Wild Colonial Softball
August 23, 2007 at 1:11 pm · Filed under Losses, Recaps
We played better in the nightcap, taking an early lead and holding it through 5 innings, but the wheels fell off in the sixth and even Rob’s solo blast to right center could not stop TCI from winning it going away.
For some reason, we played through our outfielders getting eggs thrown at them and shot with BB guns. I don’t have anything more to say about that.
The season is over. I’d like to thank everyone for showing up and playing hard, and for having a good time doing it. We put a nice season together and weren’t jerks. Big shout out to Scott for keeping us organized and handling all of the logistics. Props to Joe for keeing us together via email, even if I sometimes couldn’t cut through the prose to get to the facts. Apparently everyone else didn;t have the same problem.
FYI: we were offerred a plaque for the WC wall for coming in second, but we told the Commish to give the money to charity. We are classy.
17-8 for the season. 6-6 in the first half. 9-0 in the “recreational” bracket. 2-2 in the playoffs.
See y’all in the spring. I’m off to the cave to hibernate.
14 signing out.
August 23, 2007 at 1:05 pm · Filed under Losses, Recaps
TCI scored a lot in the first inning and never looked back. They hit to the gaps and fielded well. We mounted a feeble offense. We lost.
17-7 for the season. 6-6 in the first half. 9-0 in the “recreational” bracket. 2-1 in the playoffs.
August 18, 2007 at 8:12 am · Filed under Recaps, Wins
Navigant came back for game two of the first-round playoff series, this time at Hank Soar, where you don’t need waders to play short.
A good turnout by the guys, but not by the women, left everybody a little nervous until our third woman showed up right on time. Nobody wanted to forfeit our way out of the playoffs. Thanks to Lauren for showing up straight from a yachting trip and playing in borrowed clothes. Even despite this, we had to take the auto out three times during the game. That’s a rally killer.
We started off okay, with three in the top half of the first, only to let up two for Navigant in the bottom half. That inning was characterized by a walkfest from the Nav pitcher, and some control problems on Joe’s end, too. Not nearly as bad, though. The second through 5th innings saw very little bat action on the Wild side, though Navigant threatened often. We had some nice defense along the way, with Ian making a zig-zagging-full-retreat-over-the-shoulder grab in foul territory for an important out, and Rob turning a crucial double play (or were there two of those?). Not bad for a guy who professes to hate playing short. In the 6th, the WC bats came alive, and we added to the cushion to make it something like 10-2. I think it was the sixth that saw Rob tattoo a ball into the trees out beyone the tall center field fence. Good god. Hide the women and childern. Good, aggressive base running by Starsky and Liz helped us keep the momentum going, too. And I still don’t know why they pitched to me with the auto out coming up next to end the inning and runners on. Classy not to walk me, but not bright. Some do contend that the pitcher was trying to walk me, though inside is not the place to throw those pitches. He difinitely didn’t give me anything good to hit in the three pitches that I saw. Thanks for the two extra runs. Navigant then came back with a couple, and we went into the seventh looking for some insurance. Then, over the hills to the blare of trumpets, a fleet of Progressive trucks rolled in and more runs came across, boosting us up to a ten run lead at 14-4. A solid defensive effort in the bottom half of the inning saved the 10-run lead and we advanced to round two 14-4.
2-0 in the playoffs.
17-6 on the season (6-6 in the first half and 11-0 in the “recreational” bracket).
So, now we’re playing for the “recreational” division championship on Wednesday night against TCI. We’re at Soar, though I don’t know what time. It’s a best of three series, but I don’t know how many we’ll play that night.
Come one, come all!
-14
August 13, 2007 at 12:17 am · Filed under Recaps, Wins
Our first opponant of the playoffs was none other than Navigant. On a nice night for softball (kinda chilly, but not too bad if you were moving around), we met up at Soar. This was not what anyone would call a “pretty game”. Oh no, it was ugly. Just depressing to watch, really. navigant had their lousy pitcher, who brings everything in at such a low angle and with such velocity that it totally messes up your timing. There were a lot of infield popups for us.
