Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #6

May 2, 2010

Buzzards Swoop In For Two, Coyotes Fall 10-5

After a 30 minute break, both teams were ready for round two of the NABA Gold Country baseball showdown. For the first time ever, two Gold Country NABA baseball teams this old played each other and today it was twice and without oxygen tanks. The second game match-ups on the mound were righty Bob “Woody” Wooden #22 for the Buzzards and southpaw Charles Thomas #10 for the Coyotes.

The Buzzards batted first and jumped on the scoreboard in the first inning with four runs. Taylor “Welzy” Welz led off with a booming double to right center field on pitch seven after fouling off three pitches in a long at-bat. Bob “Woody” Wooden followed with a sharp grounder to short that was misplayed allowing the slimmed down and speedy Woody to get to first with Welzy holding at second. Next, Charles “CJ” Jackson walked on a full-count and Dave “Keppy” Kephart followed with a bases loaded walk forcing in Welzy from third. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir batting next looped a single into right-center field scoring Woody. Pete “Baron” Von Zboray then knocked in CJ with a grounder to third base for a force out of Keppy. The throw to first for a double-play was wide and Wook scored on the play from second base for the fourth run. Two ground balls later and it’s the Coyotes turn at bat.

The Buzzards scored again in the second with three runs. Barry “Brooklyn” Forman, who puts the buzz in Buzzards, walked to lead off the inning. The Coyotes changed pitchers bringing in the eager and young Coyot pup, Terry “Caveman” Kelley #22 to face the Ol’ Buzzards. Brooklyn then stole second with Donnie “Redondo” Colbert batting. After Redondo’s infield hit, a grounder deep to the hole at short - that then bounced away from the shortstop - Forman looked to advance to third on the play. The ensuing play was close, but the shortstop threw a strike to the third baseman to nail Brooklyn for the first out.

With Redondo on first, Scott “Donut” Reeves then hit a hard bouncer to short and got to first base on the throwing error, which also scored Redondo motoring around third and hitting home plate in fourth gear. Welzy hitting next, fouled off four pitches - this time - before smacking the ball into left field advancing Donut on the single. After Woody whiffed for the second out, a wild pitch moved up the runners. CJ followed with a two RBI single to left-center field after eight pitches and multiple foul balls, some coming close to vehicles deep in the parking lot. Be aware of where you park, CJ really pulls those foul balls hard into the upper parking lot and has already left his mark on one nice Beemer. Keppy followed with a single to left, but Kelley finished the inning on a Wookie whiff.

The Coyotes trailing by seven early did not let up and scored a run in the bottom of the second starting with a single by Norm “Bulldog” Tucker #40 and a hit by Roberto Solis #5. Then after a fielder’s choice and a pop-up to Woody, Tucker scored on an infield throwing error by the shortstop on the grounder by Jim Kuchar #25. With runners on first and second and a one-strike count to Caveman Kelley, who was 3-4 in both games, Woody then wheeled around and threw a strike to Welzy covering second base to nail the surprised Coyot runner and end the inning.

The Buzzards scored next with one in the fourth. Donnie led off with two fouls balls before pounding a double to the fence in straight-away center field. Redondo then easily scored on Donut’s single up the middle. With one out, Scottie stole second and later Woody walked, but the inning ended with the one run.

The Buzzards scored their final two runs in the sixth inning starting with a one-out drive down the third base line by Donut. Welzy forced-out Donut on a fielder’s choice at second before Woodie singled to left, putting runners on first and third. Woodie stole second base before CJ knocked in T-Welz and Bob with a sharp single to left. The score after six was 10-2.

In their final at-bat, the Coyots started a rally with Caveman Kelley leading off with a deep line drive to the center field fence. Big Tony Vigil # 9 then took the 1-0 fastball over the center field fence for a two-run home run. Wow, that ball had some giddy-up in leaving the yard. Batting next, Tom Luck, #sweet 16, hit a drive to right field for a single. Next, Chris “Pin Cushion” Harris #24 took one for the team again with a 1-1 curveball on the left arm. That was Pin Cushion’s third ouch and bruise of the day. A heck of a way to get on base, but effective. After two outs, a liner to Welzy at short and a strikeout, Thomas (the oldest Coyote) walked - putting runners on all the bases. Dave (Terry’s much older brother) Kelley then knocked in Luck with a solid single to right-center field to end the day’s scoring. Final score of the seven inning game was 10-5.

