Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #15

Game: August 4, 2013

Buzzards beat-up Yankees, 15-0

The Buzzards were on the road to face the last-place Yankees at C-Bar-C Park. For an August afternoon in Citrus Heights, the temperature was a mild 90° and great for a ball game. So nice in fact, that four of the Ol' Buzzards were playing in their second game of the day. The MSBL Auburn Pirates had a 10 o'clock (full-nine inning) game in Woodland earlier.

The Buzzards were very short-handed due to a heavy early-August vacation impact, plus two more on the DL for recent old man-type surgeries, that made eight-players unavailable. Leaving only eight players for the game, Mike Baker thankfully joined the other regular Pirates - that turn into Buzzards - and filled-in at first base to give the Gold Country 55+ team nine players for the game.

Dean Perkins showed up in shorts to visit for a few innings and coached third base early in the game. Deano showed off the scars on the left arm and the increased range of motion, plus he's getting closer to having a straight arm, again.

The Yankees starting pitcher was the hard throwing southpaw, Tom 'Fazzie' De Fazio #17. On the mound for the Buzzards was the harder throwing righty, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26. The Buzzards were the home team on the schedule, so the game started with Welzy on the hill.

The Yankee leadoff batter, radio personality and featured editorial columnist in the Sacramento Bee, Bruce 'Bronx' Maiman #14, opened the game with a full-count walk. Welzy then struck-out two of the next three batters. Bronx stole second base during the first K, and after hopping around the base path toward third base for the rest of the inning, that was the furthest a Yank would tread for the rest of the game.

The Buzzards took the lead with three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. With one out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir walked on six pitches. Dave 'Evy' Everingham was batting next when Wookie attempted to steal second on the 0-1 pitch. Fazzie has a good move to first and threw over as Wook was taking off for second. An uh! oh! was followed by good speed and a hard slide into the bag to barely beat the throw from first for a steal, the hard and semi-lucky way.

Evy then singled to left-field driving in Wook with the first run. Evy stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before Baker walked with two outs. On ball four, the throw deflected off of the catcher's glove for a passed ball that scored Evy hustling in from third. Up next, Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia smashed a 2-0 fastball down the middle of the third base chock line for a hit that was knocked down by the third baseman preventing an extra base hit, but putting Buzzards at first and second. Norm 'Burner' Tucker walked on seven pitches to load 'em up for Steve 'Cookie' Cook. Cookie took a full-count walk to force in Bake with the third run.

In the second inning, the Buzzards scored one run. Welzy started the inning off with an infield hit to the left-side. Welzy stole second on the first pitch and advanced to third on Wookie's infield hit. Wook took the bag at second standing up with Evy at the plate. Taylor then scored on a passed ball to Dave for the only run of the inning and a score of 4-zip, Buzzards.

The Gold Country Nine scored twice in the third frame. With one out, Burner singled sharply to center-field. Kelly ran for the catcher, Norm. One out later, Cagey was at third base on a couple of wild pitches. Batting next, Paul 'Youngin' Lee on a seven-pitch at-bat bounced a high chopper with lots of top spin over the head of the shortstop for a base hit to score Cagey. Welzy followed with a blast to deep right-center field for a triple with Youngin' scoring on the hit from first base. The score after the third dig was 6-0. There were opportunities for more runs, but the Yankees made several good plays plus the routine plays to hold the Buzzards to six runs, so far.

At the four inning point, Welzy was still mowing down Yanks and had given up only one hit and two walks. The Buzzards were looking for a big inning to go up by 10 runs and make this a seven inning mercy-rule game. The bottom of the fourth was that inning.

Evy led-off with a double to left-center. With one out, Bake doubled over the center fielder's head to drive in Evy. One out later, Burner, hit a 1-2 pitch deep to left-center for a long single to easily score a hustlin' Bake. Cagey replaced Burner at first. Cookie walked next putting runners at first and second. Youngin then laced the second pitch into left and scored KG from second. Welzy, batting next, launched a 3-0 fastball down the left field line for a double that scored Cookie and Youngin' to make the score 11 to nothing and headed into the fifth.

The Buzzards scored for the fifth consecutive inning with four more runs in the fifth frame. Sounding by now like a broken record, Evy led-off with a double, this time to right-center field. Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray got an infield hit on that big swing putting runners on the corners. Up next, Baker slammed a liner to left-center to score Everingham. Garcia then dropped a single into left-field to score the Baron. Burner, batting next, doubled-in Bake with a sizzling liner to center that skipped over and past the semi-diving outfielder, Bronx. Bruce Maiman was much quieter in the outfield after chasing that ball. Wook then ran for Tuck at second base.

Buzzards were now at second and third with no outs. Cookie bounced into the first out with a run-scoring grounder getting Cagey home from third. Next, Paul's baggy? jersey was hit by a pitch to put two runners on, but the dig ended with a strange double-play. Cagey had replaced Wookie at second with Dan on-deck.