The highlights were primarily defensive. Under pressure from his fans though, Scott performed at the plate, with two singles. This was an achievement for us on this night. On the defensive side, Archie made a great diving catch in left center. B-Rad made a great diving stab, too, at short. Jen even got in on the act, with all three defensive assists from second base in the 7th inning, giving the win to the WC by a score of 5-3.
I got back on the mound for the first time in about 3-4 weeks. It was fairly uneventful. I think I got a K. Don’t remember walking anyone, but that doesn’t mean anything. I was able to mix the back-spinner in, which I could hear them talking about on the bench. After they realized that if I got 1 strike on them, I pulled out the spinner, and they started swinging at the first pitch.
Game two of this best-of-three series will be this week, maybe Wednesday night.
So we’re 1-0 in this series and 16-6 on the season.
-14
August 13, 2007 at 12:07 am · Filed under Recaps, Wins
This was a makeup game, rescheduled from the week before. I’m waaay late on the blog entry for it, so the details will be scarce, at least from the defensive side. I was lucky enough to get the book, so I can give you half of the story.
The game was against Picture Perfect. They were not as perfect as they would like to have been. Let’s just say, they didn’t look like a playoff team. The game went smoothly, however, for the Wild Colonial. In the second inning, the WC batters batted around and put up 10 runs. In the 5th, they went around again, and added 9. In between, there were another 10. So, after 5 innings, the game was called for mercy’s sake, with the score: WC 29, PP 8. You want hilights, I’ll give you hilights. In no particular order, except the first one:
Archie had 2 home runs, an in-the-park job and a fence-clearer, in the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively.
Megan had 3 singles.
Ian had a single a double, two walks, and a home run (I think this was the game he hit the HR).
Joy had 2 singles.
Lauren walked 3 times (the PP pitcher was far from perfect, too).
JoeMec had a double and 2 singles.
Scott had a single and a double.
Bob had two singles and two doubles.
I hit an in-the-park home run down the first base line in the 2nd inning.
And B-Rad… well, he hit for the cycle. First batter of the game for us = inside home run. 2nd inning = inside home run. 3rd inning = triple. 4th inning = single. 5th inning = double.
Defensively, we must have done something, but I honestly don’t remember any of it.
Wild Colonial wins 29-8. That makes our record 15-6. 6-6 in the first half, and 9-0 in the “recreational” league. That gives us first place in the “recreational” league for the regular season. Now, onto the playoffs.
-14
August 2, 2007 at 10:34 am · Filed under Recaps, Wins
First, I don’t see how this can be right. The way I’ve got it figured, tonight’s game is a makeup of game 20, which means that last night’s game was the last regularly-scheduled game of the season, and it was game 21. Are we really playing an odd number of games?
Anyway, last night… First, let’s talk about those who didn’t show up. The list is long and impressive: Bryan, Joe O. (has Joe pulled a Bert on us? Where is he?), Don, and Rob, Mary Beth, Lauren, Lauren, Kelly, Ryan, and Jen. So, we had 10 people out and 10 showed up to play. Actually, 11 showed up, but we gave Rick Clarkson (that’s their dad, for those of you who don’t know The Rick) to the other team because they were short. I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s backtrack, shall we?
I showed up at Soar at 7:55. Bob greeted me with, “I’ve got good news and bad news. Which do you want first?” I chose bad news. “The bad news is that there’s no good news.” Basically, the game had been pushed to 9:30 at Collyer, and even if it was going to be played at 8 at Soar, we didn’t (at that point) have enough men or women. The story goes that Don (the league guy) swears that he emailed everyone on July 20th. Oddly, both the WC and the Vampires (RI Blood Center) showed up for this game. Seems that either Don is wrong or neither WC nor RIBC read their emails. It looks like our game had been rescheduled to give GTech a chance to play a 6:30 and 8:00 doubleheader at Soar. So wait, rather than put the makeup for two “A” bracket teams on a different night, he shipped the “recreational” teams to Collyer and pushed them to the 9:30 crappy time slot. Where is the love with this guy? What did we ever do to him? So we bitch at him when he’s all complainy with the umps and questions whether or not we’re cheating. He deserves it. I’m not even going to get into the myriad ways in which he’s screwed us this year.
