Softball+06-21-2015

=Chalices Fall Short, 12-11=

In a see-saw game, St. Paul AME emerged on top with a 12-11 victory. AME took the first lead, 1-0, then Community Church took the lead with 4 runs in the 2nd inning on hits from Pete, Mark B. (a double), Nils and Nick. We added another run in the 3rd to extend our lead. The big hit there was a triple by Will Bara, a line drive that eluded the left fielder and rolled nearly to the fence. AME came right back to reclaim the lead in their half of the 3rd. The teams traded a run in the 5th, keeping the Chalices one run back of the lead. Our run came on an infield hit from Will, followed by Pete's single to center. Will advanced to 3rd on a ground-out, and scored on Vera's ground-out. That's what they call "scratching out a run". In the top of the 6th, the Chalices exploded for 5 runs, the first 4 which scored with no outs. We only had 3 hits in the inning, but one of them was another triple by Will. AME committed 2 errors to allow 2 of the runs. In the bottom half of the 6th, we held the 4 run lead through the first 2 outs, but then our defense made a couple costly errors, and AME pounded some hits to complete another 5 run inning and re-take the lead. In the 7th, we did not hit the ball well, and went down without scoring a run. The Chalices collected 15 hits total, and 3 players collected 3 hits each: Nick, Will and Pete. Two of Wills' hits were triples. Pete utilized a swing designed specifically to poke the ball just over the infield to get his 3 hits. Maybe he can teach it to the rest of us. Matt continued his hitless slump this season, though he reached base on an error and scored a run this game. Will led the team with 3 runs scored; no one else had more than 1. Nick, Pete and Vera led the team in RBI's (runs batted in) with 2 apiece. On the defensive side, it was an inconsistent performance by the Chalices. I counted an unusually high number of errors, about 6. On the other hand, we completed 3 double plays, a pretty rare feat. In the 1st inning, with runners at 1st and 2nd, Pete took a grounder at 3B, stepped on the bag, and made the long throw across the diamond to Nils at 1B complete the DP. In the 4th, also with runners at 1st and 2nd, SS Will Bara scooped a grounder, tagged out the runner going to 3rd, then flipped to 2B Vera Smith to force the other runner coming from 1st. Nice DP. Finally, in the 5th, was maybe our best defensive play of the game. One out, runners at 1st and 3rd, and the lady with the cutoff T-shirt was batting. Matt was playing at the edge of the infield dirt in LF. She sent a fly ball over his head that looked like a base hit. Matt turned, ran and made a spectacular backhand catch. He then fired the ball back into the infield to P Mark Smith. The runner on 3rd tagged and beat the throw into home, but the runner on 1st had not tagged up, but simply run to 2nd base on bat contact. Mark tossed the ball to 1B Nils to double up that runner and complete the DP. As an added benefit, because the play at 1st was a force play, the run that appeared to score before the forceout did not count. In addition to this double play, Matt threw out another runner on a force play at 3rd on a soft line drive hit to shallow LF. We also caught an AME runner trying to go from 1st to 3rd on a single. OF Jesse bobbled a base hit, but recovered, threw to Will who relayed to Pete to nab the runner.