Our seventh game occurred after what seemed to be a long break. It was an exciting two weeks for me. Most importantly, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Also, I was offered a new job and bought an apartment. Softball wasn’t high on my list, so the break was good.
Unfortunately, my team came back sluggish. We took on the Bus Drivers, a team led by the commissioner of the league, Chris. Last season, the Bus Drivers shocked their way to a championship. This year, at 2-4, no one expected them to do much of anything. They don’t have a bunch of sluggers, and their defense is sometimes suspect.
In this game, though, there was a wind blowing in that immediately made people like me less dangerous and evened the playing field. In the top of the first, BD scored two runs on a play where their best player, John, hit a line drive to the right of me with a man on second. I reached my glove out, but it went right through my glove, and then Frank misplayed it in the outfield, allowing John to round the bases to give BD a 2-0 lead heading into the second after we failed to score in the first inning for the first time. They scored two more in the second, but we answered with three to make it 4-3. In the third, they got the maximum five runs, the first time we allowed the max this season, and we added two to make it 9-5. We each scored a run in the fourth and they added another in the fifth to make it an 11-6 deficit. We closed the gap in the sixth to make it 11-9, but they scored two in the seventh to take a 13-9 victory.
On the bright side for us, this Sunday was the “Revenge of the Cass Division” weekend, and our loss affected no one. Other final scores: Pitch Slappers 7, Whalers 4 – The Whalers were popping the ball up all day in the driving wind. Hanamana 14, Master Batters, 11 – MB lost, but clinched a playoff spot in the Hite Division, thanks to … Multiple Scoregasms 13, Yellow Fever 5 – YF is now officially eliminated from the playoffs and get to play the spoiler role when division play picks up again next weekend.
Here was the break down of our game:
Line up:
1 - Tyler - SS
2 - Josh - CF
3 - Shawn - RF
4 - Frank - LF
5 - Mitch - 2B/1B
6 - Lee - 3B
7 - Mary Kay - LROV
8 - Mike - RROV/2B
9 - Doug - 1B
10 - Chris - 2B/1B
11 - Daniel - RROV
12 - Lia - C
Ariella - DNP – Bus Drivers only had two females, too, so we went with 12 player lineups
Bottom 1st:
Tyler - Ground out, 4-3
Josh - Double
Shawn - Ground out, 4-3; Josh to 3rd
Frank - Ground out, 6-3
2nd:
Mitch - Single
Lee - Fly out, 7
Mary Kay - Single, advanced to 2nd on error; Mitch scored
Mike - Fly out, 7
Doug - RBI double
Chris - RBI single
Daniel - Infield single
Lia - Fielder's choice, LROV-4
3rd:
Tyler - Double
Josh - RBI single
Shawn - Single; Josh to 3rd
Frank - RBI Sac Fly
Mitch - Pop out, 5
Lee - Fly out, 8
4th:
Mary Kay - Strike out (our first strike out of the year, another negative first)
Mike - Pop out, 3
Doug - Double, scored on error
Chris - Single
Daniel - Strike out
5th:
Lia - Line out, 6
Tyler - Pop out, 6
Josh - Triple
Shawn - Pop out, 5
6th:
Frank - Fly out, 8
Mitch - Double
Lee - RBI triple
Mary Kay - RBI single, advanced to 2nd on error
Mike - Fly out, 9
Doug - RBI double
Chris - Line out, 6
7th:
Daniel - Ground out, 5-3
Lia - Ground out, 5-3
Tyler - Single
Josh - Pop out, 6
Lee's stats:
1 for 3, 3B, RBI, R
Defense (my ruling):
5 fielding chances, 3 put outs, 2 errors
The Bus Drivers ruled John's at bat as a hit, but I think I should have caught it, so I gave myself an error in the stats. On my other error, it was my only assist opportunity where we could have got a double play. Unfortunately, my throw to the second baseman, Mitch, was high, and everyone was safe. My three put outs came on different types of plays. One was on a beautiful throw from Frank in left field and I tagged out Chris as he tried to make it to third base. Another was a simple pop up to me. The final was a grounder to me with two outs and runners at first and second.
Here are my Excel Files:
