Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #5

Game: May 20, 2012

Valley Cats clip Buzzards' wings, 4-1

On another gorgeous Sunday, the Buzzards began the longest day of the season in Elk Grove with a 10 o'clock game against last year's champs, the Valley Cats. The game was played at the new and very large sports park next to Franklin High, the Hal Bartholomew Sports Park. Soccer matches were taking place on the adjacent (artificial grass) fields. The complex was impressive, the dugouts were nice and shaded and the bleachers were also shaded, but the baseball field dirt was soft and the mound was misshapen and too high.

This was the first game of a split double-header with the Buzzards traveling even farther south to Galt for game two in the afternoon. For the first game, the starting pitcher for the Buzzards was lefty, Dave 'Keppie' Kephart #21. This was Keppie's last baseball game before he retires after 35 years with the Placer County Water Agency at the end of this week. But more importantly to the team, was Kep fully recovered from the heavy and late celebrating at his office retirement party on Friday night.

The Valley Cats sent tough and partially crazed, right-hander Dave 'Nut Job' Nutter #12 to the mound to open the game. Nut Job looked a little meaner than normal with a swollen black-eye and scratched up face from a fairly recent fight or his story - a fall in the shower.

Leading off the first inning for the Buzzards, Dave 'Evy' Everingham hit a 2-1 pitch sharply to center field for a single. A fielder's choice and strike-out later, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz then hit the 1-1 pitch down the first base line for a single that scored Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz from second base to take an early 1-0 lead.

After that run, each team struggled to get their offense going as the pitching mastery of Kep and Nut Job made for short innings. Kep was throwing a four-hit shutout through four innings and Nutter was keeping pace with just three hits in the first four innings. The Valley Cats scored two runs in the fifth inning on four singles and one bad umpiring call at second base, which should have been runner interference on the double-play attempt. With the runner at first going on the pitch, a grounder was hit to Evy at short. Dave cleanly fielded the ball and threw to Welzy covering second. Taylor caught the ball with the runner sliding into the bag, but when the runner did a pop-up slide with TWelz throwing to first, that was the interference that was not called as a run scored.

The feral Cats scored two more in the bottom half of the seventh inning with a walk, stolen base and two singles. Meanwhile, the Buzzards were not stringing hits together to get the offense moving around the bases. The most Buzzards to bat in any inning of this game was five and there were two hits in an inning just three times. The Gold Country guys did threaten to score in the last two innings, but the Cats defense is solid and the game ended with the final score, 4-1 Valley Cats.

Buzzard pitching was excellent. Holding this offensive juggernaut to four runs should have meant a Buzzard victory. Keppie faced 34 batters in throwing 107 pitches (76 strikes & 31 balls). The whinny Cats got 11 hits and only one walk while striking out seven times.

The defense was tight with the outfield tracking down long fly balls for key outs and also showing off their arms with terrific throws. In the fourth inning, Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz nailed a Cat at home plate with a strong throw from left field and a good tag by the catcher, Scott 'Donut' Reeves. In the fifth, Caveman Kelley playing left field, threw out the runner at second base trying to stretch a single into a double, which snuffed out their VC rally. And Welzy made a fabulous over-the-shoulder catch in short right field playing second base to open the sixth frame.

The Buzzard offense was anemic with nine hits by six batters with one walk and seven strike outs. Five of the nine hits were by two Buzzards - Evy and Wook. The hit club for the first game included: Baron, Evy (3), Speedee K, Weed, Welzy and Wookie (2). The walk was issued to eagle-eye Milli. The only run scored was knocked in by Welzy with two outs in the first.

The game was hard fought and very competitive, but with a lousy ending. The nine inning game only lasted 2 ½ hours even with the fifth inning incident, where Dave Cupps of the Valley Cats was ejected from the game after being thrown out at second base from left field. Cupps was kicked out of the game for throwing his helmet and calling the ump lots of names with adjectives beginning with the letter f. He took his sweet time leaving the field and the dugout yelling expletives most of the time for all to hear.

