Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #2

Game One: April 29, 2012

Buzzards beat Mudville Nine walk-off style, 6-5

On a gorgeous spring day in Auburn, the Gold Country Buzzards gathered for their home opener with a double-bill against the Mudville Nine at James Field. The Mudville gang, wearing a 'Casey at the Bat' emblem on their black caps with red bills, and uniforms with old-style letters and numbers on black with red jerseys and white pants, needed handle bar mustaches to finish the look.

They are one of the youngest teams in the division with just two guys over 50. The M-9s beat the Free Agents 13-6 the previous week and were looking to clip some Buzzard wings in this double-header.

The Mudville Nine jumped on the scoreboard first with an unearned run in the top of the first inning. A hit, an infield error followed by a run scoring groundball-out was all it took.

The Buzzards scored two runs in the second inning to take back the early lead. Mike 'Bake' Baker led-off with a looping single to short center field. Bake was replaced at first base by Taylor 'Welzy' Welz as the runner. Next, Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz got to first base on an infield error with Welzy moving to second. After Welzy advanced to third on a fly-out to right field, Jim 'Milli' Milligan knocked him in with a sharp single to center field. With runners at the corners and one-out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir slapped an opposite field hit to left field putting the Buzzards ahead 2-1.

The Buzzards added to the lead in the fifth inning. Terry 'Caveman' Kelley led off with a base on balls. Milli followed with a full-count walk. Two outs later, Scott 'Donut' Reeves was hit on the foot to load the bases. Batting next, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray walked on five pitches to push in the only run of the inning. The score after five was 3-1 Buzzards.

In the sixth frame the Buzzards tacked on two more. Dave 'Evy' Everingham led off with an infield hit, but was forced out at second on the next play. With one-out, Troy 'Nogy' Nogosek smashed his second double of the game down the third base line, putting runners at second and third. Bob 'Woody' Wooden, batting next, hit the first pitch for a single down the third base line scoring both runners. The score at the end of six: Buzzards 5, M-9s 1.

While the Buzzard offense was scoring those five runs, the starting pitcher, southpaw Dave 'Keppie' Kephart #21, was sharp throwing a two-hitter through six innings on 74 pitches with Donut behind the plate.

The Mudville Nine scored a run in the seventh with a lead-off single, stolen base, then two outs later an 0-2 count run-scoring single up the middle to tighten the score at 5-2. After a scoreless eighth inning, the Mudville Nine used some of that 'Casey at the Bat' ju ju to score three runs and tie the game.

It took two full-count walks and a run scoring flare hit to short left field for the first run. Then a fielder's choice followed by an error on a hard hit grounder at third scoring another run. And a two-out single to right-center field on an 0-2 pitch to their clean-up hitter to tie the game. On that play Kevin fielded the ball and threw to Evy for the relay to Nogy at third base to nail the sliding runner with a huge out. The next batter grounded out to Welzy at second to end their half of the ninth inning with the score knotted at 5.

The game was three hours old, but after leading for most of the game the Buzzards were not willing to accept a tie. So Welzy led-off with a nice bunt single up the third base line. The left- handed pitcher fielded the ball cleanly near the line, spun and threw the ball wildly allowing Taylor to take second base. Nogy was then intentionally walked. Next, a fly ball out to center field moved Welzy to third. Nogy later stole second base, but with now two outs, the M-9s chose to intentionally walk Speedee to load the bases.

So, with two outs and the game on the line here comes Caveman Kelley, not Casey Jones, to the plate. Well, somewhere out there in Mudville land the game may have ended differently, but at James Field Caveman scorched a 1-0 pitch on a line into left field for the game winning hit. The Buzzards rushed out to 'high-five' Terry on the field to celebrate the good-feeling 'walk-off' win. Huge clutch hit TK and good win for the team.

Buzzard pitching was excellent with Keppie throwing a complete game. Kep faced 38 hitters in throwing 118 pitches (82 strikes & 36 balls) giving up only those two walks to start the ninth and striking out three. The Mudville men scratched out seven singles and combined that with three Buzzard boo-boos for their five runs (2 earned).

The Buzzard offensive machine is still getting in gear but 11 hits scored the necessary six runs. This game's hit club includes: Bake, Caveman, Donut, Milli, Welzy, Woody and Wookie with one hit each, and Evy and Nogy getting two hits. Troy's base hits were two nice, hard hit doubles. Walks are always good, so the good eye awards go to Baron, Caveman, Milli, Nogy, and Speedee. The ribbies in order were courtesy of: Milli, Wook, Baron, Woody (2) and Caveman's walk-off.

There are always Buzzard defensive gems. In the seventh inning with a runner in scoring position, Speedee Kevin, playing center field, covered a lot of ground before making a fabulous shoe-string catch. In the eighth inning, Speedee quickly fielded a routine base hit to center and made a strong throw to second for a force-out of a surprised runner for a key out in that frame. The relay throw in the ninth inning, Speedee to Evy to Nogy, to get the runner at third was huge. Nice win, now on to game two.

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