With one out and runners at first and second, Welzy hit a short pop-up into short left-center field for a tough catch with their shortstop playing toward third base. The shortstop made a good effort, but the ball landed safely on the grass, so Cagey ran for third without tagging-up at second base. On the play, the field ump called a late and not loud enough infield-fly rule. Since the batter was now out, as if there was a catch, the shortstop threw to second for an easy force-out and double-play while Kelly was at third base. Oh well. After five innings, the score was 15-0 Buzzards and the team was looking forward to early cold ones.

Welzy continued to take down Yankees with strike-outs and ground-outs through the last two innings. The Buzzards finally went quietly in the bottom of the sixth inning with righty, big Jim 'Drama' McAdams #26 throwing his slow stuff since relieving Fazzie during the fifth frame for the damned Yankees. The final score was 15-0 in a seven-inning game played in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

On the mound, Taylor was dominate and struck out 10 Yanks. Welzy (2-1) faced 25 batters in throwing 96 pitches (64 strikes & 32 balls) while giving up just two hits and two walks. The excellent complete game shutout lowered Welzy's ERA to 1.21 with his seventh appearance on the bump for the Buzzards this season.

The Buzzards' offense scored 15 runs by knocking 18 hits around the field with six for extra bases on a productive afternoon. The hit club for the game included: the Baron-2, Bake-2, Burner-3, Cagey-2, Evy-3, Welzy-3, Wook-1, and Youngin'-2. The ribbies were courtesy of Dave-1, Kelly-1, Mike-2, Norm-2, Paul-2, Steve-2, and Taylor-3. The eagle-eyed Buzzards taking a free pass to first base were: Bake-1, Burner-1, Cookie-2, Evy-1, and Wookie-1. Every Buzzard crossed home plate. In batting order the runs were accounted to: Welzy-1, Wook-1, Evy-3, Baron-1, Bake-3, Cagey-1, Burner-2, Cookie-1, and Youngin-2. Scoring in five consecutive innings is always good.

The defense was solid and made good plays all game. The scorebook looked peculiar with 20 of the 21 put-outs made by Bake (11) at first base or the catcher, Burner (9). Pete made the only other put-out in center field on a fly ball in the first inning. The catcher, Tucker, got the put-outs credit for nine of the 10 strike 'em outs by Welzy. On the other one, in the third inning the batter swung at a third-strike in the dirt and Burner cleanly scooped up the pitch, did not need to tag the batter, then after a double-clutch threw to third base to start the infield throw-around for the second out of the inning.

However, because the ball was in the dirt and there was no tag, it was not clear to the umps or the hitter, if the batter could try to advance to first after the strike-out. On the double-pump, the Yankee batter moved down the line slyly with his bat and began to run as the ball was in the air from Burner to Wookie playing third base. On the catch, Wook immediately threw strongly across the diamond to nail the runner by a quarter-step for an unusual 2-5-3 put-out call by the umps.

An after-inning inquiry with the umpiring crew of Paul and Paul concluded that tagging the batter was not necessary because the ball was scooped and held by Norm after the batter swung. The play more regularly seen is the catcher dropping the ball after a swinging third-strike in the dirt followed by a tag or throw to first base to register the out.

It was a good win on a nice day. The only team problem was Paul pulled a quad muscle in the left leg during his fourth inning hit down the left field line. After rounding first base and looking for two, it grabbed him. Youngin' had to gimp around the outfield and on the base path for the remainder of the game.

The Buzzards' record is now 10-5 with three more regular season games remaining. More players are due back from vacations starting this week, so a player shortage should not be a problem.

Buzzard Note #1: The next game is August 11th at 2 pm at James Field versus the Gold Country Miners. This is the annual Buzzards' Radio Game on KAHI. The live radio broadcasted game on 950AM 'Voice of the Foothills' is a special game that the family is encouraged to attend. A bbq after the game for the teams and families will be in the picnic area. More info to come and a head-count will be requested later in the week to make sure we have enough food and drink.

Buzzard Note #2: Send the bios to Wook this week. The advertising info for any radio commercial needs to be submitted soonest. Dave Rosenthal, the afternoon radio guy for KAHI, will be the play-by-play announcer. We are following the Oakland A's morning game in Toronto against the Blue Jays. We have experienced an Athletics' east coast game with a rain delay in the past that delayed our start time, but this year their game is in a domed stadium, so no worries mate about a time delay.

Buzzard Note #3: The three remaining regular season games are scheduled at: Home - Aug 11 at 2 pm at James Field vs. Miners Home - Aug 18 at 2 pm at James Field vs. Red Sox Away - Aug 25 at 10 am in Galt vs. Solons Labor Day Holiday - September 1 - No Game Playoffs: Sep 8 at 2 pm in Davis vs. TBD and Championship: Sep 15 in Davis with time and opponent TBD