After that long inning, a wise Ol’ Buzzard, soon to retire from water work, gathered the team in front of the dugout to remind us – don’t be that guy. Good game, tough loss and now on to game two of the split double-header in Galt.

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #6

Second Game: May 20, 2012

Tired Buzzards tie Astros, 5-5

After getting misdirected to Galt Community Park by Wookie aka Magellan's simple directions off Highway 99, the team was ready to play at the 2:30 start time. Temperatures were in the low 90's with a mild breeze.

The Astros (3-2) play in the single-A division as a 55+ team and are managed by the league commissioner, Barry Spiller. Meaning, this should be an easy win even for tired Ol' Buzzards. However, ...

The game started right with one run scored in the top of the first inning. With two outs, lefty Dave 'Keppie' Kephart hit a sharp grounder down the third base line that hit the bag and bounced over the jumping third baseman for a rare hit-bag single. Kep was replaced at first by his runner Taylor 'Welzy' Welz. Next, Welzy stole second base before Bob 'Woody' Wooden stroked a liner to right field for a run-scoring single. However, with two K's in that inning, it was apparent the umpire's strike zone was big and bad for the Buzzard batters, and irritatingly so, shoe box size for Buzzard pitching.

The Astros scored one run in their half of the first inning with just one hit. A single, stolen base, then advance to third on a ground out, and score on an infield ground out to short.

The Buzzards added a run in the third when Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray doubled with one out. Dave 'Evy' Everingham, batting next, singled to right-center moving the Baron to third and then Pete alertly scored on the play as the ball came loose in the infield. Batting next, Welzy bunted safely and stole second base putting runners at second and third with one out, but then the bats went silent stranding two runners in scoring position. Two of 15 stranded Buzzards during the game.

The Buzzards threatened in every inning and left runners in scoring position in every inning giving with the illusion the game was going to break open any moment. The game was 2-1 Buzzards until the bottom of the seventh.

The Astros put together two runs that inning with two walks, two singles and a run scoring fielder's choice to take a 3-2 lead.

The Buzzards bounced back and scored two runs in the next inning to retake the lead. Welzy led off with another bunt-single before stealing second base. Woody followed with an infield hit to put two runners on. Next, Tony 'Honey Badger' Brashear hit an 0-2 pitch into left-center field for a single driving in Welz. Evy running for Tony at first, then stole second base and moved to third on a wild pitch. The run scored on the grounder to shortstop by Terry 'Caveman' Kelley to take back the lead at 4-3.

The Astros fought back with another run to tie the game again. All it took was a walk, stolen base and base hit to make the score 4-4 after eight with time running out.

The Ol' Buzzards clawed out a run with a one-out E-6 on Scott 'Donut' Reeves' grounder and hustle. Donut was then sent to second base on the pitcher's balk. Batting next, Don 'Redondo' Colbert hit a slow roller to short that he beat out at first base, while Donut alertly scored from second base on the play at first. Mark 'Weed' Fowler was later hit by a pitch, but the inning ended 5-4 Buzzards.

In the bottom of the ninth inning, with a man on second the Astros surprised everyone to include themselves, with a dramatic two-out double that scored the game-tying run. The second out of the inning already was a dramatic close play at the plate with a drawn-in infield and a grounder to Evy at shortstop.  Which beer replays later told by the catcher revealed that within that big dust cloud from the head-first slide, the ball and glove got separated on the tag. Milli quickly reached down and found the ball on the ground and then held it up high for the huge 'out' call. With another hit the Astros could have won the game, but a two-out fly ball in the sun to right field was caught by Pete to end the game at 5-5.

To the Buzzards the tie felt like a loss while the Astros acted like they won a big game. It sure made their day and probably season.

