Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #3

April 18, 2010

Astros Fall to Buzzards, 6-1

On a perfect day for baseball, the Gold Country Buzzards faced the Astros, led by the league president, Barry ‘Ponytail” Spiller, at Colfax High for a 10 am Sunday game. The Ol’ Buzzards, still looking for their first win of the season, sent their ace lefty Dave “Keppy” Kephart #21 to the mound. The Astros starting pitcher was their big right-hander, Ron “No Hit” Turner #13.

Keppy’s hard stuff versus Turner’s off-speed junk combined with the umpire’s large strike zone, made the game interesting for the hitters on both sides. Those two cagey veterans were hard to hit all day long and made for a quick game today.

The Buzzards scored first in the bottom of the second. Charles “CJ” Jackson was hit by a 1-1 fastball on the left shoulder to lead off the inning. Turner apologized then and later to CJ because he really reached back to add extra zip on that pitch, but lost control, and nailed Charles squarely on the left arm just above the elbow. CJ was now fired-up and stole second base while Mike “Bake” Baker, #53 this year in honor of Don Drysdale, was at bat. Bake hit a two-strike outside pitch looping into center field. CJ had to hold as the ball tipped off the glove of the hard charging center fielder putting runners at second and first.

Charles got the steal sign for taking second base, but the amped up CJ stole third base on his own with a surprised Bake trailing along to take the bag at second for his first stolen base of the season. After an out, Mark “Ronnie” Wronski hit a two-strike breaking ball on the ground to the shortstop to drive in an anxious CJ, going on contact, for the first run of the game with Baker moving to third. Next, Scott “Donut” Reeves walked on a full-count putting runners at first and third. With Barry “Brooklyn” Forman batting and two outs, Donut got the steal sign and beat the throw to the bag as the ball sailed into center field scoring Bake and advancing Scotty to third base. The inning ended with two runs for an early 2-0 lead.

The Buzzards scored one run in the fourth. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir led off with a two-strike grounder to the second baseman that was bobbled for an error. After a fielder’s choice by the newest Buzzard, Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue, Wookie ran for our catcher. After Wook tried to steal second base two times but returned due to a foul ball, he advanced to the bag on a wild pick-off throw at first. CJ then walked after eight pitches, putting Buzzards on first and second. Bake batting next, hit a grounder to the shortstop, who then threw to third to get a hustling and hard sliding Wook, but the throw was off a little and everyone was safe. Pete “Baron” Von Zboray up next, walked on four pitches to push in a run.

With one run in and bases loaded with only one out, a big inning was brewing, but the rally was snuffed out with a pop-up to third and a fly ball to left field to end the inning. The Buzzards were up 3-zip on the Astros, but had yet to get a hit.

The Buzzards took advantage of Astro errors in the bottom of the fifth to score three more runs. With one out, Ray “Bull Dog” Henry hit a grounder to third that was misplayed slightly and a hustlin’ Bull Dog beat the throw. The play was ruled an error after much discussion on the bench with the scorekeeper ruling for an error since the first hit this late in a game must be a clean base hit.

Don “Donny” Colbert followed with a fielder’s choice then stole second base with a hard head-first slide. Mike Hayworth then hit a hopper to the third baseman, who bobbled the ball as he looked at the dancing Colbert off of second base, and then we saw the turbos kick-in as Hayworth beat the throw to first. With two outs, Taylor “Welzy” Welz walked to load the bases for a salivating Wookie. On the second pitch of the at-bat, the Astro catcher tried to pick-off that dancing Donny at third base, but the throw was over the third baseman and into left field scoring two runs. The inning ended with the score 6-0, but again no hits and all of the runs were unearned.

The pitchers changed before any more notable action. Turner left the game after the sixth inning with his no-hitter, and was replaced by a slower thrower, Rankin “Smiley” Lyman #1. The 63-year old Rankin, pitched the final three innings, giving up only three hits and no runs. Keppy gave way to Hayworth in the eighth inning to finish off the victory.

The Astros did score in the ninth inning to avoid the shut-out. A single to right, a fly out to left, followed by a botched play at second base as converging infielders caused confusion on a come-backer to Mike on a double-play ball. With two on and one out, the Astro batter, Van Kempen #5, hit a shot to the right-center field gap bouncing to the fence. Speedy Donny in center field chased the ball down and threw a bullet to the cut-off man, Donut. Scotty then added the wow factor on a good looking 8-4-2 by throwing a strike to Freddie to nail the runner at home plate trying to score from first base.  A run scored on the hit, but what a terrific play. Mike struck-out the next batter to end the game, 6-1 Buzzards.

Buzzard pitchin’ was excellent. Hayworth pitched the last two innings to close out the victory for Keppy. The Astros only got four hits, two off of each pitcher. Kephart looked good and his left foot did not bother him much until later in the game. Kep did not bat. He threw 87 pitches (58 strikes & 29 balls) to 22 batters in seven innings, just one batter over the minimum. Hayworth looked comfortable on the improved Colfax mound and threw 26 pitches (15 strikes & 11 balls) against eight Astros.

The Buzzards got fewer hits than the Astros with only three. The big hitters were: Donut broke the no-hitter with two outs in the seventh with a hard ground ball through the third-short hole, after he smacked the previous pitch foul down the line, thus making the third baseman take a couple of steps toward the line and opening up that hole for the grounder. Boy, hits were tough to get today.  Bull Dog led off the eighth with a flare toward the left field line for a single and then Donny followed with a solid liner to left-center field for the last Buzzard hit of the game.

Batting averages are posted on the web site - this game didn’t help - but you’d better wait to check yours until after a few more games. The team batting is abysmal and the batting average is lower than a snail’s ass.

It was nice to put a game in the win column. Good pitching and solid defense looks to be a Buzzard forte again this season. Hit the batting cages this week and bring your best hittin’ stick on Sunday.

Next week’s game is an away affair against the Sultans. There will be a double-header the following week, May 2, against the Gold Country Coyotes. BBQ afterwards with the Coyotes at the Ballpark.