Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #12

Game: June 28, 2015

Buzzards make Dodgers blue with 10-4 win

For game 12 of the season, the schedule pitted last year's 42+ division finalist against the 52+ division champs for the second time. The younger Dodgers (9-2) faced the Ol' Buzzards (8-3) at the Tri City Field in a hot game, action and temperature wise, in Rocklin. The Buzzards had defeated the Dodgers 9-3 at James Field in their first meeting in April. This was the Buzzards' first game at Tri City this season with its very short right-field porch of 248 feet with a 12-foot fence at the fair pole. The distance quickly increases toward right-center-field, but the short fence is a tempting target, especially for lefties.

A last-minute schedule and field change for the MSBL Pirates forced both teams to play at 10 o'clock. The shared players were divided up and both teams were short-handed. The game began on a warm morning with plenty of cloud cover to make for a humid first couple of innings. The longest game of the season, nearly 3½ hours, ended with bright sunshine and cloudless skies with temperatures climbing to the high-90s.

The visiting Buzzards sent their ace, the hard throwing righty, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26 to the mound to face the young and big (a few linebackers) and the young and quick (several with blazing speed) Dodger line-up. The Dodgers countered with their hard throwing right-hander, Andy 'Big Mac' McCue #5 to start the game on the hill.

The Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard first with a nice crooked number (3) to put pressure on the Dodgers. With one out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir hit a high chopper to the first baseman. The ball took a funny hop and bounced off of his chest and rolled away as Wookie hustled across the bag to get on first. Kevin 'Flash' Krantz then walked on five-pitches and was followed by copy-cat Mark 'Thunder' Weathers with a five-pitch walk to load the bases. Up next, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray hit a sacrifice-fly to left-field to drive in Wookie from third. With two outs, Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley slugged a long double into the right-center-field gap to score Flash and Thunder. Next, the catcher, Jim 'Milli' Milligan walked on a full-count before the inning ended later with a picked-off ol' bird and a 3-0 lead. The pitcher, Big Mac, pulled a quad muscle during the dig and was replaced by a harder-thrower, right-hander, Will 'Bow Leg' Redick #24.

The Dodgers battled back with one run in the bottom half of the first inning. After two outs, a single was followed by a gaper double that scored the run. A terrific defensive play followed when a sharp single to right-field led to an excellent 9-3-2 relay and a close play at the plate to get the hard-sliding Dodger to end the inning with the score 3-1 Buzzards.

The Dodgers added a run in the second inning to tighten the score. A hit-batter led off the inning. After a steal of second, he moved to third on an umpire in-the-way infield single. The bouncing bullet nailed the field umpire solidly on the right-side of the rib cage on the play. The ump laid on the ground in a heap for a while before slowly getting up. A sacrifice-fly scored the run and left a runner at first with one down. Then a hot grounder to the right-side was snared near first base to begin a 3-6-3 double play and end the inning.

With the score still 3-2 and entering the fourth frame, the Buzzards busted through with four runs to add some cushion to the score. Tomahawk led-off with a five-pitch base-on-balls. Milli followed with a full-count walk to start a good looking rally. The Baron ran for Milli at first. With one out and runners on the corners, Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman hit a flare into right-field for a single to score Tomahawk and put runners at first and second. Welzy followed with a looping single to short right-field near the line to load the bases. Later with two outs, Flash hit a slow bouncer to short. Flash beat the play and the desperation throw was too high for the first baseman to catch, while Baron and Brooklyn crossed home plate. Welzy moved to third base and Flash took second on the over-throw.

On the play, Welzy danced half-way down the line twice, while the Dodgers tossed the ball around the infield. A revved-up Welzatron lasted only a couple more pitches at the third base starting-line before a pitch in the dirt got past the catcher and Welzy rushed home for a 7-2 score.

The pitching was effective for both teams, while each defense was making key plays to keep the other team from scoring more. Through five frames and 30 total outs, the game had a high number of strike-outs (12). The Buzzards had seven (4 swinging & 3 looking), while the Dodgers had five (3 swinging & 2 looking) as the teams adjusted to the strike-zone, velocity and the variety of pitches.

