MCSN: Aug 13, 2011

Softballpalooza

Weeks 8-10 Recap

Thu, August 18, 2011

It may not be the Resurrection of Christ or the parting of the Red Sea, but the Lord performed a miracle nonetheless, allowing all nine Moody Softball games to be played Saturday.

Forecasts up through Friday afternoon called for rain starting at 7pm Friday with storms invading in the pre-dawn hours Saturday. But by 10pm Friday, the radar showed the storms completely disappearing just as it reached the Chicagoland area. Weatherman Jerry Taft couldn't explain it, but the explanation is easy: the Lord simply blessed the Moody Softball league so it could play. This explanation makes even more sense considering that rain came shortly after the end of the final softball game of the day, arriving earlier than forecasters predicted but not until all the games were done.

"It is a miracle," said a smiling Tim Kurtz before the start of the first game.

Not miraculous but amazing in its own right were the new league records set this day. In fact, the first game set two records before the first pitch was even thrown. The 7:30am start time marked the earliest start time for any game in league history, which didn't help the Nitros.

"We were shorthanded for this early game because some people decided they wanted to sleep in," said Nitros skipper Sam Baturoni.

The other pre-game record was that the umpire was 10-year-old Ethan Tong, the youngest to ever ump a league game.

"He was great," said Home Invader Rob McMahon of the two games Ethan umped. Other players were so impressed, they sincerely suggested Ethan should be the permanent umpire. They knew Ethan was serious when he called out his dad on a bang-bang play at 1B.

"Ethan wasn't perfect but, hey, Jerry [Hodge] wasn't either," deadpanned Rob Tong.

As for the game itself, The Usual Suspects (6-1-1) cruised to a 12-1 victory over the winless Nitros (0-6-2). Bryan Beeh led the Suspects with 5 RBI while Chris Meade went a perfect 4-for-4. For the Nitros, Eric Bartl provided all the Nitros offense with a towering solo home run, and the Nitros' Joshua Hall went 3-for-3. In all, even though the Nitros only scored one run, 18 of the 19 combined players notched at least one hit.

What was the turning point in the game for the Nitros?

"When The Usual Suspects showed up," Baturoni cracked.

The 8:30am game on the main diamond saw the Friars (5-2-1) beat the Minor Prophets 10-5. Both teams needed to recruit subs to avoid forfeit.

The Minor Prophets (2-5-1) scouting report showed that Chris Carter, Jacob Dobbs and Jerry Hodges would be gone for their first game of 'triple header madness' and logically, the Prophets thought a win was on the way.

The Prophets' 'assistant to the manager' David Zuperku quickly changed his outlook when his own team had only 7 players show up for the first game.

"I don't know if people were traveling or knew the Friars would win or were just scared to play 3 games," stated Zuperku. "We started off well and just fizzled out despite picking up [the Nitros'] Neal White. The Friars hit where we weren't and added a few runs an inning. We could never quite drive in the runners on bases."

The Friars' Erik Summers had 4 RBI to take the league lead, while Zuperku kept pace for his team with 3 RBI. Overall, everyone on both teams chipped in. Among the 18 combined players in the game, 17 had at least one hit. But while the Friars only outhit the Prophets by four hits, the Friars made those hits count in winning by five.

Over on diamond #1 for the 8:30am game, The Usual Suspects had to survive a late charge from the Home Invaders, holding on to win 20-19. The 39 combined runs set a new league record for most combined runs in a game. The previous record was 35 combined runs between the Diamond Kings and the Bombers in the 2009 Championship Game. The Invaders, playing without assistant manager Andy Tisler, could've had more runs if not for some strong defensive Suspects play.

"Our offense was great," concurred Home Invaders backup pitcher Ovi Tisler. "Can't ask for any more than 19 runs. Contributions came from all around. Everyone got on base at least twice, and 8 of 11 players got at least 1 RBI."

Defense was a different story, though. This was the first game in league history where both teams scored in every inning.

"Defensively we've improved the greatest amount but we could've done a better job calling fly balls," Suspects manager Tim Kurtz said.

"Our defense struggled a bit playing in the alternate field," agreed Tisler. "Popups were very hard to read with the building in the background which led to a few dropped balls."

Like the Friars-Prophets game, everyone did well offensively. Twenty of the 21 combined batters in the game had a hit, and 18 of the 21 batters had an RBI. Ethan Sinnema and Rob McMahon both piled up 5 RBIs each for the Invaders (3-4-1) while the Suspects' Steve Borgstrom and Rob Tong had 5 and 4 RBI, respectively. Tong, in fact, set the tone for the game with a leadoff home run.