So, over to Collyer we went. I think that I arrived there around 8:30-8:45. Luckily (sarcasm), the 8:00 game had not yet started because the umpire didn’t show. Bob volunteered to ump (he loves to do that) and freshen up the odor of the home plate area by his mere presence. The game got under way about an hour late. It seemed like TCI and Navigant played forever while we waited impatiently for it to end. Don (league guy) showed up in the 1st inning and took over for Bob. Then an umpire showed up. I wonder if Don accepted the ump fees… Don called the game all the way to the end, though, while the ump sat around with us.
Some time around 10-10:15 (guessing) RIBC took the field and we got started. RIBC plays the 3 OF setup, which I just think is a bad idea against a team that can hit. That leaves huge gaps in the outfield, and we don’t hit to the dual shortfielders. I wonder if they play that setup in the vast green spaces at Soar. We were still short a woman, so we took the automatic out rather than have an alien on our team. We played D without a shortfielder, and I was in RC, with Joe pitching. Bob was at short, with Scott at 3B. Liz played 2B. Archie almost made a great play on a screamer over his head off the bat of their female pitcher. He bobbled and dropped the ball on an over-the-shoulder attempt. The play was made even more dramatic by his scream of terror over dropping the ball. Joe pithced a good game. All of the people who were out of their normal positions performed valiantly.
We came out sort of flat, but luckily, RIBC didn’t mount too much of an offense. Then, the beers kicked in, we started to put it together, and the onslaught was on! Scott had an inside-the-park HR. We batted around in the 3rd. Ian had an inside-the-park-HR. We almost batted around in the 4th. Bob jacked a grand slam. Joy doubled in the 21st run in the bottom of the 5th and the game was called on a mercy ruling, 21-6. We were still going. I was on third and Joy was on second with 1 out, I think.
At 11:30, it was over. We parted ways before the mosquitos carried us away.
So now our record is 14- 6. 6-6 in the first half, and 8-0 in the “recreational” bracket. Shouldn’t we have 24 games? Did I mess up somewhere?
Game tonight at 9:30 at Collyer.
Playoffs start next Monday. I’m not sure if we’re playing that night.
July 30, 2007 at 3:50 pm · Filed under Recaps
Another game, another postponement. What was a four-game week is now a two-game week.
July 30, 2007 at 3:50 pm · Filed under Recaps, Wins
Navigant showed up, so we played!
This was the makeup from the game that was rained out on Wed, 7/18. We’ve played Navigant once so far, and won. This was our first meeting in the “recreational” bracket.
JoeMec had been warning about the marked improvement of Navigant since we first saw them. Our general lack of enthusiasm, however, seemed to indicate an ignorance of Joe’s threats.
Navigant batted first and scored two. We batted second and scored 10. Hilights of the early innings included the Nav left fielder chasing a Bob 1st inning blast to the fence only to catch it and tumble, at which point the ball came out of his glove. It was ruled a hit. Looked like an out to me. Now, of course, Bob is going to think I’m being tough on him because he smells all flowery, but I’m not. The guy clearly had the ball, then rolled and hit the fence and it popped out. In football, it would have been a reception and a fumble. When the same Nav LF came to bat in the top of the second, he singled to the outfiled and tried to stretch it to two. A close play at second resulted, and he was called out. This one seemed like it was probably the right call – though it was close and he might have made it under the tag – but the Nav guy didn’t see it that way.
On the bleachers after the first inning, I told my wife that it probably wouldn’t take long for us to dispatch the Nav. Lauren, however, gave me the laser eyes and told me not to say things like that. As it turns out, I almost jinxed us to a loss.
