Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #9

May 23, 2010

Buzzards Fall Twice To Valley Cats

The first game was a fast game and ended early, before 12:30, so the hurry-up umps wanted game two to start at 1 o’clock. The Buzzard problem was the planned starting pitcher, Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue #26, coming from Citrus Heights, did not plan on the game starting so early and had just arrived at the field when the game was starting.

Pitching for the Valley Cats was the ol’ crafty righty, Craig Parker #20, master of the slider. On the mound to face the hot Cats for the Buzzards was veteran right-hander Mike Hayworth #13. The day was lovely, but the wind persisted throughout game two. The Valley Cats, batting in the top of the first inning, scored three runs on two hits, two walks, two errors and two wild pitches.

The Buzzards battled back for a run in the last half of the first. Taylor “Welzy” Welz led off with a walk, advanced to second on a ground out, stole third base and scored on a grounder to short by Freddie.

The Cats scored three more in the second inning. An error, a triple, hit batsman, and two walks put the Buzzards in a five run hole early. Mike pitched a 1-2-3 third inning before turning the game over to Freddie on the mound.

The pesky Cats scored a run in the fourth on a walk and stolen base followed by a double. In the fifth, a hit batter and two singles produced another run for an 8-1 game at that point.

The Ol’ Buzzards put two runs on the board in the sixth inning. Freddie led off with a single to left. Charles “CJ” Jackson lined the first pitch to left-center field putting runners at first and second. A full swing bunt by Mike “Bake” Baker advanced the runners to second and third with one out. With two outs, Mark “Ronnie” Wronski hit a sinking liner off the charging left-fielders’ glove, scoring both runners making the score 8-3 with one inning to go.

The persistent Valley Cats scored twice more in the seventh on a single, an infield error, and a walk to load the bases followed by two ground balls. The never-say-die Buzzards then proceeded to find their hitting stroke and bang out five consecutive hits after a Cat infield error to score five quick runs and have a nice rally going.

Donnie “Redondo” Colbert started the inning by getting on base via E6 and hustle. After Redondo stole second base with a hard head-first slide, Welzy spanked a double down the left field line scoring Redondo. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir, batting next, hit a towering shot deep to left-center for a double, easily scoring T-Welz. Fred followed with a single to center field. CJ then drove in Wook with a crisp liner to left and putting runners at first and second. Bake then hit a flare to right-center knocking in Freddie. Mike Hayworth followed with an RBI grounder to short with CJ scoring from third.

The Valley Cats got the third out before any more Buzzards scored. A needed five-run rally, but a little late. The final score was 10-8.

The big early lead was tough to overcome. The pitching was fine, the fielding and execution did not help. There were a few too many free passes, but runners happen. We need to score more. Mike Hayworth pitched the first three innings, facing 19 batters and throwing 71 pitches (35 strikes & 36 balls) giving up three hits with five walks and one hit batter and three strikeouts. Freddie took the mound in the fourth inning and threw 70 pitches (40 strikes & 30 balls) to 21 Valley Cats with four hits, two walks, one hit batter while striking out four.

The Buzzard’s got 13 hits in the game and a base hit in every inning but the first one with runners in every frame and leaving eight runners on base in the seven inning game. The Gold Country Gang out-hit the Cats 13 to 7, but again could not string together the hits until the final at-bat.

Both teams played a little tired at times in the second game and both had four errors. The team offense showed up in the second game, but it wasn’t quite enough to out-score the Valley Cats.

13 hits in a seven inning game is what ya like to see. The big hitters in the game were Barry, CJ, Freddie, Ronnie, and Welzy with two hits each. The ribbies were knocked in by T-Welz, Wookie, Freddie, CJ, Bake, Ronnie and Hayworth. In the sixth inning Forman gave us all a chuckle after he smacked a hard grounder down the first base line, just fair, and announced for all to hear “base hit” after hitting the ball.

The Cats were tough but definitely beatable. We play them once more at home, later in the season. The next games will be another double-header on June 6, this time against last year’s champs, the Reds.

Buzzard Note #1: The Buzzards will be on the road for the month of June. The schedule is balanced over the season with home and away games; it just doesn’t look that way in June. We have more home games late in the season.

Buzzard Note #2: Lost & Found: Mizuno glove and Ringor shoes were left in the dugout after the game. CJ picked them up, so see him before the next game.