"I feel like I pitched well in Andy's absence, but my ERA doesn't reflect that," Tisler said. "I should have retired after my first pitch (a home run to Rob Tong); I'm pretty sure nobody could have matched my ERA of ∞.

"Overall, the game was a success. Even though we lost, it's just as good as a win given the circumstances. Losing 20-19 to the #1 ranked team without our starting pitcher [Andy Tisler] is a pretty good outing. It was a very fun and competitive back-and-forth game and perhaps a preview of a 2nd round playoff matchup."

In the 9:30am game back on the main diamond, the Friars beat the Home Invaders 16-8.

Continuing the trend of offensive contributions from everyone, 18 of the 19 combined players got at least one hit. The Friars' Robert Martinez had 4 RBI to tie teammate Erik Summers for the league lead and Jacob Dodds added 6 RBI. Ovi Tisler knocked in 4 RBI for the Home Invaders (3-5-1).

"Our defense continued to struggle," Tisler said. "And this time our offense followed. We gave up about just as many runs as the first game, but we couldn't hit to keep the game competitive. Most of it was poor situational hitting...we left a lot of runners on base."

Indeed, the Invaders actually outhit the Friars 18-17 but once again, the Friars made their hits count and (according to at least one observer) are putting the top-ranked Usual Suspects on notice.

"The Friars hit the cover off the ball today," agreed Tisler. "If they keep up that kind of hitting with the way their defense has been playing, they just might be unbeatable in the playoffs."

Tisler also noted the conspicuous absence of Friars leader Jerry Hodge.

"How 'convenient' that Jerry couldn't make it to softball the week we had a triple-header," Tisler cracked. "I'm pretty sure I saw him and his whole family parked by Montrose beach grilling out and enjoying the weather."

Over on diamond #1 during the 9:30 hour, The Franchise took an early lead but had to hold on for a 12-10 win over the Nitros, thus keeping the Nitros still winless.

The game featured an unofficial record for the first triple play in league history. With two runners on, the Nitros' Vivian Malmgren hit a line drive that Franchise second baseman Kristen Huntington caught. Both runners took off running at the crack of the bat, so it was an easy triple play.

"Our defense was good in this game," Huntington said. "The key (and exciting) play was the 4-3-6 triple play."

The Franchise (5-3) jumped out to a 12-2 lead going into the bottom of the 5th inning, thanks in part to a 3-for-3, 4 RBI contribution from Jeremy Huntington and solid defense from rookie Vince Colada. But unlike the game against The Usual Suspects, the Nitros (0-7-2) this time didn't give up. The Nitros scored 8 runs in the final two innings to nearly complete an improbable comeback.

"We didn't close out the game," Kristen Huntington admitted. "We gave up 8 unanswered runs, we let them back within two, which was too close for comfort."

Baturoni, whose team actually outhit The Franchise and had 9 of its 10 batters chip in at least one hit, pondered how the game might have finished had The Franchise not pulled off the triple play back in that first inning when the Nitros had two runners on and nobody out.

The Franchise's win buoyed their hopes as it took on The Usual Suspects in the 10:30am game at the main diamond but the Suspects handled The Franchise 17-7. In doing so, The Usual Suspects avenged their only loss of the season and extended their winning streak to a league-high six games.

Pitching and defense played a key role for the Suspects (8-1-1) again. Suspects pitcher Gary Lockwood kept Steve Haake in the ballpark and also had a big day at the plate, going 5-for-5 with 4 RBI.

"The Usual Suspects showed why they are tops in the league," Kristen Huntington said. "They had a hit-fest against us and we couldn't find the holes in their defense even though they had only 3 outfielders. They're going to be tough to beat in the playoffs."

Indeed, the Suspects cranked out a league season-high 28 hits. Rookie Bryan Beeh went 4-for-4 with 4 RBI and Rob Tong went 5-for-5 for the Suspects. The Franchise (5-4) were led by Jeremy Huntington and Giovanni Medina's 3 RBIs each. 17 of the 21 combined batters collected at least one hit.

Over on diamond #1 at 10:30, the Nitros had their final chance to win a game...and they did, beating the Minor Prophets 15-7. The Nitros thus avoided joining the 2009 Mt. Sinai Sluggers as the only winless team in league history.

"I saw [former Sluggers manager] Arick Guzman at church the next day," recalled Baturoni. "And I think a little bit of him died after he found out we were off the hook for tying [his] dubious record for futility."

The Nitros had two offensive innings reaching the 5-run max, led by Juan Cruz who went 3-for-3 with 5 RBI. In all, 16 of the combined 18 batters got at least one hit.

