Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #5

May 2, 2010

Buzzards Tame Coyotes In 9-3 Win

On a another beautiful Colfax Spring Sunday, and a day just made for the famous line, by hall-of-famer Ernie Banks, “let’s play two”, the Gold Country Buzzards were set to play the Gold Country Coyotes in a twin bill with the first game starting at 10 am. On the Colfax Varsity field, in better shape than most of the players, this gold country baseball special was going to be some hard fought games followed by a friendly BBQ for both teams.

However, this day could not begin until we gave our respects to Dave Langness of the Coyotes, who died last Sunday of a massive coronary at the Antelope High field while warming-up for the game. For a very touching memorial prior to the game, both teams lined up along the sidelines from home plate and removed their caps for a short prayer and statement by Tom Luck of the Coyotes, which was then followed by a moment of silence. At this point, Coyote Norm Tucker’s son, Hayden, was on the pitcher’s mound and began to play Amazing Grace on the Bagpipes while the ceremony was being taped to send back to his family. Dave was working in Sacramento with his wife and four children living in Missouri. He had just joined the Coyotes the week before. Dave was a veteran and Norm arranged for the thoughtful and special Bagpipes presentation. Dave’s funeral was the following Monday in Missouri. Nice touch Coyotes.

The Buzzards were the home team for the first game and sent southpaw Dave “Keppy” Kephart #21, decked out in the black and candy corn orange jersey, to the mound to face the Coyotes big hard-throwing right hander, Tom “Lucky” Luck #16 with their gray, black and green uni’s.

The Ol’ Buzzards struck first with four runs in the bottom of the first inning. Taylor “Welzy” Welz started it with a full-count walk. After a passed ball moved him to second, Welzy scored on Fred “Freddie” O’Donoghue’s hit to right field. With Scott “Donut” Reeves running for the catcher, he moved to second base on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball before scoring on Charles “CJ” Jackson’s lined single to left field. Dan “Wookie” Wukmir then waited until CJ stole second before beating out a grounder up the middle for an infield hit. CJ moved to third base. After Wookie stole second, Pete “Baron” Von Zboray with two strikes knocked in CJ with a line drive to left. Later with two outs, Mark “Ronnie” Wronski finished off the scoring by driving in Wook with a sinking liner base hit to center field for a 4-0 lead.

The second inning started with a single to center by Don “Redondo” Colbert. Donnie stole second and moved to third on Donut’s grounder to second. Next, Welzy hit one to left for a single scoring Redondo. Welzy then stole second before Freddie drove him in with a nice rope to center for his second hit in two innings. The inning ended with the Buzzards now on top 6-0.

The Coyotes fought back with two runs in the top of the fifth. After a nice snag of a hot liner by Keppy for the first out, Terry “Caveman” Kelley #22 singled to left and quickly stole second. Tony Vigil #9 walked after Kelley moved to third on a wild pitch. Tony stole second putting both runners in scoring position. Batting next, Tom “Not So Lucky” Luck smashed a sinking line drive to center that appeared to be falling in for a hit, however, Don “Redondo” Colbert flew in from deep center field and made a diving catch to steal the hit away. The two runners were off at the hit and had to return to their bag to tag up on Donnie’s defensive play of the game.

From the Buzzards angle in the dugout, it appeared questionably that the runners tagged-up before advancing. So after the play was over, Keppy appealed the runner from third leaving too soon and threw to Mark “Ronnie” Wronski at third base. The home plate ump ruled the Coyote safe, saying that time was still out. So, when the ump, Bob, called time back in, Kep again stepped off the rubber and threw to Ronnie. This time Bob called safe, due to official baseball rule 7.10 (d), successive appeals may not be made on a runner at the same base. The appeals process took too long and with too much drama, due to Bob and several Buzzards disagreeing, that also took too long.

With two outs and up next, Chris “Pin Cushion” Harris #24 was hit for a second time with a Kephart pitch - ouch. Chris does like to hang over home plate with his arms a la Barry Bonds, but unless he starts wearing the elbow armor that Bonds got away with, he needs to work on a quicker bail-out move. Norm “Bulldog” Tucker #40 then singled up the middle on the first pitch before Roberto Solis #5 knocked in Tony with a first pitch single to left field. The score was now 6-2 Buzzards going into the bottom of the fifth of a seven inning game.