The Buzzard pitching gave up only nine hits, but the ump helped with seven walks. The starting pitcher, Weed, threw six innings and faced 25 batters in throwing 89 pitches (65 strikes and 24 balls) giving up three hits with four walks and seven K's. Woody pitched 2 2/3rd innings and threw 39 pitches (24 strikes & 15 balls) to 11 Astros with three hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Welzy closed the game by throwing 14 pitches (11 strikes & 3 balls) and facing six batters giving up two hits.

The Buzzard offense produced 16 hits. Throw in two Astro errors and one walk and still score only five runs - that is actually hard to do. Stranding 15 runners, 12 in scoring position, is the trick to not scoring runs. And multiple times with less than two outs. Ouch. However, 16 hits is a bunch and the hitters deserve a shout-out. The hit club for the second game included: Donut, Evy, Keppie, Milli (2), Pete (2), Tony (2), Redondo (2), Welzy (2), Woody (2) and Wookie. The lone base on balls recipient was Tony. The ribbies were delivered by (in order) Woody, Evy, Tony, Terry and Redondo.

So, the longest Buzzard day of this season ended without a Buzzard win. And then the sun began to disappear and no drugs in sight for the 'ring of fire' eclipse, just beer and sweaty Ol' Buzzards sitting in lawn chairs. Still, a good day to be a Buzzard.

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #4

Game: May 6, 2012

Buzzards pounce on Miners early, win 14-9

On another great spring day for baseball, the Gold Country Buzzards gathered in Colfax for an afternoon game against the Gold Country Miners. However, due to some league and umpire notification confusion as a result of the Free Agents bailing-out of our 10 am game the night before, there were no umps for the 2 o'clock game. The league called about an hour before the game to inform us - to make do with players as umps.

Turning lemons into lemonade, the Buzzards convinced Steve Cook, a renowned and reliable arbiter/coach/former player living in Auburn to come to Colfax and umpire a 3-hour game, vintage style, behind the pitcher's mound with just the protection of his ol' reactions. The game's officiating actually worked out well with Steve as the umpire. Thanks Cookie.

The Miners and Buzzards are in different divisions this season. The Miners dropped to the single A division, while the Buzzards remained in the AA division. This year's schedule has the AA teams playing the A teams just once. So, this game was the Gold Country show-down and local bragging rights game.

The starting pitcher for the Miners was their manager and big righty, George Bettencourt #27. Taking the mound for the Buzzards was former Miner, right-hander, Terry 'Caveman' Kelley #40.

As the visiting team on the schedule, the Buzzards went to bat first and immediately began to hammer the Miner pitcher. Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz opened the game with a looping single to left-center for a single. Batting next, Scott 'Donut' Reeves bunted hard down the first base line. The first baseman rushed the pick-up with Donut burning down the base path. He bobbled the ball and Donut beat it out putting two runners on.  Dave 'Keppie' Kephart then walked to load up the bases.

Coming to the plate next was the clean-up hitter, Bob 'Woody' Wooden. Woody put down his cigarette and hit an 0-1 pitch on a line to short center field for a single driving in Speedee. With the bases full, Caveman followed with a 2-2 base hit to left field knocking in Donut. Next, Jim 'Milli' Milligan hit a first-pitch sacrifice fly to center scoring Keppie from third. Later with two outs, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir hit an 0-2 pitch bouncing high up the middle and hustled down the line to beat the throw at first to re-load the bases. With the inning still alive, the next five batters got on base to score five more runs.

Batting next, Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe walked forcing in another run. Ray 'Bull Dog' Henry followed with a base on balls to push across run number five. With the bases still loaded, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray hit the 1-1 offering on a line to left field for a solid single scoring Wook. Mark 'Weed' Fowler continued the parade to the plate as the 12th batter and walked on six pitches forcing in the seventh run. With Speedee batting next, that meant the Buzzards had batted around. Kevin hit a 2-2 pitch into the hole on the left side for an infield hit and scoring Bull Dog on the play for the final run of the first inning, scoring eight times on six hits with four walks.

