Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #15

Game: July 26, 2015

Ol' Buzzards out gun young Colt .45s, 12-7

The last revenge match of the season was slated for the morning game in Davis between the Ol' Buzzards and the young .45s. The first place Buzzards (52+ division) were facing the first place Colt .45s (42+ division) in the second game of a two-game inter-division series. The .45s (11-3) had beaten the Buzzards (11-3) in mid-May in Auburn in a close 13-12 battle. The Buzzards were determined to avenge the earlier loss and keep the team's seven-game winning streak going, while the .45s had lost their last two games: Solons 8-1 and Dodgers 6-4.

The weather for the battle-royale was excellent with temperatures in the low 80's at game time in Playfields Park. The cloudless, high sky and bright sun would cause more than a few problems for both infielders and outfielders in the game.

The visiting Gold Country Buzzards sent their recent call-up from the Pony Leagues to the hill, the tough right-hander, Fred 'Freddie' O' Donoghue #32. This was Freddie's second game of the season and his 2015 pitching debut. The Colt .45s countered with their lanky and talented veteran southpaw, Dave 'Zippy' Poling #00. The anxious Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard first with a run in the top of the first inning. Taylor 'Welzy' Welz led off with a long, high and almost caught double to deep center-field. With one out, Welzy moved to third on a passed-ball and scored on a ground-out by Dave 'Evy' Everingham for an early 1-0 lead.

The Colt .45s stormed back to take the lead with three runs in the bottom half of the first. Four hits wrapped around two errors put the three runs on the board for a 3-1 score after one inning.

The Buzzards then added two more runs to tighten the score. Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray opened the second inning by getting on first base via an E-3. Up next, Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley hammered the first-pitch deep into the left-center-field gap for a double and put both runners in scoring position. Batting next, Jim 'Milli' Milligan's bouncer knocked in Evy from third and Jim was safe on the misplay at first base. With two outs and runners on the corners, Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman laced a two-strike liner into right-field to get Tomahawk home and tie the score at 3-3.

In the bottom of the second, the Pistols scored a frustrating run. A full-count walk was followed by back-to-back balks that were called by a ticked-off field ump. The runner at third scored on a ground-out for a 4-3 game in favor of the Colt .45s.

The Buzzards bounced back with three runs of their own in the third to take back the lead. Welzy started it off with a swing and a miss at a two-strike Eephus pitch thrown by Zippy. After the game, the pitcher Dave, drank a beer with the Buzzards and said he tried to throw at least one high-arced, Eephus pitch, each game and usually for a surprise strike. In this case, Welzy's delayed big swing and miss helped distract the catcher as the ball scooted past him and rolled to the back-stop. Speedy Taylor then beat the throw to first base.

One out later, after Welzy stole second and moved to third on a ground-out, Evy walked to put runners at the corners. Up next, Mark 'Thunder' Weathers hit a tough bouncer that was misplayed by the second baseman for a welcoming error, while Welzy crossed the plate. Batting next, the Baron smashed a single to left-center to score Evy. With two outs and two on, Milli stroked a liner to left-field that scored Thunder and made the score 6-4 going into the bottom half of the third.

The Revolvers were a strong team and were determined to put some runs on the board in their half of the third. With two on and no outs, a slow grounder was hit to Evy at shortstop. Evy threw to Welzy covering second. Taylor fielded the throw and because of the slowly developing play knew there was no play at first base. So, as Welzy turned to throw to third base for a potential wide turn of the bag on the play, he was run into by the base runner. The runner was called out on the force play, and by-rule a double play should be called due to the runner bumping into the second baseman while in the act of throwing.

The NABA rule requires the runner to slide or get out of the way, no contact is necessary, for an automatic double play. The field umpire blew the call and did not declare a double play. Taylor, then quickly reminded the official without cuss words, that he should know the rule and call a double play. The young ump thought the comment was too personal and tossed Welzy from the game to the surprise of everyone. After the play and ejection, there were minor barbs and comments traded with the ump until the call was appealed to the crew chief and home plate umpire, Jimmy. The umpires held a long pow-wow, before announcing the play was ruled a double play, but the ejection of Welzy stood. Wow, what a blow to the team in the bottom of the third inning, but no runs scored. The score after three digs was 6-4 Buzzards.

The Buzzard scoring machine continued to crank out runs in each inning. In the fourth frame, Kevin 'Flash' Krantz opened the inning with a crisp line-drive single to center-field. Flash stole second base before Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir walked. A fielder's choice knocked Flash off of the base path, but two Buzzards were on base when Thunder stepped to the plate. The left swinging Thunder, then sliced a shot to left-center to score Wookie from second base for a 7-3 ball game.

The Colt .45s notched a run in their half of the fourth to make the score 7-4 Buzzards. Two hits and two walks were limited to one run by some good defensive plays by the Ol' Buzzards. The Gold Country gang tacked on another run in the fifth. Tomahawk led-off with a dinker into short center-field for a base hit. Two outs later, Tomahawk was standing on third when Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman walked to put Buzzards on the corners. Up next, Flash blooped the 1-1 pitch into short right-field to score Tomahawk for a clutch, two-out run-scoring single to keep the scoring pressure on the Colt .45s. The grizzled righty, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1 then took the mound in the fifth for the Buzzards and held the Guns to two runs in the next three innings.

