Scores

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Pizza Port came out strong slugging fast ground balls on a hard dirt field and got a lot of bad hop singles along with many other hits allowing them to score 3 or more runs every inning on an extremely warm day at Calavera 2 on opening day of season 2 with both pitchers on each team PPB Gary Soper and VPS Rich Keefer not walking any batter.  

Leading hitters for PPB were Super Sub Dennis Rayford 6/6 w/2 doubles & 4 RBIs, Karl Stern 5/6 w/6 RBIs, Tom Carney 5/6 w/4 RBi’s & scoring 9 runs, Teddy Badillo 5/6 w/3 RBIs, Cord Cameron 5/6, Albert Casteneda 4/6 & scoring 9 runs, Leo McFall 4/5 & scoring 9 runs, Mark Lehman 4/5 w/6 RBIs, Gary Soper, Joel Kudren & Evelyn Schwartz 3/5, Brenda Lehman 2/5 for a total of 50/66 for a .758 team batting average. 

Leading hitters for VPS were Kirsten Mildbrandt 3/4 w/a homer & double, Dan Melendez 3/3, Linda Wolf 3/3. 

Big thanks to Jim Goertzen, who umpired a perfect game in the heat. 

 “Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.”

What started as a relatively close game after eight innings turned into a dominant display of offense as Worden Williams exploded for 17 hits and 15 runs in the top of the ninth, defeating That Pizza Place 27-3. The ninth inning was a perfect storm for the Dubs, where everything went right for them, not just due to mistakes by TPP. While the entire team contributed offensively, highlighting every player's performance would fill an entire page. Notable mentions include Bob Loperena's home run and five RBIs, Mike Endeman's grand slam, Robert Tahimic's perfect 5-for-5 day at the plate, Tom Benacka's 6-for-6 performance, Jimmy Smyth's five RBIs, and the 8 through 12 batters led by Barb Pardo’s 3-for-5.

The offense for TPP was inexplicably absent. Every team has its off days and this happened to be TPP’s day. Three players for TPP, however, were 2/3; Michael Berry, Dan Smith and David Buck. On defense, Nancy Watt made a spectacular catch behind first base.
 

Defensively, it was a total team effort for WW. Holding a team as good as TPP to just three runs is impressive. It's hard to single out specific plays, but the infield work of Jimmy and Dan was exceptional. This isn't to say that the other players on WW’s defense were merely adequate; any outfield fly’s were caught, and outfield hits were kept to singles.

Much thanks to subs Leigh Peterson and Steve Berry who were big contributors to WW’s win and to Roney Lewis and Russ Roopenian who stepped in as umpires.

It was opening day and the second game of a doubleheader at Pine Park between the visiting Hennessey’s Hens and the home team Nucci’s Scarlet Stars. It was a hot one, but not seven minutes from the midday sun. Not hot enough to thwart the fine pitching of Steve Berry and Johnnie Martinez from the Hens and “Sexy” Steve Sexton of the Scarlets.

The Hens jumped out to a 7-1 lead after three innings on the strength of the top of their order. Kevin Davidge (2 for 3 with 2 runs scored), Rich Lavacot (3 for 4 with 3 runs scored), Craig Wheatcroft (3 for 4 and 2 runs scored), Carlos Cevallos (3 for 4 with 2 runs scored) and John Symanski (3 for 4 with 2 runs scored) led the way. Steve and Johnnie kept Nucci’s at bay for most of the game and were helped by some timely defense. It should be noted that Steve was pitching two halves of a doubleheader as he subbed for Joe Paul’s Worden Williams team in the early game pitching a complete game. Steve and his manager need to talk.

With the score 10-1 in favor of the Hens in the bottom half of the sixth inning, Nucci’s started their comeback collecting three runs to cut the score to 10-4. They added another run in the seventh to inch towards erasing the deficit. But that was as close as they got as the Hens added three in the eighth and held Nucci’s to one more in the ninth to close out the scoring.

The hitting heroes for the Scarlets were Mike Brower (4 for 4), Guy McCord (3 for 4, and a couple of bruises from thrown balls), Dan Akers (2 for 3), Greg “Beerman” Lorton (2 for 3) and the boss Lil Keehan (2 for 3). Gene LaChimia won the star for defensive play of the game. With two on, the Hen’s Dennis O’Hern hit a laser to the right centerfield gap. A sure three run homerun if it fell. But Gene in a full sprint and with his glove arm fully extended ran it down for a spectacular catch.

Both teams want to thank Al Cabacungan and Jimmy Smyth for interrupting their schedules to make the calls at home plate and on the bases on this very warm day.

Carlsbad Inn and Plotkin Group had the pleasure of starting out the season on Calavera 3 on a very warm day. CBI started out fast, scoring five runs in the first inning, but PG came right back for five in the bottom of the inning. PG took advantage of early game errors by CBI and had a 9-6 lead after three. CBI then settled down and Ken Thompson did a superb job of pitching the rest of the way, and PG wasn’t able to score in the last six innings. CBI bats came alive in the fifth as the team scored five runs after two outs to take the lead 11-9. Randy Baird hit CBI’s first home run of the season in the eighth as the team scored four more runs and took the win with a final score of 15-9.

Randy Baird led all CBI hitters, going 4 for 4 with five RBIs. Manager Randy Agadoni also hit 4 for 4, with two triples and two RBIs. Jerry Smith and Gordon Recht went 3 for 4 and Lloyd Thorn went 2 for 3. Randy Baird made the defensive play of the game in right center, diving to his left to catch a hard liner.

Dave Bosque led the PG hitters today, going 4 for 4. Lou Chartz went 3 for 4 and Donato Domaguin went 3 for 5.

Many thanks to Steve Newberg and Johnny Brand for teaming up to umpire a fine game.

Bye: The Draft

         Gaspar