Softball+06-28-2015

=Baptists Outgun Chalices, 19-5=

Community Church was outgunned today by a powerful University Baptist team, 19-5. The Baptists had 9 players, 8 of them looked to be college age men, all athletic, and a 50+ coach. They could all hit the ball hard, and they did, throughout the game. They scored runs in every inning they batted, and had two 5-run innings. The game ended after 5-1/2 innings due to time constraints. Their pitcher was not as good as their hitters, so the Chalices were often frustrated waiting for a decent pitch to hit. Even with that frustration, we did well to collect 10 hits. All of them were earned against a good fielding defense that made only one error. We got our first run of the game in the 4th inning, from C Carole Bruhn. After singles by SS Will Bara, 3B Pete Siragusa and P Mark Smith loaded the bases, Carole came up with 2 outs, and hit slow roller down the 3rd base line. Pete and the Baptist thirdbaseman both ran towards home, and Pete beat the throw to the plate. Everyone was safe: Carole had a hit and an RBI. CF Nick Bailey followed with an even bigger 2 out hit, a line drive to centerfield that drove in LF Jeff Nelson and Mark Smith for 2 more runs. Next inning, 2B Mark Bruhn led off with a solid single to center. Will followed with a low screaming line drive in the right centerfield gap that rolled all the way to the fence. He motored all the way around the bases to register a 2-run home run and give the Chalices their last 2 runs. We had one more chance to bat in the 6th, but went down 1-2-3 to end the game. Our hitting leaders today were Will with 3 hits in 3 at-bats, and Pete with 2 hits. Will and Nick each drove in 2 runs. On defense, we didn't have a lot to do but retrieve the UB hits from the outfield. Occasionally, their batters got under the ball too much and hit towering fly balls, mostly to left field where Jeff was playing. Jeff made 4 catches, none of them easy, due to the distance and height of the balls' flight. Our infield turned a double play in the 5th inning, on a grounder to Will, who flipped to Mark covering 2nd, then on to Nils at first. Pete and Mark combined for a nice forceout on a hot ground ball to 3rd.