In the sixth, the Buzzies scored again. This time with three runs to put some distance between the teams on the scoreboard. Wookie led-off with a single up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch. With one out, Thunder lined a screamer into right-center-field scoring Wook from second. The Baron followed with an infield error to get aboard. Batting next, Tomahawk walked on a full-count to load the bases. With two outs, Freddie's hard hit grounder ricocheted off of the third baseman's shoulder and into short left-field driving in Thunder and a hustling Baron to give the Buzzards 11 runs.

The feisty .45s scored two runs in the second half of the sixth inning to keep the Buzzards within reach. The Pistol's late game rally started off strong with two runs scored and the bases loaded with one out. The next batter smashed a 'no-see-um' liner heading toward left-field that Pete, playing third base, flagged down going to his left with the snag by his ankles for a huge out. The hot liner caught the other runners off of their bases and the Baron threw to second to complete the double play and end the inning with the Buzzards up 11 to 7 with time for one more inning.

The Buzzards continued their streak of scoring in every innings by knocking in one run in the top of the seventh. Flash started the inning with a perfect bunt single to continue the streak of lead-off hitters getting on base in every frame. After Flash stole second base, Wookie walked to put two on. Up next, Thunder used his booming bat for his third straight hit and lined the patented base knock to right-center-field to score Flash easily from second base for a 12-7 score.

The .45s ran out of ammunition and time in the bottom of the seventh and the Ol' Buzzards held on to win the tough three-hour and five-minute battle, 12-7. The Buzzards lost Welzy in the middle of the third inning with the score 6-4 and continued to impressively out-score the young .45s the rest of the game for the solid victory.

The available Buzzard pitchers had quite an assignment for the game. To keep the big bats of the Colt .45s offense quiet and get ground balls. The new guy, Freddie, pitched his ass off in his first appearance on a mound since August 2014. And sometimes it showed, that this was his first appearance in a long time. Milli did a great job behind the plate of guiding the pitchers through the line-up and the game. O' Donoghue completed the first four innings and faced 22 batters, while throwing 108 pitches (61 strikes & 47 balls). Fred gave up five runs (two earned) on six hits and four walks with three strike-outs. Surf Dawg finished the game with three strong innings. Gregg threw 45 pitches (27 strikes & 18 balls) in facing 16 batters. The .45s scored twice on six hits and two walks, while Novotny earned the save.

The Gold Country offense was sparkling as the lead-off batters got on base every inning and the Buzzards kept the scoring machine turned ON. The 12 runs were scored on 14 hits, five walks and three costly errors. The hit club for the game included: the Baron, Brooklyn, Flash-3, Freddie, Milli, Tomahawk-2, Thunder-3, Welzy, and Wook. The ribbies were knocked in by: the Baron, Brooklyn, Evy, Flash, Freddie-2, Milli-2, and Thunder-3. The always important 12 runs were scored by: the Baron-2, Evy, Flash, Tomahawk-2, Thunder-2, Welzy-2, and Wookie-2. The four eagle-eyed Buzzards getting five free passes to first base were: Brooklyn, Evy, Tomahawk, and Wook-2.

The defense was solid and made the key plays to shut-down scoring rallies. There were 21 outs and two double plays with three strike-outs in defeating the younger, quicker and bigger Colt .45s.

The game had just two fly ball outs. The first one was caught in left-field by Brooklyn and it ended a rough first frame with three runs scored and two on base. The second fly-out ended the second inning with a running catch by Flash looking into the sun.

The double plays came at great times and the team pulled them off to beat a fired-up .45s team. The double play in the third inning cost the Buzzards the use of Welzy for the remainder of the game. The Colt .45s' manager initially wanted to protest the double play ruling, but they were so excited that Welzy was gone from the game that they did not complain.

The second double play was the Baron's grab in the sixth inning to stop a big brewing rally. With two runs scored and the bases full with one down, the cat-like reflexes of the Ol' Baron allowed him to spear the low liner and make that crucial double-out play.

There were 10 ground ball outs with two unassisted at first base. Thunder had six put-outs and one assist playing first. Welzy participated in one put-out and one assist at second before his game demise in the middle of the third. Evy fielded two assists and one put-out at shortstop, while Wookie had three assists and one put-out playing third and second. The Baron took over at third in the third and had two put-outs and one assist in the game.

There were five evil infield pop-ups during the game. Four resulted in outs. Wookie caught one and Freddie had two at second base. In the fourth dig with the bases loaded and two outs, the clean-up hitter punched a high pop-up that got lost in the sun by Evy and landed on the dirt next to the outfield grass behind second base. Wook picked it up on the bounce and with no one covering second, threw to the Baron at third to narrowly get the runner and end the inning.

This was an excellent game in spite of Welzy nearly assaulting the infield umpire with rules and financial advice. Taylor cheered on the Buzzards from the nearby shaded area by the first base dugout, and discussed the call with the umpire, Shawn, after the game. Unless Taylor said something terrible to the ump after the game and they file an additional report, he will be allowed to play in the next game, after he settles the Buzzard fine.

This was the last inter-divisional game of this season. The Buzzards were 4-2 against the younger 42+ division, losing to the Rays and Colt .45s in May. However, beating them each later and sweeping the Miners and the Dodgers, plus winning all but one game in the 52+ division makes for a 12-3 record. The Buzzies have an eight-game win streak and five regular season games remaining.

It was a terrific win and another good day to be a Buzzard.