Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #14

Game: July 28, 2013

Buzzards upset by Astros in shocker, 12-8

The Ol' Buzzards were at home at James Field for the game against another playoff-bound team in the 55+ division, the Astros. On a nice summer afternoon with temps in the low 90s, the league commissioner's team, managed by Barry Spiller, arrived extra early for the contest between the second and third place teams in the division.

This was the third and final regular season game between the teams. The Buzzards have beat-up the Astros twice this season, 28-14 in April at C-Bar-C Park and 12-2 in June in Galt.

The Astros sent the righty with the rubber arm, Henry 'Fire Plug' Torrez #26 to the mound. Taking the hill for the Gold Country Buzzards was the tanned, right-hander Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1.

The Astros opened the game by scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. The early rally started with a single, sacrifice bunt, then the left-fielder fell down trying to make the play on a deep fly for a run-scoring double, a single, sacrifice fly-out, and a run-scoring long double accounted for the quick 3-0 lead.

The second inning started out well with a strike-out and a routine infield grounder (4-3) for two outs. Then eight consecutive Astros got on base with a tough sequence of seeing-eye grounders, short looping hits landing just in front of charging outfielders, and one solid hit for five total hits, plus two walks, and an early infield error made all but one of the runs unearned. The defense just needed one more out for the whole damned inning, and came close several times until finally a good play on a tough grounder at third by Dave 'Evy' Everingham ended the inning.

Before the Buzzards batted for the second time, the score was 9-zip. Fire Plug had the Buzzard batters off-balance early. In the third dig, the Buzzards finally put a notch on the scoreboard. With two outs, David 'Mumbles' Kelley singled sharply to left-field. Paul 'Youngin' Lee ran for Mumbles at first. Paul promptly stole second base. Batting next, Steve 'Cookie' Cook slapped a bouncer to the second baseman. The throw was rushed, with the speedy Cookie leaving a vapor trail down the base path, and in the dirt and past the first baseman for an error. Youngin' hustled from second base and scored on the play.

The Buzzards changed pitchers in the third inning bringing in Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe #15 over from first base. Mike threw the next seven innings and held the Astros to three runs. The Astros scored those runs in the fourth on the following sequence: K, three singles, K, single, K. The score was now 12-1 Astros.

The Ol' Buzzards were finally getting the rhythm and timing down for Torrez's mix of pitches. The Gold Country boys scored in the next four innings to tighten the gap starting with one run in the fifth dig. With one out, Big Mac got on base via an infield error. Mike was replaced at first by Tom 'TK' Keatley. TK then stole second base. One out later, Youngin' doubled to left-field to score Tom to make the score 12-2 after five.

In the sixth, the orange and black added two more runs. Cookie led-off the inning with a base-on-balls, After a fielder's choice play, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz was on first with one out. Welzy stole second before Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir laced a liner to right-field for a hit that scored Taylor. Wookie then stole second on a close play. Up next, Dave 'Evy' Everingham singled to short right putting runners at the corners. But not for long as Evy stole the second base bag on the next pitch. Batting next, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray knocked in Wookie with a grounder to the left side for the second run. The score after six innings was Astros 12 - Buzzards 4 and closing.

The Buzzies scored another run in the seventh. TK opened the inning with a line-drive single to left and then stole second base on the next pitch. Tom moved to third on a ground-out. Up next, Norm 'Burner' Tucker knocked in Keatley with a ground-out to the left side. 12-5 after seven.

In the eighth inning the Buzzards put three runs in the scorebook to continue to draw closer, but the time and innings remaining were getting very short. Mumbles started it off with a lead-off walk. Paul ran for David. Youngin' was then called out at second base on a close play trying to steal. From the dugout he clearly was safe as the tag was applied at the waist after the slide. To hurt more, Cookie then singled to left-field.

One out later, Wookie walked on a full-count. Evy then lashed a single to right-center putting Buzzards on the corners. Evy stole second before Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray smashed a 2-2 pitch grounder through the left-side hole for a two-out, two-run single scoring Wook and Evy. The score was now 12-8 with one inning to go and the Buzzies were still looking to pull it off.