The Miners came back with two runs in their half of the first inning. A led-off single then a strike-out was followed by a hard hit comebacker that hit Caveman's left thigh and ricocheted sharply past a diving Wookie playing second base into right field scoring the first run.  Caveman was ok after a practice throw and continued in the game, however, the ball was tossed out due to the deep bruise. Kelley's bruise was big and blue on Monday. A double and single followed for the second run before a strike-out and pop-up ended the inning.

The Buzzards continued the onslaught of early runs with a lead-off double by Keppie to the gap in right-center. After an infield out advanced Kep to third, Caveman knocked him in with an infield hit. Next, Milli walked on a full-count. Mike 'Bake' Baker then blasted the first pitch to the fence in right-center field for a run scoring double putting runners at second and third. Batting next, Wookie went with the outside 2-1 pitch and hit a line drive to left field for a run-scoring single. Wook stole second before Big Mac walked on a full count. After an infield pop-up for the second out, the Baron singled driving in two runs for a five-run second inning. At this point the Buzzards were thinking the route was on, but it turned out a little differently. The score was 13-2 after two innings.

The Miners fought back with seven runs in the next two innings. The three runs in the third were a result of an error at first on a ground ball, two singles and a double wrapped around two strike-outs and a pop-up. In the Miner fourth inning, a one-out walk started the rally. Three singles and a double later with a groundout produced the four runs. Even Newman, the big belly black guy that struck-out wildly swinging at off-speed pitches two previous times, hit a 1-2 pitch to the fence in center for a long single scoring two runs to make the score closer at 13 to 9 after four.

The Buzzards quit scoring when the Miners changed pitchers to start the third inning. John 'Lefty' Vargas #11 (new to the Miners from the Valley Cats last season) was effectively keeping the Buzzards off-balance with a mix of pitches and speeds retiring 9 of the next 10 batters allowing the Miners to make it closer.

In the top of the sixth, the Buzzards finally scored again. With one out, Bull Dog, batting right-handed, belted a line drive to right that bounced over the head of the right fielder for a double. The Baron, hitting next, got his third single of the day with an infield hit to the hole on the left side. With runners at first and second and two out, Dave 'Evy' Everingham tagged the first pitch for a line drive single to left-center field scoring Bull Dog from second base. The score was now 14-9 entering the last half of the sixth inning.

Both pitchers shut down the scoring the rest of the way. Vargas throwing for the Miners and Keppie throwing for the Buzzards. The 3-hour time limit kicked in during the eighth inning, so the game ended after eight with the final score Buzzards 14 and the Miners 9.

What a crazy scoring game. Buzzards score 13 within the first two digs, the Miners bounce back with nine runs in the third and fourth and then only one more run is scored the rest of the game. But, a win is a win, and the Buzzards got two wins today with the Free Agents forfeiting the first game.

Buzzard pitching was solid. Caveman pitched the first three innings and faced 18 batters in throwing 54 pitches (38 strikes & 16 balls). Kelley struck-out four and walked one in giving up six hits for two earned runs. Big Mac threw the middle two innings and threw 38 pitches (26 strikes & 12 balls) in facing 11 Miners. Big Mac mowed 'em down in the fifth 1-2-3 with two Ks, but the inning before took eight batters with four runs on four hits and a walk. And the inning started so nicely with a ground ball down the line that hit the bag and bounced up to Bake playing third for an easy 5-3 play. Keppie finished the game throwing 48 pitches (27 strikes & 21 balls) in facing 12 batters in the last three innings in earning the save. Dave gave up just one hit with two strike-outs and one walk to close out the game.

The offense was awesome through two innings and then the Ol' Buzzard bats took a nap. 12 of the team's 16 hits were in the first two innings. The hit club for the game in batting order included Speedee (2), Donut, Keppie (2-doubles), Woody, Caveman (2), Bake (double), Wookie (2), Bull Dog (double), Baron (3) and Evy. Eagle-eyed Buzzards got seven walks: Bull Dog, Keppie, McCabe (2), Milli (2), and Weed. The ribbies were plentiful and tasty and driven-in by Bake, Baron (3), Big Mac, Bull Dog, Caveman (2), Evy, Milli, Speedee, Weed, Woody and Wookie.

