Softball+08-11-2013

=Good Shepherd and Lightning Too Much for Chalices, 9-2=

Community Church fell behind early to a good hitting and running Good Shepherd/Grace Hill team. Batting in the bottom of the 5th, the Chalices were denied a chance to come back by threatening clouds with thunder and lightning.

We scored one run in the 1st, but with a little luck, could have had a few more. With the bases loaded and 1 out, Mark Bruhn hit a hard line drive, but it was right at the shortstop who easily caught it. Next, with 2 outs, Mark Smith looped a ball just over the shortstop onto the edge of the infield dirt, scoring one run, but no more. With the bases still loaded, the next batter grounded into a forceout. Our next scoring opportunity came in the 4th, when Pete Siragusa and Mark Bruhn singled. A ground ball force out sent Pete to third, and then another ground ball force out by Jim Morris scored Pete. That was pretty much all of our offense today. The hit leader was Pete with 2 hits; no one else had more than 1.

Defense: Good Shepherd hit a lot of balls on the ground. We played most of them well enough to get the out, but made a few errors as well. Every error was costly, as GS/CH hit the ball very well and their runners took every opportunity to take extra bases when we did not return the ball urgently to the infield. On the other hand, we did a great job of catching the lead runner on many ground balls. P Jeff Nelson threw out the lead runner at third on a comebacker to the mound. SS Matt Nelson and 3B Pete Siragusa threw out lead runners at 2nd base several times during the game. 2B Vera Smith led the team with 6 putouts, thanks to throws from Matt, Pete, plus one unassisted putout and 2 assists. Great game for Vera (she also had a hit at the plate)! All in all, we got the lead runner 8 times today. Excellent performance. Conversely, we did not throw out a single runner at 1st base, a rarity.