The second through the seventh innings were characterized by Navigant chipping away. Meanwhile, we rested on our ever-diminishing cushion, until it was 12-10 (us) going into the seventh and coming off a sixth in which the Nav put up a bunch of runs and took the momentum away. Finally, at the wire, we held them.
It’s been a long time, and my brain is mush, so I don’t remember a whole lot of the particulars. I know Rob hit a solo HR to left. I also know that the Nav pitcher didn’t bat at all, which was odd, and probably would have been a reason for protest had we not won. umm, let’s see… one ball was hit to the right side of the outfield, Joe made a hell of a catlike snag of a screaming liner on the mound, and Ian made a couple of good defensive plays, including one on a throw of a bunt that landed in the batters box and somehow was not called foul. Explain that.
So, the Wild prevails 12 to 10.
That runs our record to 13-6: 6-6 in the first half and 7-0 in the “recreational” bracket.
Next game is Wed, Aug 1, at 8:00 at Hank Soar (unless there is a makeup scheduled sometime before that).
-14
July 26, 2007 at 6:08 pm · Filed under Recaps, Wins
The Politicos just couldn’t handle another beat down. They forfeited. We won.
We’re now 12-6. 6-6 in the first half and 6-0 in the “recreational” bracket.
July 23, 2007 at 10:59 pm · Filed under Recaps, Wins
Game 17 was rained out last Wednesday, and will be played this Thursday at 8:00 at Collyer, after our regularly scheduled 6:30 game.
In the dreary, drizzly, chilly July night, the Wild Colonial descended on Collyer for a first-time matchup with the Politicos. Those of you in the know will remember that a team fell out of the league because it couldn’t regularly field a full roster. The Politicos took the place of that team. This is a new team to the league, so we had no scouting report on them other than that they were, as far as anyone knew, yet to win a game.
Having now played them, I can say this: The Politicos aren’t a team that seems like it should lose every game. They’re really not that bad. They were dogged tonight by some killer drops in the outfield, and hitting that really looked like it should have been better. These folks look like they know what they’re doing. I suspect that they have a decent number of fast-pitch players who are having a tough time adapting to the slow pitch style.
Of course, the biggest obstacle that the Politicos faced tonight was the Wild Colonial. The score was closer than the game played (though admittedly, I don’t know what the final was). On defense, Joe and I put together a walk-free seven innings. Joe claims to have been unhittable tonight. I was able to throw a little junk, but I found the ump’s strike zone to be unpredictable at best, so I stayed away from the junk pitches a lot. If I can get that first strike on someone with a normal pitch (the curve), I will start to throw the backspinner, just to mess them up. Then I’ll throw more curves mixed in with the backspinner, to keep them on their toes. Megan enjoys the variety, too. Next I’ll probably start working on a knuckleball. But I digress… the defense was good tonight. Ben/Brad had a couple of great plays at third to get some of their rediculously fast runners. Don showed great range on a foul ball to start the game, and almost came up with one of his trademark shoestring catches that popped out on the tumble. Archie was good out in left center when I could see him. It seemed dark out there. The right side of the outfield need not have left the bench. I don’t think they fielded one ball all night. Megan played great, again, behind the plate. She had one flyball putout, and two outs in rundowns with Ben at 3B. Great playing there. It used to be that our catchers had trouble catching (no offense intended if any of you are reading this) and a rundown was pretty much out of the question. This is a nice change.
It was on offense, however, that the Wild came up with its best plays. Joy got on base three times in a row, scoring once on my triple (misplayed by the OF), being forced out in a rundown between 1B and home because I screwed up and ran all the way up to her at 3B, and getting at least to second in her third AB after I left her at 1B when I fouled out. Ben nailed a two run HR in the 6th or 7th inning, after clubbing a couple of foul balls. I wish Rob had been there to see it. And Mary Beth buried the left fielder for a double that was fantastic. Gotta love it when the OF underestimates the female players.
In the end, we won it going away. It was probably about 12-5.
Our record is now 11-6. 6-6 in the first half, and 5-0 in the “recreational” bracket.
Next game is Wednesday at 6:30 at Hank Soar.
-14
Next entries »