2009 Rapid Transmission Team

We all remember the baseball movie Field of Dreams and the famous line, “Is this heaven?  No, it’s Iowa”.  Well this morning you could hear the inverse being mumbled…”Is this hell?  No, it’s Calavera in September!”  

With temperatures hovering in the 90’s, and humidity approaching the 80s, it was a wise choice for both managers to agree upfront to a 7-inning game.  It was a battle of the cellar dwelling Draft, and almost cellar dwelling Warden Williams with the Draft getting in the win column for the first time with a 14-6 win.  

For the first time this season the Draft bats actually got hot and matched the ambient air temperature.  The Draft scored in all of  the first five innings, putting up a five spot in the 3rd highlighted by Jeff Schneider’s 3-RBI hit with the bases loaded.  Leading the way with three hits each for the Draft were Lloyd Thorne, Jon Brand and Bob Porter, with two hits by Jeff Schneider, Rich Reynolds, Rich Lavacott, Donato Domaguin, Oscar Lara and Steve Sexton.  

Leading the offense for Warden Williams were Bob Loperena (3 hits), and Brian Turner and Russ Roopenian (2 hits each).

Margo Jacobo was behind the screen for all 7 for the Draft, and David Surh and Russ Roopenian split the pitching duties for WE. 

Big thanks to Rick Shaw for a fine job umpiring.

Quote of the day: "Seems we're both guilty of Offensive Indifference."

- CBI Manager Randy Agadoni

As the temperature climbed quickly into the 90's on this sweltering late summer day, team managers Ginty and Agadoni were discussing whether to play 7 innings or 9. "7" said Ginty. "Sounds good but I'll get a team vote," said Agadoni. Two or three votes later, after some strong lobbying, the decision to go 9 won out. 

Then came the offensive indifference. 4 innings of easy fly balls, pop-ups, and grounders later, the score was 0-0!  CBI finally broke the seal in the 5th with two runs to take what felt like an insurmountable lead. TPP finally broke through in the 7th, thanks to a leadoff triple by Zach Taylor and a double by Bob Tompkins. New ballgame! Another zero in the bottom of the inning by CBI certainly must have had some players thinking 'take the tie and run!' but play on, we did. Then came the 8th: TTP's final three hitters loaded the bases, 2 scored on a Roney Lewis single, and 3 more scooted in on a Zach Taylor home run. CBI fought back with 2 to bring the game to 7-6. Top of the 9th and TTP desperately wanted to add some insurance. First two hitters got on and advanced to 2nd and 3rd; but stalled there. Final at-bat for CBI saw two quick outs and then strike one to Barb Pardo, but she worked the BB to keep it alive. Another hit put runners on 1st and 2nd. Co-manager Berry, out of gas, called for relief for the 3rd out. Two pitches later, MJ snagged a bouncer to his left and snuffed out the rally. Whew!

The Innkeepers offense was led by Ken Thompson (2/3 with team's first 2 RBIs), and Randy Agadoni, Dan Smith, and Dan Miserany (all 2/3). 

The Pizza Phlippers attack was led by Bob Tompkins (3/4, RBI), Zach Taylor (2/3, 3 RBIs), Bill Mead (3/3),  Roney Lewis (2 key RBIs), and MJ (winning RBI).  

CBI's Bob Baptista kept the TTP hitters off balance for 6 innings, allowing only 2 runs. Mike Berry returned the favor for most of the game and got the win but only thanks to the final out calm and cool of MJ. 

The game was self-umpired and there was good sportsmanship throughout. 

Tuesday morning dawned warm at Alga 2 and it quickly heated up from there.  Batting practice went quickly, mainly due to a shortage of softballs.  After protracted discussions and voting, nine innings barely beat out seven innings as the game was ready to go.  Fortunately, once the game began a breeze would occasionally sweep through, making things nearly bearable.

The Gaspar Lame Docs started the top of the first with a lead-off homer by Robert Tahimic followed by two more runs.  The Koppers from Carlsbad Police answered in force with a five-spot in the bottom of the first.  After that, the Lame Docs gradually added more runs than the Koppers to lead 12-6 by the middle of the sixth.  The Koppers were not about to fold and responded with three in the bottom of the sixth to trail 12-9.  Gaspar wrapped up their scoring in the seventh by adding one more for a tenuous 13-9 lead.

