Today was the day that Hennessey's put it all together at the expense of Plotkin Group. HEN scored in every inning but one with a string of singles and only five doubles and two homers by Gary Soper and Mark Pedota. Defense was pretty solid as well and HEN walked off with an 18 to 8 victory.
HEN got hits from the whole lineup but was led by Mike Brower and Oscar Lara going 4 for 4, David Bosque, Gary Soper, and Dave Erwine going 3 for 4 and Dick Wood and Bill Witte going 3 for 3. Donna Engleman and Barb Pardo each contributed 2 for 3 days at the bottom of the lineup.
As mentioned, the HEN defense was solid and Steve Berry's pitching kept PG from any big innings. Brian Turner was 4 for 4, Dave Grull and Mart Topper were 3 for 4 and Greg Lorton was 2 for 3.
Thanks to Jimmie Martin for umping and we hope that the freak accidental hit on his hand is not serious.
10 runs! 10 runs!!!
In total, the Village people and the CBI'ers scored a total of 10 runs in today's game. Heck, we've all seen more than 10 runs scored in a half inning at times! How did it happen?
First of all, defense: CBI played excellent defense all game, but the Village people--led by SS Johnny Brand with help from the rest of the Villagers' infield of Bo Cai, Ken McGehee, Dan Frye, and Ray Kusmer, and RF Kathy O'Neill--thwarted every effort by CBI to add runs, even holding CBI scoreless in one inning when they loaded the bases with no outs.
Second, pitching: both super sub Mike Endeman for CBI and Barry Anderson for VPS induced one groundout or pop up after another with almost no line drive hits.
Third, and not to be taken for granted, Ray's, Kathy's, and Jonnie Johnson's yellow shorts and socks--not to mention Barry's orange shorts, socks, and shoes--mesmerized CBI hitters all day.
Only CBI's Randy Benge, who went 3 for 4, was able to withstand this visual onslaught.
For VPS, Barry was 3 for 3, Johnny 3 for 4, Kathy was 2 for 3 with a homer that the soccer net turned into a ground rule double, and Mike Maltinsky hit a seeing-eye homer in the bottom of the 7th to put the Villagers up 4 to 3.
But despite these hitting heroics, CBI and VPS together only scored 10 runs. Amazing!
A good day today by both teams having fun and playing good defense. Nucci's had 1 run in the second inning while Gaspar scored 1 in the first and then followed with 4 runs in the second inning. Nucci's answered back scoring another 5 runs that included Tom Carney's homerun in the 3rd inning. In the fifth inning the team was on fire and scored another five runs. Nucci's added 1 run in the 4th another 2 runs in inning 6,7 and 9. Gaspar got 1 run in the 4th, 1 in the 5th and scored another three runs on the board in the 7th and another 5 in the 8th.
Gaspar was scoreless in the 9th and the game ended with a nice foul tip caught by Joe Raffa to end the game.
Nucci's Highlights: Rod Johnson hit 5/5 with 3 RBI's,,Laurie Mills was 4/5 with 1 RBI. Tom Carney , 4/5, 1 Homerun and 7 RBI's, Kirsten Mildbrandt 2/4 2 RBI's, Al Cabacungan 3/4 1 RBI, Jim Davis 3/4, Dan Menendez, 3/4 2 RBI's, Joe Dimambro 3/4 1 RBI , Karen Smith 3/4, 1 RBI
Gaspar Highlights: Mike Henderson, 4/5, Craig Wheatcroft, 5/5 5 RBI"S and 1 homerun, Al Galaviz 4/5 1 homerun, and Bob Baptista 3/4
Both teams had great pitching by Rod Johnson and Bob Baptista
The early 8:30 game at Alga began with 46 degree temperatures and some frost on the field. 6 players decided to stay home under the warmth of the covers as both teams “warmed up” shorthanded for the game between the two teams at the top of the standings.
Pizza Port Brewery put 4 on the board in the top of the 1st with Rich Lavacot starting his 5/5 day to go with a 2 RBI single from Steve Newberg. But PPB was about to learn quickly that they had no solution the top of WW lineup as the combo of Phil Heinz, Dave Ash and Teddy Badillo went a combined 11 for 12. Rich Berkley drove in all three with a triple to cap off a 5 run rally to put WW ahead 5-4 after 1 inning.
Back came PPB with hitting throughout the lineup. John McDaniels went 4/4 and Mark Lehman 4/5 with 2 HRs to retake the lead at 12-9. Then the 3 headed monsters roared again. With Heinz, Linda Wolf 2/3 and Lloyd Thorne 2/3 on board, Dave Ash took matters into his own hands with a grand slam HR to put WW back in front at 13-12.
But once again the balanced Pizza Port lineup came through with Lavacot hitting a 2 run HR followed by Jimmy Smyth’s 2 run shot pushing PPB out to a 21-13 lead into the final inning. The PPB defense held off one last charge and Badillo’s 5th RBI with the help of a Steve Sexton grab and throw double play to take the victory.