The Ol' Buzzards punched one across in the sixth to add to the lead. To start the inning, Welzatron crushed a 2-0 pitch over the center-fielder's head for a stand-up double. Welzy then moved to third on a ground-out to the right-side of the infield. Flash also hit his 2-0 count pitch to center-field on the fly. That ball sailed over second base by a good 60-70 feet and was snagged in the air by a hard charging center-fielder. Nonetheless, Welzatron was revved-up again for a dash to home plate. The ball short-hopped the catcher near the plate, but a few feet up the line and the ball did not stick in the mitt, as Welzy steaming toward home bumped into the catcher, who was in the base path. Welzy was called safe, but there were still some interesting words between players while in close proximity to the plate. The score was 8-2 entering the Dodger half of the inning.

The feisty Dodgers scored one run in the sixth, but were denied more on superb defensive plays. The speedy lead-off hitter beat out an up-the-middle high chopper on a good play for an infield hit. After stealing second, he stole third and then scored on an over-throw. Later with a runner on first base, a groundball blur was snagged at short to start a timely 6-4-3 double-out play. The third out was a hotter smash that was flagged-down by Welzy from the mound. The score after six full-innings was 8-3 Buzzards.

The Buzzards went quietly in the seventh, while the Dodgers were gathering momentum by leaving four runners on base in the last two digs and were hitting the ball sharply for their outs. The Dodgers tacked on a run in the seventh for an 8-4 game and were getting lively on the bench. A two-out rally with a couple of hits around a hit-batter produced the run.

In the eighth inning the Buzzards faced a tiring Bow Leg, but he was still a tough hurler with his velocity and mix of pitches. Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia started it off with a line-drive single to left-field. Batting next, Brooklyn banged-out an opposite field line-drive to left to put runners at first and second. Welzatron, up next, calculated mathematical probabilities, forces necessary plus late inning strategy to determine a good bunt up the right-side was the next logical move. The excellent bunt was stopped by the athletic pitcher with a diving stop after it passed him. Bow Leg used a strong throw from his knees to get the scurrying Welzatron Model 2015 in a close play at first base, while moving the runners into scoring position.

With one down, Wookie, with two earlier strike-outs to Bow Leg, was looking vulnerable to the salivating pitcher. Wook then rocked the first-pitch fastball deep into the right-center-field gap for a two-run double, scoring Cagey and Brooklyn, and putting a cap on the Dodger dugout chatter with the 10-4 score.

The eighth inning ended with three minutes remaining in the three-hour time limit, so a ninth inning was started. Five Buzzies faced two Dodger pitchers in the top of the inning for two walks, but no runs. The Buzzard closer, veteran righty, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1, entered the game in the bottom of the ninth to put-away the Dodgers. Four batters later, the longest game of the year was over at the 3-hour and 25-minute mark with the final score Buzzards 10 and the Dodgers 4.

Buzzard pitching was awesome and held the good hitting Dodgers to 10 hits and lots of ground balls for the defense to field. Welz pitched a stellar eight innings in facing 36 Dodgers and throwing 120 pitches (79 strikes & 41 balls). Taylor gave up four runs (2 earned) on nine hits, two walks and two hit-batsman with seven strike-outs. Surf Dawg closed out the game by facing four Dodgers and throwing 18 pitches (10 strikes & 8 balls). Gregg gave up no runs on one hit with no walks or Ks in ending the game.

The Buzzard offense was slowed down by the 10 strike-outs by Dodger pitching. The 11-hit attack was combined with nine walks and four Dodger errors (all in the fourth inning) for the 10 runs. The Buzzard hit club for the game included: Baron, Brooklyn-2, Cagey-2, Flash, Tomahawk, Welzy-2 and Wookie-2. The 10 runs were scored by: Brooklyn-2, Cagey, Flash, Milli, Thunder, Tomahawk, Welzy-2 and Wook. The RBI's were knocked in by: Baron, Brooklyn, Flash-3, Tomahawk-2 and Wookie-2. There were nine free passes to first base handed out to four Buzzards. The Buzzard walkers without canes were: Flash-3, Milli-3, Thunder and Tomahawk-2.