The Ol’ Buzzards came charging back with three more runs to dampen any come-back chances. Freddie started the inning with his third hit of the game, a sharp single to left. Welzy, running for the catcher, then stole second base. Always aggressive, T-Welz attempted to garb third base on a wild pitch, but he was nailed by the catcher, T. Kelley, on a perfect throw to the bag. Woody then roped a single into left field and stole second before CJ drew a full-count walk. With Wookie batting, the runners moved to third and second on a blown pick-off play. On a full-count pitch, after swinging at ball four, Wook hit a line drive into right field scoring two runs. The oldest Buzzard then sprinted from first to third base after a wild pick-off throw from the catcher. Wook then scored the third run on the Baron’s grounder to short. The inning ended with the score 9-2 Buzzards.

The Coyotes went down fighting with one run in the top of the seventh, starting with Tucker’s third hit to center field this game. After Norm stole second, Solis singled up the middle putting runners at the corners. On a full-count pitch, the newest Coyote, lefty Charles Thomas #10, grounded to the hole between first and second. On a nice looking double play, Wookie scooped up the bouncer and threw to Welzy covering second and with a quick turn at the bag, Taylor threw a strike to Woody at first, while the runner scored. Mike “Wild” Hayworth struck out the next Coyote to end the game, 9-3 Buzzards.

A good team effort with 13 hits, no errors and good pitching will win a lot of games. Keppy pitched 5 innings and faced 26 batters in throwing 88 pitches (58 strikes & 30 balls). The Coyotes got six hits in those five innings to score two runs with two walks and four hit batters. In Little League you get tossed after hitting three batters. After the third batter was hit by the fourth inning, the plate umpire called Wookie to home plate while the hit batter, Pin Cushion, walked to first and Kephart was strongly voicing his opinion about the situation - batters not trying to get out of the way.

The ump tells Wook to warn the pitcher about throwing too close and high to the batters. Ol’ Wook briefly argues that Harris didn’t budge and he is clearly hanging over the plate with his arms. From the dugout it looked like he was hit by a strike. The ump not-so-surprisingly didn’t change his call and Wookie was forced to turn around and face an agitated Keppy, showing a few veins on his neck looking ready to pop, and not in the mood to listen. Keppy, loudly for the ump to hear, reminded Dan and everyone else that the first two hit batters were on curve balls. The warning talk was quick and the game got back underway. The next hit Coyote wasn’t until nine batters later, the longest time between hit-batsman, again it was Pin Cushion, hence the new nick name. Chris was hit three times today, once later in game two, triple ouch.

For the record: Tony Vigil was nailed in the leg in the first on a curve; the second Coyot was hit by a curve ball after it bounced in the dirt and hit a jumping Roberto Solis in the lower leg in the second inning; Chris Harris was hit twice (fourth and fifth inning), at least one was a fastball and both were with two strikes.

Hayworth closed out the game in two innings of work facing 10 Coyotes throwing 44 pitches (24 strikes & 20 balls) with two strikeouts, both to end each inning. The Coyots got one run on three hits with two walks and no hit batters. Buzzard pitching was solid. Those Coyotes did get nine hits, but to four batters, with animal Terry Kelley getting three solid hits and the diving third baseman, Tucker, smacking three hits to center field. Roberto got two singles and the other Kelley -Dave- led off the top of the third with a base hit.

The defense had a solid performance with no errors and terrific plays in the fifth inning by Keppy on the snag of a screamer up the middle and Redondo’s diving catch in center field. The 4-6-3 double play in the seventh by the W-guys, Wookie to Welzy to Woody, snuffed out any chance for a big Coyote inning. The catching was superlative by Freddie, while little son, Danny, watched his ol’ man play in the dirt, wear a funny mask and get three hits.

The offense was excellent especially considering the tough Coyote pitching. Tom Luck has nasty stuff and throws a heavy ball. Tom did throw 130 pitches during the game. The Buzzards responded with 13 hits, all singles. Nine Buzzards got base hits during the game. The multi hit group included Ronnie and Wookie with two and Freddie with hits in his first three at bats. The RBI’s were knocked in by six Buzzards: Welzy, Freddie-2, CJ, Wook-2, Baron-2, and Ronnie.

Wins are good and the game was enjoyable against the new and improving Coyotes on a gorgeous morning. The seven inning game was a three hour affair. Game two following a quick lunch break.

Buzzard Note #1: Two Buzzards received a warning during the game from the umps for ‘acting like brats’. It was reported that both players, who brought their wives, were given a deserving lecture during and after the game by their better-half. Even major league umps blow calls, especially strike zones, all the time. We need to have a little more fun.