The defense was solid as the Miners tested the Buzzard's ability to catch balls in the air at the higher Colfax altitude. Of the game's 24 outs, nine were fly balls or pop-ups. There were only seven ground ball outs in the game with one double play in the seventh - a sweet looking 6-4-3, Evy to Welzy to Bake. There were also eight strike-outs. A nice game and two wins before the Mother's Day break. The Buzzard record is now 4-1.

Buzzard Note #1: Thanks to Ray and Liz Henry for inviting the team over after the game to devour enchiladas, cold drinks, chips with home-made guac, salads and cookies. Fabulous food and ump Cookie joined us.

Buzzard Note #2: The next games will be a split double-header on May 20th. Due to the early season rain-outs, the schedule now includes one split double-header for each team. Ours is coming next. That means the Buzzards will play two games (9-innings) at two different sites that day. The schedule is not complete yet, but we have been told we will play the Valley Cats at 10 am in Elk Grove at the new sports park next to Franklin High School, Bartholomew Park; then a 2:30 second game in Galt (not far from 1st game) or a 3 pm second game at Antelope or Citrus Heights against the Astros. More to come, but this may help you plan for that upcoming long day.

* * * * * * * * * *

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #2

Game One: April 29, 2012

Buzzards beat Mudville Nine walk-off style, 6-5

On a gorgeous spring day in Auburn, the Gold Country Buzzards gathered for their home opener with a double-bill against the Mudville Nine at James Field. The Mudville gang, wearing a 'Casey at the Bat' emblem on their black caps with red bills, and uniforms with old-style letters and numbers on black with red jerseys and white pants, needed handle bar mustaches to finish the look.

They are one of the youngest teams in the division with just two guys over 50. The M-9s beat the Free Agents 13-6 the previous week and were looking to clip some Buzzard wings in this double-header.

The Mudville Nine jumped on the scoreboard first with an unearned run in the top of the first inning. A hit, an infield error followed by a run scoring groundball-out was all it took.

The Buzzards scored two runs in the second inning to take back the early lead. Mike 'Bake' Baker led-off with a looping single to short center field. Bake was replaced at first base by Taylor 'Welzy' Welz as the runner. Next, Kevin 'Speedee' Krantz got to first base on an infield error with Welzy moving to second. After Welzy advanced to third on a fly-out to right field, Jim 'Milli' Milligan knocked him in with a sharp single to center field. With runners at the corners and one-out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir slapped an opposite field hit to left field putting the Buzzards ahead 2-1.

The Buzzards added to the lead in the fifth inning. Terry 'Caveman' Kelley led off with a base on balls. Milli followed with a full-count walk. Two outs later, Scott 'Donut' Reeves was hit on the foot to load the bases. Batting next, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray walked on five pitches to push in the only run of the inning. The score after five was 3-1 Buzzards.

In the sixth frame the Buzzards tacked on two more. Dave 'Evy' Everingham led off with an infield hit, but was forced out at second on the next play. With one-out, Troy 'Nogy' Nogosek smashed his second double of the game down the third base line, putting runners at second and third. Bob 'Woody' Wooden, batting next, hit the first pitch for a single down the third base line scoring both runners. The score at the end of six: Buzzards 5, M-9s 1.

While the Buzzard offense was scoring those five runs, the starting pitcher, southpaw Dave 'Keppie' Kephart #21, was sharp throwing a two-hitter through six innings on 74 pitches with Donut behind the plate.

The Mudville Nine scored a run in the seventh with a lead-off single, stolen base, then two outs later an 0-2 count run-scoring single up the middle to tighten the score at 5-2. After a scoreless eighth inning, the Mudville Nine used some of that 'Casey at the Bat' ju ju to score three runs and tie the game.