The Buzzard defense was showcasing its team depth against a tough opponent. Thunder, the first-string first baseman was on one corner while Baron, the third-string third baseman, held down the other. In the middle were Wookie, the third-string shortstop, and Tomahawk the fourth-string second baseman, performing admirably, and with enough good plays to make the regular infield starters nervous. Of the 27 outs, there were seven strike-outs, two fly-balls, two pop-ups, one line-out, one 9-3-2 relay put-out and 14 ground-outs.

There were two double plays to shut down Dodger rallies. In the second with a run scored and a runner on first with one out, a hard grounder to Thunder's right was speared smoothly. Weathers wheeled and threw to second avoiding the runner to a covering Wook. The inside throw was back-handed and the return throw to first was in-time to nail the runner and end the inning. In the sixth, after a run had scored and with a runner at first and nobody out, a blur was grounded to Wook's right at shortstop. Wookie snagged the ball and threw a quick strike to Tomahawk at second to start a sweet 6-4-3 double play with a final good-scoop at first by Thunder for an exclamation point on the 'wow' play.

The two fly-ball outs were handled easily by the bored outfielders. Flash caught his in center-field for a sacrifice-fly in the second frame. And Cagey got the final out of the game with a deep high fly catch in right-field, along with the key assist in the first frame with that great relay from right-field to nail the hard-charging Dodger at the plate. The quick tag by Mill-dog of the sliding linebacker on the close play ended the first inning and sent a strong message to the Dodgers.

The Dodgers also stayed away from left-field that was being patrolled by Mr. Barry Basketcatch. The pops-ups were not that evil this game. The first was a medium pop-up to Tomahawk at second base in the fourth. The second one was a nice back-handed catch in foul territory by the Baron playing third base to end the seventh with runners at second and third.

Milli had eight put-outs plus he called a great game and weathered the long match behind the plate without relief. Thunder was busy with nine put-outs at first base, along with two outstanding assists. The Baron had one nice assist at third (5-3) in the ninth inning. Wookie also had a busy game in the infield with four assists and one put-out at shortstop and one assist playing second base in the ninth, plus Wookster had his hands in both double plays. Welzatron had one put-out and one assist from the bump.

The player of the game was the fourth-string second baseman, and who may move up to third-string after this performance, Tomahawk Keatley. Tom handled all six opportunities he had covering second base for his first time ever playing second base in a game. Tomahawk got dirty several times and made the play look tougher than it was sometimes, but his glove-work and terrific plays to 'get the outs' were a critical factor in the victory. His two-out, two-run clutch double in the first inning was also a beautiful sight to see.

The Buzzards played well the whole game and handled the extra pressure of playing a younger, stronger, faster team pretty well. The Dodgers hit the ball awfully hard at times and the speed of several players was surprising and hard to limit, but the Ol' Buzzards prevailed again to the continued frustration of the Dodgers. The victory broke the Dodgers' seven-game win streak.

Another Buzzard win means the record is now 9-3. The team gets next Sunday, July 5th, off to celebrate Independence Day. The next game is July 12th with a 2 o'clock ballgame at James Field against the 42+ Rays.

Buzzard Note #1: The All-Star game for the 52+ Division is Wednesday, July 15th, at Playfields Park in Davis at 6 pm. Ballots will be passed out at the July 12th game. The Buzzards are allowed eight players on the team, plus the manager. The game will be Buzzards-Astros vs. Solons-Yankees.

Buzzard Note #2: For planning purposes, the NABA championship game is scheduled for September 20th at Playfields Park. The first-place Buzzards will have a bye on the previous Sunday, September 13th. Mark those calendars and please plan accordingly.