PPB thanks Dave Bentley and Andy Boyer for filling in so capably, both going 3 for 4! And the teams thank Rick Shaw for umping both ends of a cold/warm doubleheader today.
“Apparently RSVPing to a wedding invitation, "Maybe next time" isn't the correct response.”
“The way to make coaches think you're in shape in the spring is to get a tan.” — Whitey Ford
Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Add one more to the list; the game between the Plotkin Group (PG) and Worden Williams (WW) in which WW survived a “never say die” offensive by PG and squeaked by with a 25 to 23 win. From the 3rd inning on, the scoreboard read 9/9, 14/9, 15/15, 20/20, 20/22 and finally 25/23. The game changer came in the bottom of the 8th with WW down by 1 after scoring 1 run, when up stepped Linda Wolf who smacked a 2 out, 3 run home run down the left field line, her 4th hit of the game, to put WW on top by 2. The final run of the inning was knocked in by Bob Buscher (4/4) to extend the lead to 3. PG pushed across 1 in the top of the 9th and was threatening right down to the very last out.
Leading the hit parade for WW was Bob Buscher (4/4), Linda Wolf (4/4), Cord Cameron (4/4), Teddy Badillo (4/4) and Gene Foreman (4/4) and 2 booming home runs by Dave Ash and Teddy Badillo. Roger Tesi just missed a homerun as he missed 3rd base heading for home, but was able to scamper back safely to 3rd base.
PG also lit up the scoreboard with 2 homeruns by Larry Weinberger, and a home run a piece by Dave Grull who was also 6/6 and Gary McBride (4/5). Brian Turner continued his hitting ways by going 5/6.
Much thanks to Kristen Mildbrandt for subbing for PG who at the end of the game had only 10 players.
Pizza Port Brewery’s Mark Lehman had 5 hits in leading PPB to a 21-13 win over The Draft today at sunny and dry Alga Norte.
PPB built a 13-3 lead with Steve Sexton and sub Phil McCabe chipping in with 4 hits each and Dale Miller driving in 4 runs. The Draft rallied with Tom Benacka going 4/4 and Mike Endeman scooting around the bases with a HR to get the score to 13-8.
Pizza Port added on to make it 18-8 and it would have been more if not for the play of Marlon Moore who looked like a youngster out there tracking down balls and keeping The Draft in it. Late HRs by Jimmy Smyth and Kevin McBarron provided for the final tallies. Pitcher Sexton picked up his first win of the season to go with two saves as he looks to renegotiate his contract.
Pizza Port ended the game with only 10 rostered players and thanks The Draft for supplying a player to help out and Phil McCabe for subbing. The teams thank Rick Shaw for umping and Bobby Porter for cheering us on
Calavera was underwater--again--so the Gassers battled the Village people in the early game at Alga 2. And believe it or not, some of the players were actually awake--the Villagers chanting YMCA as they warmed up--by the time the game started. The lead seesawed for the first 6 innings: the Gassers led 6-3 after 3; then the Village people got ahead 8-6, but the Gassers took a 9-8 lead going into the 7th. After that, it was all Villagers as they scored 5 in the 7th and 2 more in the 8th and shut out the Gassers for a final score of 15-9.
The Gassers were led by 3 for 3 hitting from Al Galavitz and Rick Skidmore.
The top of the Village people order did almost all the scoring: Johnny Brand, Keith Richards, Gene LaChimia, Mike Maltinsky, Ray Kusmer, and Barry Anderson [Macho Men one and all] went a combined 15 for 17, scoring 13 runs, and Mike and Barry had homers. And a late game defensive switch putting Johnny in the outfield and Mike in the infield worked out beautifully for the Villagers as both of them made outstanding plays in their new positions.
Determined to score before the 7th inning CBI tried something different. The different turned out to be 10 runs in the first 2 innings. After 5 innings CBI was staked to a 15-3 lead and cruising. Hennessy”s was not about to let that continue and scored 6 runs in the 6th to close the gap to 15-9. CBI scored 4 in the 6th. The 19 -9 lead held to the top of the 9th. Hennessy”s tacked on 4 more but ran out of outs.
Hitting stars for Hennessey’s, Mike Brower, Gary Soper, Dan Miserany, Oscar Lara and Dave Erwine all hit 3 for 4. Mike, Dan and Dave also homered. Steve Berry turned in a defensive gem catching a line drive back to the pitcher that if you blinked you missed it.
For CBI, Randy Benge, Oscar Castillo, Randy Agadoni and Robert Kroger all hit 4 for 4. Oscar and Robert homered. Thanks to Rod Johnson subbing for CBI and doing a great job pitching the distance.
Thanks to Joe Raffa for calling balls and strikes.
Standings are posted after all scores have been received (in a timely manner)
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