In the ninth the Astros brought in a new pitcher, right-hander Tim 'Pudge' Barsetti #44, brother of infielder Jim 'Pudgyer' Barsetti. Pudge's high stuff was getting the strike calls, so it was not going to be easy. Fire Plug Torrez threw 126 pitches in the eight innings before being relieved.

In the bottom of the ninth with one out, Big Mac walked on five pitches. On a full-count, Burner hit a line-drive single to left-center field putting runners at first and second. However, a strike-out and fielder's choice ended the inning and the game at the three-hour mark with the final score 12-8.

Unbelievably, even though we saw it, the Astros beat the Buzzards with pitching, defense and 17 hits. The left-fielder for the Astros saved the game for them with several tremendous catches and battling the sun. His two catches in the seventh with runners on base were key. The first one was a deep smash by Welzy that was sailing over his head.

The fielder, Terry Porter #6, appeared to get twisted up initially but somehow quickly recovered to move back and while looking-back straight into the sun, stuck his glove high and behind himself to make an unbelievable catch. The home plate umpire shook his head and mumbled wow, while the pitcher looked skyward and did the sign of the cross.  Later in the inning, Kelley 'KG' Garcia's screaming liner to left was snatched out of the air by Porter over his head while looking into the sinking sun to end the Buzzard rally way too short.

Buzzard pitching was good enough to win this game, even though the Astros surprised the Buzzards with the louder bats. Surf Dawg threw the first two frames and faced 18 batters while throwing 56 pitches (31 strikes & 25 balls). The Astros scored nine runs (four earned) on nine hits and two walks with one strike-out. Big Mac pitched seven innings and faced 27 batters in throwing 85 pitches (58 strikes & 27 balls). Mike gave up three runs on eight hits with no walks, but one hit batter, and struck out eight Astros.

The Buzzard offense was over-anxious and frustrated most of the afternoon. The Buzzards swung hard and often at what Fire Plug was delivering. He was up to only 97 pitches through seven innings of work and faced 31 hitters (under 14 pitches per inning), until the Buzzards struck for three scores in the long (29 pitch) eighth inning. Still, Torrez faced 37 Buzzards and threw 126 pitches or an average of about 3.5 pitches per Buzzard. There were 25 at-bats with three pitches or less in the game. There were five at-bats with six pitches (the most by any Buzzard). Of those five at-bats, all but one got on base (three walks and a hit).

The Buzzards were out-hit by the Astros(?) 17-9. The hit club for the game included: the Baron-1, Burner-1, Cookie-1, Evy-2, Mumbles-1, TK-1, Wookie-1, and Youngin'-1. The ribbies were knocked in by: the Baron-2, Burner-1, Cookie-1, Evy-1, Wook-1, and Youngin'-1. Five Buzzards did take a base-on-balls: the Baron, Big Mac, Cookie, Mumbles, and Wookie. The eight runs scored were recorded to: Big Mac-1, Cookie-1, Evy-1, Mumbles-1, TK-1, Welzy-1, and Wook-2.

The Buzzards did have the highest pop-ups and the longest fly-outs in the game, but those don't count except in frustrations. Tough day with the bats.

The Buzzard defense made only one error and pulled-off three double-plays. In the third dig, a 4-6-3 from Wookie to Welzy to the Baron ended the inning. In the sixth, a good looking 6-4-3 with Welzy to Cookie to the Baron closed the inning. And in the seventh a come-backer to the pitcher resulted in a 1-6-3, Big Mac to Welzy to the Baron combo.

The hurlers provided nine of the outs with K's. There were five fly ball outs, so the infield had 13 put-outs for a solid defensive game. But there were a high number of hits, just out of reach of fielders, so it just did not feel like a good defensive game, when statistically it was.

The next time the Buzzards face the Astros, it will be in the playoffs. And the next time will be a different result. Beware the Buzzards.