After the two-hour forty-five minute game was over and everyone shook hands, most of the players and their families headed up the road to the Gold Country gathering at the Ballpark picnic area. Even after nearly six hours on the field playing baseball, the Buzzards and Coyotes had the strength to lift cold ones and eat burgers for hours together. A good time was had.

Buzzard pitching held a potent Coyot offense in check for most of the day. Woody pitched five innings while facing 22 batters throwing 74 pitches, 49 for strikes and 25 balls. Los Coyotes got two runs on seven hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Hayworth finished the game with two innings of work on the mound. Mike threw an even 50 pitches in facing 14 Coyotes (27 strikes & 23 balls). Those Coyots scored three runs on five hits with two walks and one hit batter with one strikeout.

The defenses looked a little tired the second game and both teams committed multiple errors. There were some noteworthy catches. Ray “Bull Dog” Henry made a diving catch in right field of a Tom “not so lucky” Luck line drive to end the fifth inning with runners on. Luck was robbed twice today by diving catches in the outfield. And Caveman Kelley’s cat-like reactions in chasing after Donnie’s fairly short pop-up near the third base dugout, then quickly reacting as the falling ball blew back onto the field just inches away from the side fence. The ball appeared not catchable because 1) it wasn’t hit high enough to allow a normal fielder let alone the pitcher to get to it, and 2) the ball appeared to be over the fence and at the last instant came back into foul ground, while Terry adjusting at full speed, stopped on that dime, and quickly reversed direction to make a grab at the waist while stopping inches away from the chain-link fence post.

What a catch, however, those young pups seem to forget about running into fences. It was Terry Kelley that ran into the outfield fence at James Field in 2006(?) causing considerable damage to the fence and knocking his head solidly on a post. Stopping an otherwise good game while a helicopter came and flew him to the hospital. Maybe next time he’ll remember, but probably not. The catching duties were shared by the Buzzards with CJ behind the plate for five and Scottie for the rest of the game. Good job.

The Buzzard offense pounded out 13 hits for the second game in a row. Nine Buzzards got base hits. The multi hit group included CJ, Donut, Redondo and Welzy. The ribbies were courtesy of Keppy, Wookie, and the Baron with one each, Donut had two, and CJ knocked in four.

The Coyote offense produced 12 hits by seven players. The multi hit group was Kuchar with two and Roberto and T. Kelley getting three each. The top hitters of the day for both teams were Coyotes Terry Kelley with two 3-4 games for six hits and Roberto Solis with a 2-3 and a 3-4 day including a walk and a HBP for five hits. The only other batter to get more than three total hits for the day was another Coyot, Norm Tucker. Loudest hit of the day was the ball bouncing off Dave Kelley’s helmet in the 6th. Hayworth’s hard curveball hit DK squarely on the back of the helmet. Back of the helmet? That’s actually hard to do, but leave it to ‘the other Kelley’ to spin out of the way of the high pitch and get nailed in the head.

Good games, good guys, good weather, good food & drink. Let’s do this again.

Buzzard Note #1: Next game, May 16th, will be played at Colfax against the beefed up Free Agents at 2 pm. Cold drinks and snacks at the Ballpark afterwards. The following week is a double-header on the 23rd in Elk Grove. The games will be played on that real nice field at Bradshaw Christian High against the Valley Cats. No Keppy. Car pooling will take place at the Park & Ride by the gas station at the Newcastle exit on Hwy 80 at 7:45 am. More info to come.

Buzzard Note #2: The get together last week went well. Thanks a ton to Pete for packing his grill and lots of stuff to include food and drink and to Ray for shopping and planning. Pete worked the grill after the field was finished. His better-half, Kelley, and his daughters got the picnic area set-up with help from Jim Wagner. By the time we got there, Kelley was cooking for the hungry gathering. If you didn’t get a chance to give your $10 to Pete, you still can. We will do this again, probably at the James Field picnic area, after the radio game against the Coyotes on August 1st. Next time we need a better head count, so do a better job of RSVPing. Thanks to a store run by Wagner, we met the hungry crowd’s needs. It was good to see Wags and Steve Cook at the game and BBQ.