Softball+08-26-2012

=Chalices End Season with Loss, 18-8=

St. Paul AME brought their "A" team today as they pounded out hits and scored in every inning, to overwhelm Community Church, 18-8. For the first time this season, an opponent scored on us in every inning of the game.

It was 10-0, St. Paul, before we were able to get runs on the board. After the first 2 batters were retired in the bottom of the 3rd, CF Nick Bailey doubled to right field. SS Eric Lindauer drove him in, and then scored on LF Spence Foscue's single. 3B Pete Siragusa doubled to knock in Spence. OF Steve McCaw reached on an error, sending Pete to 3rd. 2B Mark Bruhn hit a ball off the pitcher and reached safely, while Pete was able to score the 4th run.

AME's scoring rate slowed down a bit, but they still added to their lead each subsequent inning. Community Church picked up another run in the 5th when Eric doubled to right field and scored on Pete's single to center. In the bottom of the 7th, down by 13, we mounted a little rally, aided by some St. Paul sloppy fielding. With one out, Eric doubled, again, to right field. One out later, Pete hit a grounder to 3rd that the 3rd baseman knocked down but couldn't control. Pete was safe, and Eric advanced to 3rd, with 2 outs. Steve drilled a ball into left field to score Eric. The outfield threw the ball wildly into 3rd, which allowed Pete to score and Steve to advance to 3rd. Mark Bruhn hit a routine grounder back to the pitcher, which should have ended the game, but the first baseman dropped the ball, keeping our chances alive and scoring another run. OF Jeff Nelson followed with a base hit to left, sending Mark to 2nd. After that we ran out of chances, as the game -- and the season -- ended when OF Megan Carlson struck out.

Hitting leaders for us today were Eric Lindauer, 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored; Pete Siragusa, 3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 2 runs driven in; Nick, Steve and Jeff, all 2 for 4. We had 15 hits altogether, which equals our season high, also against St. Paul AME on June 17.

On defense, we played pretty well, not many errors. Eric led our defense with 5 putouts and 4 assists from the shortstop position. The outfield was pretty busy, retrieving base hits, but also catching fly balls: Nick 2, Steve 2, Nils 1, Jeff 1. In the top of the 5th, OF Margaret Cox, Eric and Pete combined to make a great play on a hit by AME's leftfielder, a very fast runner. With 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, the batter grounded a base hit into right center and ran into 2nd with a double. Margaret covered the ball quickly and fired a strike to Eric covering 2nd base. One runner scored, and a second was trying to score, but Eric alertly observed the batter not stopping at 2nd and going for 3rd. Eric threw to Pete in time to put the tag on the batter for the 3rd out, before the runner ahead of him could touch the plate, so his run did not count. Nice play.