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      You've heard of Ken and Barbi, today it was the Don and Barbara show. Don Agostino and Barbara Pardo slamming the ball all over the field. VPS was able to get Don out once but not so lucky with Barbara as she was 4 for 4 with solid shots. Barry Anderson and Scott Tatum filled in big time with 7 for 8 hitting. Bob Baptista and Pete Zavala led the way for VPS with tough pitching and also posted 7 for 8 numbers. Thanks also to Evelyn Schwartz for helping VPS.

       After last Tuesday’s game, PB pitcher Hugh O'Neil complained he couldn't grip the ball, because of the humidity. Someone suggested a "rosin bag". Because "rosin bags" bags aren't sold at Dicks Sporting Goods anymore, Hugh went with a can of talcum powder. Voila, his curve, screwball and EEPHUS PITCH had Plotkin hitters off balance most of the day. Plotkin was so "banged up", Janet Wood and Michiko Lischin were pressed into runners from home, designees. PP's offense was led by Bob Blakely 5-5, Eddie Gillette and Hugh O'Neill 4-4, and Gary McBride 4-5. While Dave Erwine, Rony Lewis and Frank Bravo each pitched in 3 hits a piece, Mike Weinrich homered also. Oscar Castillo was the hitting star for Plotkins. Thanks to Joe Gomez and Dave Granum for subbing. 

        Nucci’s found itself in an 8-1 hole against the Draft after two innings at Calavera 3 today, when manager Lil Keehan gave the team a pep talk and reminded everyone never to give up. The momentum immediately shifted in the 3rd inning as NU came back to score seven runs to tie the game. At the same time, the NU defense strengthened, and DR was held scoreless the next three innings. NU continued the hitting attack, scoring five runs in both the 5th and 6th innings, and came away with a 19-10 victory. Everyone on the team had at least one hit today. Leading all hitters were Dave Koch and Dwayne Zon, who both went 4 for 4 with 3 RBIs. Lil Keehan went 3 for 3, Don Schempp went 3 for 4 with 4 RBIs, and Leigh Peterson and Pablo Shook also went 3 for 4. Marty Topper and Dave Ash made some clutch catches in the outfield, and the infield played solidly all game, with Don Schempp making some great plays at rover, including throwing out the speedy Rick Shaw at home to end the game. DR’s Ernie Martinez hit the game’s only home run. Unfortunately, shortstop Steve Sexton was injured when a ground ball took a bad hop and hit him hard in the chest. While he continued to play, he was in pain and we certainly hope it is not a serious injury.

     This beautiful day at Alga saw many hits off the bats of Team Purple.  So many great performances.  The perfect hitting club included David Bosque, David Ward (with a HR), t-Bone, Margo and Ernie Trujilo.  The homers kept coming with Bosque, Ward, Keefer and Maher all getting round trippers.  On the Cultura-side. Jonathan Brand (sub player) and Brian Turner each had a homer.  Mr. Turner also made some fantastic catches in left center to keep the game close.

       The Draft had some good plays on defense. Rick Shaw started a beautiful exciting triple play even though there was already 1 out, it still looked pretty good. Greg Lorton kept grabbing shots over the middle, one for an unassisted double play. Mitch Anderson played great defense for CBI, if you hit a ground ball or a line drive anywhere near Mitch, you're going to be out. CBI was playing deep for hard hitting Ernie Martinez, but somehow he found a gap and there goes another home run. Dan Griffin countered with a homer for CBI. It was one of those games when everyone was waiting for something big to happen. One run here, two runs there and after 5 innings it's a 7 to 5 game. Then it happened, after a close call at third base, CBI loaded the bases with 2 outs. Don Agostino steps into the batter's box, he smacks one over the head of the Draft outfielders and clears the bases for the only 5 run inning in the game. That's what we were waiting for and that was the real difference in the game. Jimmie Martin and Mitch Anderson pitched well and made it hard on the hitters all day long. Gary Soper was not in total agreement with that evaluation and at one point was considering replacing Jimmie, then he remembered, oh ya Jimmie is the manager.

    Ahh Calavera 3 … aka the cow pasture played host to The Plotkins vs Team Purple. Ahh, Calavera 3, where you can get a better bounce off the parking lot than you can off the infield.  Not a great deal of offense on either side today so the hitting list is only 1 for Team Purple – Stave Newberg – 4-4.  On the Plotkin side, Steve D’agastino pitched a great game and went 3-4.  Dick Wood 3-4 and super sub Gary McBride went 3-4 with a HR.  Great defense web gems from Team Purple include Joe Maher playing some hot shots down first.  Margo stood her ground and made several great plays and Steve Newberg caught a couple hot-shots.  Rich Keefer twirled another masterful game.  Thanks to Bob Peters who also served in substitute capacity for the Team Purple.

   With the mean league batting average approaching .600 and the mean winning score close to 18 runs, offense usually rules in NCSS. But defensive plays occasionally make all the difference on the final score. This is what happened at today's late game at Alga. That Pizza Place jumped to leads of 10-0 and 15-5, but led by outstanding play at third base by Harry Peacock (6 assists), Cultura crawled back to trailing by only 2 runs going into the bottom of the 9th. Cultura scored one run and had the tying run on 3rd and the willing run on first with 2 outs when TPP's first baseman Jerry Nuanez grabbed a hard grounder to his right and threw to 2nd for the force out to end the game. Cultura was led by Bill Kutzner who went 4 for 4. Neil Cohen also went 4 for 4 as did Barry Anderson, who scored 4 runs and had 2 homers, 2 doubles, and 7 RBIs. Bob Blachford also had a homer for TPP.

   Nucci’s started out strong today, scoring five runs in the first inning against the Village Pie Shop at Pine.  The hitting attack continued the rest of the game, with NU also scoring five runs in the 5th and 6th innings, resulting in a 21-8 victory. Dave Koch led all hitters, going 5 for 5 with 5 RBIs. Marty Topper went 4 for 4 and Dave Ash went 4 for 5 with 4 RBIs. Pete Penseyres, Don Schempp, Leigh Peterson, substitute Tom Winterbourne, Greg Newman and Pablo Shook contributed three hits apiece. Pablo was called on to pitch the entire game today and he was definitely up to the challenge, displaying some masterful pitching. Leigh Peterson led the defense today, with three spectacular catches in left center (and just missing a fourth one). Pablo Shook made a great catch of a stinging line drive by Sheree Atkinson late in the game that went straight towards his head before he was able to get behind the screen. Thanks to Tom Winterbourne for substituting. He reinjured his hamstring during the game, but continued to play, moving from third to first base. The leading hitter for VPS was Jeff Gorman, who went 5 for 5. Marlon Moore and substitute Roney Lewis both went 4 for 5 and Pete Zavala went 3 for 4. Our thanks to Jimmy Giovinazo and Steve Sexton for a fine job of umpiring.