Out With A Bang!

Great way to wind up the 2nd half of the season. Open Meadow got straight up gloved last night, barely avoiding another Glove Ahead Rule, 17-8. And not to make any excuses, but those 8 runs they scored were the benefit of some gnarly sun out there in the left field part of the diamond. Props to Ali, Scott, Matthew, Kendra & Dylan for fighting through the elements and giving us a chance to win.

We finished 2-2-1 in this half of the league, and those two losses could very easily have gone the other way. Not too shabby considering we played with a lot of subs and didn't have a very consistent lineup all season long. Despite all that, we can still end up in 2nd place depending on the outcome of the game between Hammertime and Open Meadow on August 5.

Now, on to the top plays...

1. Straight out of an ESPN web gems reel, Ali battled the sun and the wind and gloved a fly ball waaaayyyyy out in foul territory near the fence, through the other team's dugout, over the tarp and in between a couple of fans looking for a souvenir. Big out, bigger catch.

2. Boing! Weird play at home plate last night more out of a George Michael Sports Machine highlight than ESPN... An errant throw from the outfield had Shawna playing the carom off the fence in front of the other team's dugout, a runner tried scoring from 3rd base, but a heads up play by Dan at home plate got the force out saving a run. High baseball IQ on that play.

3. From the mound, two nice catches from the pitcher. Same hitter jacks two line drives right up the middle, Marcus catches them both for inning ending and game ending outs... He makes it look so easy, but he has the bruise on his hand today to show for it. Nice job, Coach!

On that note and at the risk of sounding self aggrandizing (sucking my own dick?), I have to give (accept?) POTG to Marcus who a pretty good game last night. At the plate, 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs. On the mound, he showed some very good control of his pitches (not as easy as it looks with the wind blowing and the sun in his eyes) including 4 Ks (strikeouts), 3 put outs at 1st base, in addition to those two line drive catches. But a pitcher is only as good as the 8 people behind him and the 1 person behind the plate; for all the Glovely defense all season long, thanks for making me look good :)

Everyone also deserves another beer and a pat on the back for an awesome 4th inning. We batted all the way around the lineup, everyone got a hit that inning, and we scored 8 runs to lock up the win last night. We smelled blood, and we went for the kill...

Ball game.