Softball+2016-07-24

=AME Overcomes 6-Run Deficit to Tie Flaming Chalices, 10-10=

The Flaming Chalices held a 10-4 lead going into the bottom of the 7th inning, only to see victory snatched from their grasp due to a 6-run outburst from St. Paul AME. The Chalices scored runs in every inning but the 4th, and built up a 7-0 lead, before AME could get on the board. It started in the 1st inning when OF Nick Bailey reached on an error, then scored from first base on OF Matt Nelson's single to left field. Matt scored one out later when 2B Pete Siragusa drove a ball into the right center field gap for a triple. The 3rd run came when 3B Brian Moyer hit a long fly ball to center field, caught for an out, but long enough to drive in pinch-runner Will Bara, who tagged up and scored. In the 2nd inning, Community Church pulled off a 2-out rally, with 3 straight base hits from 1B Nils Brubaker, Nick and Matt, to produce 2 more runs. In the 3rd, P Jeff Nelson drove in Will with a 2-out base hit for the Chalices' 6th run. In the 5th, Will led off the inning with a crushed line drive to left that cleared the fence for a solo home run. Two more base hits followed, but no more runs.

In the bottom of the 5th, AME finally got on the board with 4 runs. Community Church came right back to add to our lead in the 6th and 7th innings. In the 6th, Nick hit a line drive into the center field gap, the ball rolling all the way to the fence. He easily circled the bases for our 2nd home run of the game, giving us a 8-4 lead. In the 7th, we scored 2 more insurance runs: with the bases loaded and 1 out, OF Kalil Kaizen grounded a hard single past the shortstop into left field, scoring 2 runners. 10-4, Chalices ahead. That set up the dramatic bottom half of the inning. Their first batter earned a cheap hit, when he lofted a short popup just over the pitcher's head on which no one could make a play. A couple batters later, we had a potential double play ground ball, but only got one out. Soon after, AME's big slugging shortstop crushed a ball over the left center field fence for a 3-run home run. That was followed by 2 more solo home runs. Eventually, they scored 6 runs before we could douse the fire. There was not much we could do, given how well they hit the ball that inning. For the game, we had 18 hits. Each of our 10 players recorded at least 1 hit. Our leading hitters were Nick, Pete and Mark Bruhn, each with 3 hits. Matt and Brian had 2 hits. 7 of our 10 hitters drove in a run, with Matt and Kalil each notching 2 RBIs. Nick scored 3 runs, but Will led the team with 4 runs, thanks to the fact that he ran 3 times as a pinch-runner for Pete, and scored each time! Aggressive baserunning may have cost us some runs this game, due to alert fielding and good throws from the AME defense. In the 3rd inning, Mark was thrown out at 3B trying to advance on a single to left by Jeff. The leftfielder mishandled the ball, but recovered in time, and made a strong, accurate throw. In the 4th, Doug was on 2nd when a misthrow to 2B rolled into left field. The 3rd baseman left his position to retrieve the ball, leaving 3rd base uncovered, so Doug attempted to get to 3rd, but the pitcher alertly came over to cover and a good throw cut him down.

Defensively, we played a very good game, with only 1 error resulting in a batter reaching safely. The left side of our infield was greatly tested, with 3 ground balls to Brian at 3B, and 7 ground balls to Will at SS. They successfully handled all but one of those chances. Our outfielders only had 3 catches, all on towering fly balls into right center and right field. For some reason, no fly balls were hit to straightaway left field. On one of the fly balls, Nick made a fine catch, circling behind Kalil, who had misjudged the ball and moved in too far. Later on in the 7th, when AME was rallying, Kalil had a 2nd towering fly ball come his way; this time he backpedaled and reached up in time to make the catch, stumbled on his back, but held up the ball to prove he still had it. Big play. OF Mark Bruhn also caught a towering fly ball, settling under it and making the squeeze. Another big defensive play was made by C Doug Adams. AME's slugging shortstop batted earlier in the game and got under a pitch, hitting a weak popup near the plate in foul territory. Doug hustled over and made the grab, to record the out and neutralize a dangerous hitter.