It took two full-count walks and a run scoring flare hit to short left field for the first run. Then a fielder's choice followed by an error on a hard hit grounder at third scoring another run. And a two-out single to right-center field on an 0-2 pitch to their clean-up hitter to tie the game. On that play Kevin fielded the ball and threw to Evy for the relay to Nogy at third base to nail the sliding runner with a huge out. The next batter grounded out to Welzy at second to end their half of the ninth inning with the score knotted at 5.

The game was three hours old, but after leading for most of the game the Buzzards were not willing to accept a tie. So Welzy led-off with a nice bunt single up the third base line. The left- handed pitcher fielded the ball cleanly near the line, spun and threw the ball wildly allowing Taylor to take second base. Nogy was then intentionally walked. Next, a fly ball out to center field moved Welzy to third. Nogy later stole second base, but with now two outs, the M-9s chose to intentionally walk Speedee to load the bases.

So, with two outs and the game on the line here comes Caveman Kelley, not Casey Jones, to the plate. Well, somewhere out there in Mudville land the game may have ended differently, but at James Field Caveman scorched a 1-0 pitch on a line into left field for the game winning hit. The Buzzards rushed out to 'high-five' Terry on the field to celebrate the good-feeling 'walk-off' win. Huge clutch hit TK and good win for the team.

Buzzard pitching was excellent with Keppie throwing a complete game. Kep faced 38 hitters in throwing 118 pitches (82 strikes & 36 balls) giving up only those two walks to start the ninth and striking out three. The Mudville men scratched out seven singles and combined that with three Buzzard boo-boos for their five runs (2 earned).

The Buzzard offensive machine is still getting in gear but 11 hits scored the necessary six runs. This game's hit club includes: Bake, Caveman, Donut, Milli, Welzy, Woody and Wookie with one hit each, and Evy and Nogy getting two hits. Troy's base hits were two nice, hard hit doubles. Walks are always good, so the good eye awards go to Baron, Caveman, Milli, Nogy, and Speedee. The ribbies in order were courtesy of: Milli, Wook, Baron, Woody (2) and Caveman's walk-off.

There are always Buzzard defensive gems. In the seventh inning with a runner in scoring position, Speedee Kevin, playing center field, covered a lot of ground before making a fabulous shoe-string catch. In the eighth inning, Speedee quickly fielded a routine base hit to center and made a strong throw to second for a force-out of a surprised runner for a key out in that frame. The relay throw in the ninth inning, Speedee to Evy to Nogy, to get the runner at third was huge. Nice win, now on to game two.

* * * * * * * * * *

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #3

Game Two: April 29, 2012

Buzzards swoop in late to beat Mudville Nine, 5-3

As Ernie Banks was famous for saying, "let's play two", so we did. The second half of the twin-bill started at 2 o'clock with temps in the low 70's and a slight breeze for a near perfect day to play ball. The spunky Mudville Nine were fired up after lunch and were determined to split the double-header.

They saved their ace pitcher for the second game and a few more young Niners showed up at James Field. The proud father of an Army Ranger, right-hander, Mark 'Weed' Fowler #11 took the mound for the Buzzards in game two, not long after arriving from Reno.

The - home team this game - Mudville Nine struck first with one run in the bottom of the second inning. The dig began with four consecutive singles with a runner thrown-out at the plate on the fourth hit. The inning ended with a sweet 6-4-3 double play, Evy to Wookie to Bake.  The Mudville Niners scored another run in the fifth inning on two singles and two walks to take a 2-0 lead.

The Buzzards finally broke through and scored with two outs in the next-to-last, sixth, inning. Donut led-off with a hustling 'tie goes to the runner' infield hit. Next, Ray 'Bull Dog' Henry came off the bench cold and hit a looping single to left-center field. Two outs later with runners still at first and second, Nogy hit a 2-0 fastball to left field for a base hit scoring Donut. Batting next, Woody hit a 3-0 fastball for a looping single into right field driving in Bull Dog to tie up the game at 2-2.

