Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #8

Game: June 17, 2012

Buzzards feast on Yankee pitching, win 25-0

On a warm Father's Day, a bunch of Ol' Buzzards landed at the scheduled game site, Rusch Park, to discover the field tore up and trashed by a popular festival the day before at the park. Left field had remnants of a rock climbing wall and right field was in bad shape from a doggy park with a large above-ground pool with long ramps for dogs to run, jump and splash. Great fun for dogs, but terrible for a baseball field.

Anyway, the game was moved quickly that morning to Brooktree Park (3.5 miles away) in Citrus Heights. The teams assembled without too much delay. The Yankees are a new 55+ team that is currently in last place (1-8) in the single A division.  Since all six double-A teams in the division play the five single-A teams once, this mismatch was on the schedule. The Buzzards (5-3-1) were a little short-handed for this game with other player commitments and tournaments on this Father's Day, so a couple of strong players were called up to the AA Buzzards.

Barry Forman #5 was recalled from retirement for the day, while Freddie O'Donoghue was sighted wearing #10 and brought his family with slugger Daniel to witness two rusty players 'get back into it' with the Ol' Buzzards.

In a battle of Big Macs, the starting pitchers were Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe #32 for the Gold Country Buzzards and Jim 'Bigger Mac' McAdams #26 for the Yankees in dark blue jerseys with white pants.

For the umpteenth time, Dave 'Evy' Everingham led off a baseball game with a base hit. This time it was not to right field, but a liner to left works also. Evy then stole second base before Taylor 'Welzy' Welz pulled a 2-2 pitch deep into the left field corner for a triple scoring Dave from second base. Welzy scored one-out later on a single to right by the clean-up hitter, Tony 'Mongoose' Brashear for two runs in the first.

The Buzzards scored four in the top of the second. Terry 'Caveman' Kelley got to first via an E-6 to start the inning. Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir hit the first pitch deep down the line in right field for an easy double scoring a hustling Caveman from first base. Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray followed with a double over the left fielder's head on an 0-2 pitch scoring Wook.

Two outs later, Evy hit a low liner through the left side into left field scoring the Baron from second. Evy stole second again before Welzy knocked him in with a big looper to right field for a single to end the scoring.  With two in the books, the score was 6 to zip.

In the top of the fourth, the Baron led-off with a deep-fly base hit to center field. One out later Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman, out of retirement, hit the first pitch down the right field line for a single putting two runners on. Next, Evy walked to load the bases. Welzy followed with a sacrifice fly to center field scoring the Baron. Then with two outs, Kevin 'Flash' Krantz followed with a sharp single to left with Brooklyn scoring from second base. The score after four was 8-0.

The Buzzards continued to score by adding two more in the fifth. Jim 'Milli' Milligan started the inning with a base hit to left. Flash ran for Milli. One out later, Caveman launched a 3-2 pitch deep to left that rolled to the fence for a run-scoring double with Flash trotting home. With two outs, the Baron singled up the middle driving in Caveman to make the score 10 - zip after five.

Meanwhile, Big Mac pitched a two hitter with no walks through five innings. The Yankees did put the ball in play with only four strike-outs. Scott 'Donut' Reeves took the mound in the sixth frame and pitched two innings to finish the game for the Buzzards.

The Ol' Yankees' total offense was three hits and a walk in the seven inning game. By the sixth inning, the day was getting hotter and the third Yankee pitcher was on the mound.

The team had been enjoying Yankee pitching so far, but the sixth inning became a statistical feast for the Buzzards as 15 straight batters reached base before an out was recorded. Milli broke the string with a fly-out straight to the left fielder. The long inning included Welzy's second triple of the game, long doubles by Flash and Caveman and eight singles plus two walks for 12 runs.

The 10-run mercy rule does not kick-in until after seven innings, so with lots of time still on the clock and the Yankees insisting, the Buzzards came to bat in the top of the seventh. By then the smaller Yankee roster was sapped of reserves and several players on the field were toast.

The seventh began with Caveman's third double to the fence of this game. Wookie followed with a looping single to center. After an out, Don 'Redondo' Colbert smashed a ground-rule double to left field scoring Kelley. Batting next, Ol' Barry drove the first pitch to right field for a single knocking in Wook and Redondo to complete the scoring. The final score was 25 - 0.

The Yankees were good sports about getting their butts kicked and the Buzzards played it cool during the offensive onslaught. Solid Buzzard pitching and good D made it difficult for these damned Yankees to get anything going. McCabe pitched five innings, faced 16 batters and threw 47 pitches (31 strikes & 16 balls). He gave up just two hits, no walks and four K's. Reeves looked good on the mound especially for a hung-over Buzzard.

Reminder: Too many and too late on a Saturday night can have Sunday morning consequences. Donut threw 27 pitches (17 strikes & 10 balls) and faced eight batters in the two innings pitched. He gave up one hit and one walk to finish the game.

The Buzzard offense looks awesome in the scorebook. 25 runs on 31 hits and four walks. The hit club for the game consisted of singles by Baron, Barry (3), Donut, Evy (3), Flash (2), Freddie (2), Big Mac, Mongoose (3), Milli (3), Redondo, Welzy and Wookie. Doubles were blasted by the Baron, Caveman (3), Flash, Redondo and Wook. Welzy hit two balls deep to the fence for his two triples. As listed in order on the score card, the ribbies were knocked in by Evy (2), Welzy (4), Flash (2), Honey Badger (2), Milli, Freddie, Caveman (2), Wookie (2), Baron, Big Mac (2), Redondo (2), and Barry (4).

The defense had two noteworthy plays. Welzy playing third in the fourth inning made a twisting, sliding catch of a short pop-up near the fence by the dugout door. And in the fifth, a slow developing double-play (6-4-3) was sped up by Donut's bare-hand of the toss from Evy at short. A good turn and strong throw to Freddie at first nailed the runner by a half-step.

Nice game to get lots of at-bats. Father's Day worked out well for the Ol' Buzzards.