Softball+07-22-2012

=Undermanned Chalices Beaten, 16-5=

We only had 7 players show up today, but Bible Church manager Tony was gracious enough to loan us 3 players so we could avoid official forfeit and have a game. Our line up was Megan C, Tony P, yours truly 1B, BC loaners Matt and Eric at 2B and SS respectively, Pete 3B, and Spence, Nick, Mark Smith and Margaret in the outfield. Although BC came into the game with a similar record as ours, 1-5, they were clearly the better team today. They hit the ball solidly and scored a few runs nearly every inning to build up a big lead. As you can read from the line score, we only had one run-scoring inning, the 4th. As a team, we only had 9 hits today, 4 coming in the 4th and 3 in the 7th. We also lined out to infielders 4 times - those were good at bats with good contact, just unlucky.

In the 4th, Nick led off by legging out an infield hit to the 2nd baseman. Eric hit a sharp grounder to 2nd that went through the 2nd baseman for an error, sending Nick to 3rd. Spence hit a grounder to short, which looked like an easy forceout, but the 2nd baseman committed another error when he dropped the toss from the SS. Everyone was safe and Nick scored on the play. Pete and Tony flied out to left, so it looked like the inning might end with just one run scored. However, Mark S blooped a double into center field, scoring Eric and sending Spence to 3rd. Then Matt drilled a line drive into the right center field gap, past the outfielder for a triple, scoring 2 more. Finally, Megan hit a soft liner over the infield into left to score the 5th and final run. Great 2-out hitting, resulting in 3 runs.

We didn't threaten again until the 7th with 1 out, when Margaret reached safely on a slow roller down the 3rd base line. She hustled to 1st base and beat the throw by a step. After another out, Nick and Eric both drove base hits up the middle, resulting in bases loaded, 2 outs. Unfortunately, our last batter popped up to end the game.

Our 9 hits were spread out among 8 players. Only Nick had more than one hit.

Defensively, we did pretty well. Nick caught 3 balls in center field. We generally did a good job of retrieving outfield hits and getting the ball back in quickly. BC loaner Eric played very well at SS, making 6 assists and 3 putouts (2 popup, 1 line drive). I was busy at first base, making 9 putouts. We didn't have much success getting the lead runner out today. Maybe happened once all game, which is not much given all the baserunners they had.

Thankfully, the weather today was pretty decent. Mostly cloudy, which made it cooler, though pretty humid. Rain never threatened.