Softball+06-09-2013

=Chalices Fall to AME, 9-5=

The Flaming Chalices fell behind early and battled back valiantly, but could never overcome St. Paul AME, as they matched our runs with more of their own. Although we lost by the same margin of runs as in our opening game, we hit the ball better and fielded better as well. AME just got too many solid hits and took advantage of all their opportunities to score. Our two best innings were the 4th and 7th, in both cases our first 2 batters reached safely and then later came in to score. In the 2nd, we also had the first 2 batters reach base, but neither were able to score as AME forced out a runner at 3rd two times in a row. Those were the only innings we had the lead-off batter get on base. Our hit leaders today were Sara McCaw, Julie Tucker, Mark Smith and Mark Bruhn, each with 2 hits. Mark B. also scored both times he was on base. In addition, runs were scored by Nick Bailey, Julie and Nils Brubaker. Sara, Matt, Will Bara and Teresa Martin drove in our runs. Teresa's RBI came with 2 outs, so she gets our "clutch hit of the game" recognition. Extra base hits were doubles hit by Matt and Julie. As a team we got 12 hits total, 50% more than the 8 we got last week. And we managed to spread our hits over the whole game, not bunched in one inning like last week. Defensively, we also played better this Sunday, registering 13 assists, compared to 8 the previous game, and only 2 errors, compared to 3 a week ago. SS Sara McCaw and P Jeff Nelson led the infield, throwing out 4 batters each. Sara got down and dirty on several plays, laying herself out to stop some hard hit balls. Julie was the most versatile, playing 2B, SS and 3B, making 3 putouts and 1 assist, including a nice leaping grab of a line drive. 2B Vera Smith made 2 putouts, and 1B Jim Morris played capably with 5 putouts. We only caught 2 balls in the outfield, but it was not for lack of trying. Matt dove for one sinking liner, but came up short. Nick did a good job to back him and hold the batter to just 2 bases. For the 2nd week in a row, Nick threw out a baserunner at 3rd base. Nice job, Nick! Overall a very good defensive effort by the whole team.