Sticking with their “no lead is safe” guiding principle, the Lame Docs allowed the Koppers to load the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth.  And then the excitement began.  A grounder to shortstop Mark Tanner who quickly threw to the rover Pat Steele at second who threw to first for a double play.  The runner on third scored easily, but the runner on second thought that he should score also.  First baseman Andy Boyer alertly threw home to Dave Buck who made a painful stretch to catch the ball while still keeping his right foot on the mat.  Triple play!  Now 13-10 Gaspar.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Koppers led off with a pop-out but followed with three straight hits to score a run and put the tying runs on first and third.  But a long fly ball landed in right-fielder Evie Schwartz’s glove while somehow deterring the runner on third from tagging up.  Two down!  And then a routine groundball to David Hartzog who threw to Pat Steele for the out at second brought the game to an improbable 13-11 end.

Mark Riserbato and Craig Wheatcroft led the Koppers by going 4 for 4.  Craig drove in five of the Koppers eleven runs.  Laurie Mills was 3 for 4 and Dave Erwine and Dan Griffin were both 2 for 3.

Randy Baird led the Gaspar going 3 for 3 plus a sacrifice fly in his first game without a triple or home run, instead settling for three doubles.  Robert Tahimic and David Hartzog went 3 for 4.  While Robert led off the top of the first with a home run, Greg Lorton led off the top of the second with his own home run.

Thanks to Pat Steele for bringing some of the Plotkin magic to Gaspar as a sub.  Pat seemed to be in the middle of all of Gaspar’s defensive highlight plays.

Nucci’s & Pizza Port Brewery were scheduled to play a Senior Softball Game at Pine Today, but the weather at game time was 86 degrees so Nucci’s coming off a big win vs CBI with a full team wanted to play a full 9 inning game. PPB coming off a loss to CBI only had 8 of their rostered players present with 6 other players on vacation or injured including their top 2 draft selections on Vacation so they were hoping to play 7 innings. Well in Senior Softball one never knows what may happened in a game except the temperature getting warmer, but today PPB put on a hitting clinic batting .754 as a team 43 for 57.

Everyone played well and hit well for PPB, a rarity in Senior Softball. PPB females showed their power with Elizabeth Bailey pounding out 4 run scoring singles while catching a fly ball in Center Field. Brenda Lehman had 2 run scoring singles, threw out a batter at first and caught 2 perfect throws by Super Sub Kevin Davidge at the plate to nail 2 runners trying to score.

PPB hitters were lead by Andy Balas 6/6 w/2 triples, a Homerun & 8 RBI’s & scored 6 runs. Super Sub Robert Liles was 6/6 & score at least 6 runs. Pitcher Mark Lechlider threw another complete game was 6/6 w/3 RBIs & made a couple outstanding defensive grabs of line shots up the middle.

PPB’s Tom Redmond playing 3rd base for the first time in his life snagged several line drives while going 5/6 w/4 RBIs. Jack Schwarzel & Mark Lehman were both 4/5 w/3 RBIs each.

Super Sub Kevin Davidge played like the best shortstop in the League going 4/6 w/2 doubles & scored at least 6 runs. Jim Goertzen added 2 hits, scored 6 runs and made some great catches in Left Center Field.

For Nucci’s their defensive Star was Brenda McBarron, who caught more fly balls, then her Husband Kevin, who went 4/4 at the plate. Oscar Castillo was 4/4 w/a double & Homerun. Dan Melendez was 3/3. Paul Wilson was 3/4. Tom Benacka was held to 2/4 both doubles and had his 27 straight hit streak ended. Pretty Awesome feat. Oscar Delgado had a double & 3 run homer. Jimmy Smyth was 2/3 w/2 RBIs. Mark Ledesma added a single & double. Lil Keehan & Mike Endeman pitched well for Nucci’s.

Both teams thank Dennis O’Hern for umpiring the entire game in the heat and doing a great job. 

Bye: Plotkin Group

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