when Bake released the ball, so after the force-play, the Baron threw a strike to the catcher, Scott “Donut” Reeves. Donut then made a nice tag on a close play to nail the hard sliding Cat at home plate. Great play to end the inning.

The pitching for both sides effectively silenced the bats for this low scoring game. The Buzzards threatened again in the sixth on base hits by Bake, CJ and Wook, but a good relay throw got Bake at the plate to end the bottom half of the inning.

Fowler controlled the feral Cats pretty well with lots of ground ball outs and nine strikeouts. Weed struck out five of the last six batters to make sure the Valley Cats did not score late in the game. Craig Parker hung in there and pitched six solid innings before being relieved by a young looking pitcher, Mike “Gunner” Watari #9. Gunner threw hard and struck out four in giving up one hit to Bear in the eighth. He shut down the Buzzards the rest of the way to seal the tie at 5-5. It appeared to Buzzards’ management that Watari was too young and the league is checking out his situation. The Cats have been known for being sneaky, so we’ll see how this plays out.

The Buzzard pitching was again good enough to win, but not enough runs were scored again. A fricking 5-5 tie with those damn Valley Cats. Woody threw 69 pitches (37 strikes & 31 balls) with five hits, three strikeouts and four walks. Weeder threw 81 pitches (52 strikes & 29 balls) in giving up five hits with two walks, one hit batter with nine K’s in six innings of work.

The defense was strong again with solid play all day. The key outfield catches were made by Jim “Wags” Wagner in the first inning on a sinking looper, Don “Redondo” Colbert’s snag in center field in the second inning and Taylor “Welzy” Welz’s nice running catch in short center field to open the sixth. The infield was tight with no errors. Wookie made a couple of nice plays at second base in the first inning, one to nail Dave “Nut Case” Nutter on a roller deep in the hole behind first and the other on a grounder with a flying broken bat heading in the same direction. In the seventh inning with a Cat rally brewing, Nutter took an aggressive lead and jumped toward third on a pitch in the dirt. Donut snagged the pitch and threw behind the runner to second base. While Nutter ran to third, Wookie made the quick catch and throw to Bake to nail a head-first diving Nutter. Nut Case got a face full of dirt and jammed fingers on the play.

The offense out-hit the V-Cats 12-10, but more runs would have been nice. The Buzzard hit club included Brashear, Everingham, Fowler, Milligan, Reeves and Wooden with one hit each and Baker, Jackson and Wukmir with two hits. The five RBI’s were knocked in by Bake, Milli, CJ and Wookie -2.

Another tough game. The Buzzards scored in only one inning. Thankfully it was enough for at least the tie. With a record of 1-1-1, the Buzzards take-off for Easter and return with a double-header on May 1.