"Our day got progressively better," Batuoni assessed. "We lost 12-1. then 12-10, and then won 15-7 for our first win."

The Prophets (2-6-1) lost Ellie Manabat for this game and had to recruit two subs. But Zuperku had a rationale for their loss to the Nitros.

"Despite Nick Ploegstra's great pitching and an inning with 5 runs, we just couldn't consistently get our hitting in sync to bring in the runs."

But in assessing the reason for the Nitros' breakout victory, Baturoni had a different explanation from Zuperku.

"We won due to our awesomeness," he said. "We will neglect the fact that they were without [Dan] Coughlin, [Vince] Ramirez, [Nate] Crozier, and [Chris] Cormier. We'll also ignore that they only had 8 players and that I picked out their subs."

It also helped that Baturoni's pitching and the Nitros defense held the Prophets' Les Carter and Jeff Martin to a combined 2-for-8, and holding sub Ovi Tisler to a 2-for-5 performance, validating once again that Ovi has difficulty batting against Baturoni.

"We held the Minor Prophets to 'Minor Profits'," Baturoni added.

If the Minor Prophets were shorthanded in the 10:30am game, they were really in a quandry for their 11:30am game, when they only had 3 players available. As a result, the Prophets forfeited against the Home Invaders (4-5-1). The Prophets (2-7-1) became the first team under the 'subs allowed' rule to still forfeit a game.

Perhaps the Home Invaders were scared to play the Prophets, as their manager Ovi Tisler kept encouraging a forfeit and even threatened to disallow fill-in players.

"That's the problem with trying to be environmentally focused (car pooling with Ovi)," stated Zuperku. "The driver (Ovi) had extra influence on the decision. Sure, the Prophets had only 3 players for the final game but the way Ploegstra was pitching, anything was possible."

“I think a bit of him died.”

- Nitros' Sam Baturoni said after informing Arick Guzman that Guzman's 2009 Mt. Sinai Sluggers remained the league's only winless team

Tisler, on the other hand, felt the forfeit was politically-related.

"I figured the Minor Prophets would forfeit to us," he mused. "After all of the 'Ron Paul' chanting they were doing from our first game, I figure the whole team went out to Ames, IA to stump for Ron during the straw poll. If our team went and voted too, he would have won the thing!"

Thanks to the forfeit, The Franchise and the Friars then moved their game from diamond #1 to the main
diamond at 11:30, where the Friars beat The Franchise 15-10, sweeping the season series against them.

The Franchise's Steve Haake hit a home run over the fence and Ed Freed knocked in 3 RBI but it wasn't enough. Patrick Halpin led the Friars with 4 RBI, and Robert Martinez and Erik Summers stayed tied for the league lead in RBI by adding 3 RBI each.

Following the pattern of the previous games, 17 of the combined 19 hitters had at least a hit. The Franchise (5-5) also matched the Friars (7-2-1) hit total but fell short in runs.

"This game was somewhat disappointing because we had chances, but made some small mistakes that added up," Kristen Huntington said. "Because of that, we're fired up and ready to go this Saturday."

The Friars finished with the league's best run differential, which subtracts runs allowed from runs scored.

So the teams finished the day, nine games later, as the same exact seeds when the day began. And now the playoffs begin...with, um, decidedly fewer games in one day.

The #1 seed, The Usual Suspects, and the #2 seed Friars get first-round byes so they won't play until August 27th. This Saturday, Aug 20th, the day will kick off with an 8am game where the #6 Nitros take on the #3 seed The Franchise in a rematch of this past Saturday. For the season, The Franchise swept the series against the Nitros.

"They say its hard to beat a team three straight times, which is what we're going to have to do," Kristen Huntington said. "I think anyone can beat anyone else in the league this year on any given day...so the playoffs are up for grabs. Every team has to bring their "A" game this week or risk going home."

Baturoni is feeling pretty good about his team's chances of a monumental upset.

"I had many stats to do this week, but after next Saturday it will be nice to know I'll no longer have to worry about stats for The Franchise," he said.

At 9:10am, the #5 Minor Prophets challenge the #4 Home Invaders. Hopefully the Prophets can show up with more than 3 players this time in an attempt to break their 6-game losing streak. One thing's for sure: Zuperku will certainly be hesitant to carpool with Ovi on Saturday as it will be a long ride home for one of them as the other relishes the game inning by inning.

The day wraps up with the traditional All-Star Game, moved up a week earlier than usual in order to keep the playoff matchups balanced. Kurtz has some sage advice for those who are voting for the male league MVP.

"My name is spelled T-I-M K-U-R-T-Z," he joked.