In the bottom half of the sixth, the Mudville gang fought back with one run to take a 3-2 lead. A walk, followed by a fly ball in the sun to left field for an almost great catch, but alas an error that put runners at second and third with no outs. Next, Mudville called a gutsy squeeze play with a 1-1 count. However, it was anticipated by the catcher, Milli, and the curve ball in the dirt made it impossible to bunt. So now with the runner hung-up half way down the line and a run-down about to ensue. That damn first throw sailed into left field allowing the runner to score for a tough go-ahead run and still no outs yet in the inning. The defense then tightened with a line-out to Donut at second, a strike-out, and a pop-up in first base foul territory to Bake.

Down by one run with three outs left, well hell, the Ol' Buzzards had them young-ins where we wanted 'em. Caveman started off the crucial inning with a solid single up the middle. After one out, Milli blasted a 1-2 pitch to the fence in left-center scoring the hustling and breathing hard Kelley from first base to tie the game. After another out, Mike 'Big Mac' McCabe came to the plate and singled to right knocking in the go-ahead run. The Baron walked on five pitches before Donut's line drive single on an 0-2 pitch knocked in the last run. Clutch hits galore in the last two innings produced three huge Buzzard runs to take a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the last inning.

After a one-out base hit in the seventh, Woody made a fabulous catch in deep center field looking into the low sun for big out number two. A high pop-up to Evy at shortstop ended the game three pitches later. Wow, what a close couple of games with big time plays to sweep the tough Mudville Nine. Buzzard 'high-fives' on the field celebrated the win before shaking hands with the stunned Mudville Nine.

Field dragging and clean-up were followed by cold drinks and snacks in the shade. A great day to be a Buzzard.

The pitching held down the young hot bats to 11 hits. Weed pitched the first five innings throwing 69 pitches (45 strikes & 24 balls) in facing 24 batters. Mudville scored only two runs on 10 hits with two walks and stranded eight runners against Mark. Welzy pitched the last two innings and got the win. He faced 10 batters in throwing 32 pitches (19 strikes & 13 balls). Taylor gave up one unearned run on one hit and one walk with one strike-out while stranding three runners on base. Good solid pitching.

The offense didn't really show up until the sixth inning and the team was stuck on 11 hits per game for some reason today, but it was enough to win again. The hit club for the second game includes: Bake, Big Mac, Bull Dog, Caveman, Donut (2), Milli, Nogy (2), Woody and Wookie with doubles by Milli and Nogy. Walks always help, so the good eye awards go to Welzy, Keppie, Big Mac and the Baron. The RBI's in game order were driven in by Nogy, Woody, Milli, Big Mac and Donut.

The defensive gems were numerous in this seven inning game. The first inning saw two 'wow' plays after a lead-off double. With one out, a smash up the middle was deflected by Mark's left wrist toward second and rolling slowly on the grass. Wookie, playing deep at second, hustled in bare-handed the ball and tossed it to first as he dove forward for a close out at the bag. The runner moved to third. The next batter hit a hard grounder up the middle that Evy, playing short, snagged deep behind second base to throw out the runner at first to end the inning with no runs scored.

In the second inning after one run had scored, Welzy threw out a runner at the plate with a strong throw and good tag by Milli on a close play. And then the Evy-Wook-Bake double play to end it. In the fourth frame with runners at the corners, Milli threw out the runner attempting to steal second base with a quick tag by Evy.

The fifth dig was a long one with some controversy that led to a protest of the game. With the bases loaded and one out, Nogy, playing third base, fielded a hot grounder and threw home to Milli for a force out and maybe a double play throw to first to end the inning. The throw was low but the force was called and then the runner, who went in standing up, gave Milli a chest bump preventing any other throws to complete the play. Tony then visited with the home plate ump and after much discussion interference was not called, so Tony protested the game.  

A run scored later in the inning. The come-from-behind win, five runs scored with four outs to go, negated the need to file the formal protest with the league.   Great win.

* * * * * * * * * *