Softball+2016-06-26

=Chalices Complete Amazing Comeback with Walk-off Win, 8-7=

In the bottom of the 7th, Matt Nelson drilled a two-out single into center field, which scored Jonah Paden with the tying run, then Nick Bailey with the winning run, to complete an improbable comeback with a walk-off win against Church of the Holy Family. Community Church went into their last at-bat, trailing by 4 runs, having trailed the entire game, having not scored since the 3rd inning, and with the bottom half of the batting order due up. Kalil Kaizen led off with his 3rd hit of the game. It was the 5th time in the game that we got the lead-off runner on base. Bruce Paden followed with a grounder to third that took a bad hop and allowed him to reach safely, Kalil going to 2nd base. Jonah Paden then grounded to shortstop, who flipped to 2nd base for the forceout on Bruce, Kalil moving to 3rd. Then, Doug Adams also grounded into a forceout to shortstop, driving in Kalil for the first run. But, it left us with 2 outs, only 1 baserunner and still down by 3 runs. Batting next, I stroked a liner into shallow left center field. Doug had to hustle down the line to barely beat the alert throw from the centerfielder to 2nd base. We were still alive, now with 2 baserunners. Glenn Mehrbach continued his terrific hitting for the day, driving a base hit into right field, which scored Doug and sent me to 2nd base. Now 2 runs down, with 2 baserunners. Jonah came in to run for Glenn at 1st base. Next batter, Nick Bailey drove a ball into right center field and decided to go for 2nd base. The only problem was, Jonah and I had stopped at 2nd and 3rd bases, respectively. Seeing there was nothing to do but run, I hightailed it home, and Jonah hustled to 3rd. Surprisingly, everyone was safe and now we were just 1 run down, with 2 runners in scoring position, and Matt coming to bat. Matt's base hit was clean, into the outfield, and allowed Jonah and Nick to score easily. Four straight hits, when we were down to our last out, with pressure on each hitter, and each hitter delivered. Heroic.

We had 6 hits in that last inning, 16 for the entire game. We had at least 1 hit in every inning, even if we did not score a run in most of the innings. Prior to the final inning, our first 3 runs were all driven in by Will Bara: 1 run in the 1st inning, on a sacrifice fly to deep center field; then 2 runs in the 3rd on a double to left field, driving in Glenn and Matt. Team hit leaders were Matt and Kalil, with 3 hits each, then Nick, Bruce and Glenn, with 2 apiece.

Defensively, we played well enough to contain the Holy Family and not let them extend their lead. They had some big hits past our outfielders, which accounted for most of their runs. But we made most of the routine plays, plus some outstanding plays to keep our opponents at bey. Pete Siragusa, making a rare appearance at 2nd base, started 2 rally-killing double plays, both on ground balls hit at him. Nick Bailey nearly made a spectacular catch on a shallow fly into center field, and although he didn't catch it, the runner on first had to wait to learn the result, and could not beat the throw to 2nd base to avoid a forceout. While pitching, Glenn hustled towards home to barehand a swinging bunt, then had to turn his body to make the lefthanded throw to first, which he accomplished just in time to beat the batter. I made a similar nice play at 1st base, ranging to my right to snag a hard-hit ground ball, then having to reverse direction and outrun the batter to first base, beating him barely by a step. In the top of the 7th, when we needed to hold Holy Family scoreless, Pete started one his double plays to snuff out a baserunner. Then, Bruce, playing in right field, charged in on a shallow pop-up and made a shoestring, sliding catch to retire the side, and set the stage for our dramatic finish. Matt had the glory of getting the game-winning hit, but this was a team effort by everyone, playing defense, batting, baserunning and backing each other up. Congratulations for a terrific game and satisfying win!