Softball+2017-06-25

=Orange Methodist Puts the Squeeze on Community Church, 11-5=

Community Church started off the game with 6 straight hits and 4 runs. We could not get a 5th run as we left the bases loaded. Orange Methodist only managed 1 run in their first at-bat. Once again, it looked to be an auspicious beginning for the Flaming Chalices. But after that hitting outburst in the 1st inning, the Chalices' bats went cold. We had only 7 hits over the remaining 6 innings, and could not string enough consecutive hits together to score any more runs. Over the entire game, we left 12 runners stranded. In the 3rd, we left the bases loaded without scoring, and in the 6th and 7th, we had 2 baserunners, but could not score. We were missing clutch hits today. We had 13 hits total; no player had more than 2 hits (Nick, Nils, Will, Pete, Jeff). It is also true that the Orange defense got better as the game wore on. They made fewer errors and they started to catch balls they weren't getting to earlier in the game.

Our only run in the final 6 innings came on an inside-the-park home run from Will Bara. Leading off the 4th inning, Will hit a towering fly ball to deep center that the outfielder initially appeared to have in his sights, but it kept sailing and fell to the ground safely. Will motored around the bases and scored without a throw to the plate.

On defense we only had 9 players throughout the game, but we did a good job of covering the field. The entire right side of our defense was (wo)manned by the Masse family: 1B Jean, 2B Lucien and RF Madeleine, all playing in their first game of the season. They handled everything hit their way very commendably. Lucien fielded 2 hard hit ground balls and made the out on both plays. On the other side of the field, Will made a couple great plays at shortstop, notably a high screaming line drive for which he had to leap to make the catch. On a ground ball play with a runner at 2nd, Will faked a throw to 1st, then tagged the over-eager runner as he broke for 3rd. Smart play! C Mark Smith also made a good play on a dribbler in front of the plate, pounced on the ball and threw out the batter at first. In the outfield, Nick and Madeleine made 2 great plays on sharply hit balls that almost skipped past them, sliding to the ground to stop the ball and return it quickly to the infield.