Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #10

June 6, 2010

Buzzards make Reds blue; win 5-4 in extra innings

The Sunday began warm and got hotter as the Buzzards gathered at the home field of the Reds for a double battle at Inderkum High between the last two Sacramento NABA champs. Last year’s title holder, the 9-1 Reds, have won nine straight games after losing their season opener against the Valley Cats. The Buzzards were in fourth place with a 5-4 season record.

Against the noisy background of the North Natomas Little League end-of-season festival with several thousand kids having fun nearby, a limited number of Ol’ Buzzards were available to take-on the 20 Reds that were suited up for this double dip of baseball on the hottest day of the year, so far. The temperature hit 94°.

Twelve Buzzards were available for the first game and ten for the second. Coach Wook got the Reds to agree to two seven inning games due to the shortage of Buzzards for the twin bill on this hot day. The shorter game allowed Freddie and Charles to play the entire first game before needing to leave for their family commitments.

The Reds were the home team for the first game and sent righty, Danny “Smiley” Harvey #25, to the mound. Danny’s slow curve and sneaky fastball beat the Buzzards in two of the three championship series games last year. The Buzzards countered with their ace lefty, Dave “Keppy” Kephart #21, to cool off the red hot Reds.

Reds scored first with two runs in the first inning. It was a crazy inning that started with a leadoff double by Dennis Viegas down the left field line. The next two batters struck out on nasty pitches. Then big Andres Gonzalez slugged a run scoring ground-rule double that bounced over the right field fence. With two outs, Pablo Gonzales swung at a wild pitch in the dirt for strike three but as the ball rolled to the deep backstop, Pablo sped toward first. Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue, the catcher, quickly retrieved the ball and threw to first base. However, the tough angle for the throw and the non-harmonic convergence of runner and moving first baseman and ball and base trying to share the same air space at the same time, didn’t work out well and the runner was save at first, while the runner on second scored on the play.

Bob “Woody” Wooden, playing first base, was knocked down hard on his tush in the collision with the runner. Keppy then calmly struck out the next Red batter on five pitches for the rare statistic of four strike outs in an inning. Wow. And the baseball day was just beginning.

Danny Harvey was sharp for the Reds on the mound so the offense sputtered until the fifth inning when the Buzzards stormed back with four runs to take the lead. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir led off with a single to right field. Scott “Donut” Reeves then laid down a nice bunt that resulted in a base hit. Keppy, batting next, hit a two-strike pitch on a line to left field for a run scoring single. Mark “Ronnie” Wronski was then hit on the thigh by a pitch putting runners on all the bases.

With no outs the Buzzards needed to strike now and Barry “Brooklyn” Forman was coming to the plate. On a 2-2 count, Barry hit a clutch line drive to right-center scoring two big runs. The curveball pitch hung up a little and Forman waited on it before smacking it into the outfield for the go-ahead runs. With one out, Mike “Bake” Baker then hit a sacrifice fly ball to left field scoring the fourth run of the inning.

The score remained 4-2 Buzzards into the bottom of the seventh. In the Reds’ at-bat, they scored the two runs to tie the game. It started with a leadoff double by Danny Harvey, hit way over Barry’s head in left field. After a walk and strikeout, the next batter hit a sinking fly ball to right field that was fielded by Charles “CJ” Jackson. CJ quickly threw the ball to Bake for the relay throw to third base to nail the hard sliding runner for the second out. Good throw and excellent tag by Ronnie on the cleats high slide that spiked Mark on the arm. It wasn’t too bad, just blood and wounds that look like bite marks. In a couple of months, he’ll probably forget how those scars got there. Great play. The next batter struck out to send the game into extra innings.

The Buzzards scored one run in the top of the eighth inning to re-take the lead. With one out, Baker, who pulled the ball all day long, hit one right down the line for a sure double until the third baseman, Pablo, dove a long way to back-hand snag the ball deeep behind the bag. Pablo then jumped up from the amazing catch and promptly rushed his throw and he sailed the ball way over the head of big Andres at first. Bake didn’t break stride rounding first and took second on the over throw. Don “Redondo” Colbert then came in to run for Mike.

Taylor “Welzy” Welz, batting next, hit a weak grounder fielded by the pitcher, who then threw to third base trying to nail the hustling Redondo racing from second base on the play. The play was close, but Redondo’s hard head-first slide beat the ball and sent Donnie’s head ramming into the third baseman’s left knee. Ouch for both of them. Well, the ball went rolling to the fence while both players lay on the ground. Wookie, the third base coach, is yelling at Redondo to get up and score the go-ahead run, not realizing that Donnie’s bell had been rung real good. Again, these non-harmonic convergences of sliding runners, fielders and thrown balls and bases competing for the same space at the same time can be dangerous.

Before resuming the game, Donnie was asked what his name was and what year this was - and his answers were kinda close, at least close enough to keep the speedy guy at third base. He did know which way was home plate. Both players got up slowly rubbing the hurt, which for Redondo was his head. He probably only black-out for 30 seconds after conking his head, but give the ol’ scout a few extra minutes and he’s ready to go. Who said Donnie was hard headed, well you’re right.  With the bases loaded, one out and the game on the line, Freddie then hit a slow roller to the shortstop driving in Redondo with the go-ahead run. With the one run lead, the Buzzards went on defense looking for three outs.

The first two batters went down on a grounder and a pop-up to Wook at second. So far, so good. Then Hughey, batting ninth, on a 1-2 pitch sent a mini blooper just over the mound that landed before any fielder could get to it for a single. The next batter got on via an infield throwing error. So with two on and the tying run in scoring position, Keppy decides to put an end to this game with a three pitch strikeout for the victory. Good job Buzzards.

Keppy pitched a hell of a game. He threw 142 pitches (86 strikes & 56 balls) while facing 35 ugly Reds. Keppy struck out 14 Reds, four in the first inning, to hold a good hitting team to seven hits and to go along with three walks and one hit batter for their four runs. The Buzzards had 10 hits.  A peculiar offensive stat: all Buzzard batters got one hit each (all singles) in this game except for the team’s leading hitter, Welzy (0-4). Taylor rarely goes o-fer. The ribbies were driven in by Bake, Freddie, Keppy and two by Barry with none to spare.

The defense played well with only one error and that coming with two outs in the eighth. Welzy showed off his range at short by racing down a couple of difficult pop-ups and Freddie was solid at catcher handling Keppy and holding down the aggressive Red runners. Hayworth handled first base nicely with four put outs. Another peculiar game stat: All of the outs were made by Keppy or infielders. Strangely, no outfield put outs.

This was a good team victory, now on to game two.

Buzzard Note #1: Bring complete uniforms to the game. No matter how proud you are of your package or legs, do not forget to bring your pants. This includes the Irish as well.

Buzzard Note #2: Mike Baker is such a team player that he gave up his pants to Freddie O’Donoghue at the start of the game. Freddie left his behind, his lil’ son, Danny, had his pants at least and Fred had extra diapers, but no gray baseball pants in sight. Mike then ran off to stimulate the local economy at the nearest Sports Authority for new pants. You know you can never have enough gray baseball pants; they go so well with the gray hair. Thanks Bake.