Softball+08-25-2013

=Tournament Game 2: United Church Dowses Chalices, 17-1=

United Church, playing with 9 men, demonstrated strong hitting and fielding to defeat the Community Church in our final game of the season, 17-1. UC only had 1 weak bat in their whole lineup, and the rest of the team was able to string together multiple hits to put runs on the board. Before the Flaming Chalices came to bat in the 1st inning, we were already down 5-0. Our lone run came in that first inning. OF Matt Nelson hit a one-out Texas Leaguer pop fly safely into right field for a single. 3B Will Bara followed with a line drive single into center field, sending Matt to 2nd base. SS Pete Siragusa grounded into a fielder's choice, Matt going to 3rd. OF Mark Smith grounded to the 3rd baseman for what should have been the 3rd out, but the throw was bad, so Mark was safe and Matt scored. P Jeff Nelson grounded into a forceout to end the inning. We managed to get a runner to 3rd base three more times in the game, in the 4th, 5th and 6th innings, but could not push across another run. Our best chance was in the 5th when we had runners at the corners with only 1 out. A ground ball to the shortstop was converted to a 6-4-3 double play to end that threat. Meanwhile, UC continued to pound the ball -- and take advantage of our errors -- to extend their lead. Given how far behind we fell early on, perhaps we put too much pressure on ourselves at the plate, trying to catch up. We had 10 hits today, compared to only 8 yesterday, but never had more than 3 in one inning (the 1st). With all the baserunners, we finished with 9 left on base in the 6 inning game. Two of our players had perfect 2-for-2 performances at the plate: Will Bara and Julie Tucker. Matt, Mark Smith, Mark Bruhn, Jim Morris, Nick Bailey and Doug Adams had the other hits. Doug's hit traveled less than 3 feet in front of the plate, but he legged it out for a base hit. Good hustle! Just goes to show you don't have to hit hard or far to reach safely. Defensively, we committed our quota of errors, but also made some difficult plays. Mark Bruhn, playing outfield for a change, ran in hard to catch a dying line drive in right center field. Very nice catch .. Mark even got praise from the opposing team. Mark Smith made a similar good catch on a hard hit line drive into left center field. LF Matt Nelson threw out a runner at 3rd trying to advance on a base hit. Heads up play by Matt and Will at the receiving end. In the infield, Will Bara was like a vacuum cleaner scooping up every ground ball and making strong throws. He also snagged a hard hit line drive down the 3rd base line. The middle infield combo of SS Julie Tucker and 2B Vera Smith executed a couple of forceouts at 2nd base, thanks to Julie's recovery on bobbled balls, strong throws and Vera's good reactions. Would have been nice to end the season on a high note - with a victory. As it turned out, we had only 1 victory on the field this season, on June 23. That early season win gave us an appetite for more, and I commend everyone for the turnout and effort you made to play for the Flaming Chalices this year. I look forward to starting up again in the Spring of 2014. Our rallying cry, "Wait till next year!"

Go Chalices!

Nils "Wheels" Brubaker http://c3h.wikispaces.com/Flaming+Chalices