MCSN: August 2, 2014

School In Session

Week 6 Recap

By Rob Tong

Thu, Aug 7, 2014

Halos' Tom Collins takes a cut After taking last week off, Moody Softball was back in action with an extra-full slate of five games, including one makeup game from the July 12th rainout. And though it is August, school seemed to be in session on this busy softball day.

8am: Fruit Of The Spirit at Halos

The first game of the morning featured the unbeaten Halos against the winless Fruit Of The Spirit. Math appeared to be the obvious school subject in this matchup, as the 4-0 Halos were predicted to be the obvious winner over the 0-6 Spirit.

But that's why they play the games. And why not everyone likes math.

Despite a mammoth shot over the fence by quite possibly the biggest leadoff hitter in the history of the league in Fruit's Ovi Tisler, the Halos held the Purple Spirits to just two runs in the first while pounding out five runs of their own.

But then something strange happened.

The Fruit Of The Spirit (not to be confused with the Fruit Of The Loom) responded with five runs of their own in the very next inning. They led the Halos 7-6 after two innings and still led 11-10 after four innings, thanks in part to yet another Ruthian shot over the fence by Tisler.

"It was a hard fought battle that went down to the wire," Spiritual manager Sam Baturoni said.

Indeed, the Halos tied the game in the fifth on a Robert Martinez single, and won it in the sixth and final inning on a walk-off single by Glenn Lindquist that plated Rob Tong, who just beat the throw home. The Halos (5-0) escaped with a 12-11 victory, though the Fruit Of The Spirit won a moral victory by almost beating the league's sole remaining undefeated team.

"We thought the Fruit were ripe for the picking," Tong said. "But they had a little extra juice today."

9am: Caravan at Halos

In the 9am game, the still-unbeaten Halos then played Caravan, which averaged both a league-best 17 runs per game and allowed a league-low 9 runs per game. Could an undefeated team beat a team boasting both the league's best offense AND the league's best defense? Physics was the school subject on display in this matchup, as the proverbial unstoppable force faced off against the immovable object.

Not surprisingly, both teams played even early on. But some sloppy Halos defense helped Caravan surge to a 7-3 lead after three innings. And similar to the Halos' 8am opponent, Caravan still led after four innings, 8-6.

The script continued to mirror the 8am game, as the Halos tied the game in the fifth inning (thanks to the bottom half of the Halos order), and won it in the sixth and final inning on another walk-off hit, this time a clean single by rookie Scott Veigel that plated fellow rookie Dan Armstrong after Caravan intentionally walked Martinez.

In the end, both teams played solid defense, holding their opponent to their fewest hits in one game for the season. The 9-8 victory by the Halos kept them unbeaten, while dropping Caravan to 4-2.

"Coming from behind two games in a row was a great test for our team," Tong said. "Both Sam [Baturoni] and Pa [Nelson] kept our bats in the park, so hats off to them. Those were two tough battles. It feels tremendous to beat Caravan."

9am on Diamond 1: Shield Bearers at Tectonic Plates

Meanwhile, another 9am game was taking place on Diamond #1 as the Shield Bearers battled the Tectonic Plates in a rain makeup game. That alternate diamond "presented some challenges," noted Plates skipper Stephen Hage. Geometry was the school subject involved in this game.

"Our outfielders had to set up deeper than usual because, without a fence, a ball that goes past them is basically a home run," Hage explained. "For the first time in a while we had a full squad (we had 11 show), and that extra outfielder made it a whole lot easier to play good defense."

That defensive challenge affected both teams. Because while Shield Toter "Tim Kurtz, whose batting placement was impeccable, nearly beat us by himself," Hage said, "the bottom of our lineup started hitting for extra bases."

Prime example: new Seismic Dinnerware rookie Mandy Verduin "hit a nice shot to short center field, which wasn't fielded properly, so she sped all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run," Hage said.

It was a nice way for Verduin to introduce herself to the league, as she and her husband went a combined 6-for-7 with six RBIS to help the Plates (3-4) to a 17-11 upset victory over the Shield Bearers (3-3). Scott Whitaker went 4-for-4 with five RBI while rookie Debbie Hage chipped in with two hits of her own as the Plate offense scored in each of their five innings.

For the Shield Bearers, Kurtz was a perfect 4-for-4 with three RBI, rookie Mario Catayong Jr. was 3-for-4 with an RBI, rookie mother and daughter Noralba and Shana Gallegos each had a hit, and manager David Cho went 3-for-4 with five RBI.

10am: Fruit Of The Spirit at Tectonic Plates

The Rock Slabs returned for an encore at 10am, this time back on the main diamond against the Fruit Of The Spirit, who were looking for their first win of the season. Although the Spirit fought valiantly against the Halos, the school subject for this game was History.

History repeated itself as the Tectonic Plates beat the Fruit Of The Spirit for the second time this season, this time 13-8. This, despite the power display put forth by two members of the valiant Fruit Of The Spirit.

Ovi Tisler hit yet another bomb over the fence, his third of the morning, and had a fourth one turned into a ground-rule double by the trees. It was likely the most home runs over the fence in one day in league history, though the league has not kept official records of such feats. It was most certainly the most home runs over the fence in one day by a leadoff hitter.

Tisler's feats overshadowed another Spirit slugger: Isac Malmgren.

"Despite Ovi going 8-for-8 with three over-the-fence homers (if not for the trees, it would have been four) and seven RBIs [for the entire morning], I don't want the contributions of Isac Malmgren to go unnoticed," Baturoni said. "He went 7-for-8 with two home runs (one over-the-fence) and five RBIs."

“We thought the Fruit were ripe for the picking. But they had a little extra juice today.”

- Halos manager Rob Tong on the Fruit Of The Spirit's near-win

The Plates fought power with power.

"The MVP of the weekend would probably be [Dave] Zuperku, who had seemingly 1000 RBIs," Hage said. "The man can play."

And the full squad that helped the Plates' defense in the 9am game on Diamond #1 also helped contain the Fruit in this game on the fenced diamond.

"Our defense pulled together really well, aside from the impossible-to-defend over-the-fence home runs by Ovi and Isaac," Hage
said. "Everybody played well, and more importantly, everybody played as an encouraging teammate. Provided we have a full
10-person team show up, we'll be a tough team to beat."

If their offense is any indicator, Hage's words may prove prophetic. The Tectonic Plates scored in a league-record 11 consecutive innings over their last three games, including an astounding six of those 11 innings where they scored the five-run limit. The Fruit Of The Spirit finally ended that amazing Plate streak in the fifth inning.

The surging Plates pulled to .500 with a 4-4 record while the hard-knock Spirit dropped to 0-8.

11am: Killer Beehs at Shield Bearers

In the final 11am game, the Killer Beehs snapped their two-game losing streak with an 18-5 rout over the Shield Bearers. Chemistry was apparently the school subject showcased here.

The game wasn't a laugher from the beginning, actually. Like a quiet chemistry lab, nothing happened for five full innings, where the game was a tight defensive war with the Shield Bearers only leading by the baseball score of 3-2. Then like a chemist who found how to make an explosion occur with certain ingredients, the Beehs apparently realized that this is softball, not baseball. Boom! The Beehs proceeded to score five runs in the 6th inning and a league-record 11 runs in the 7th inning. It was the most runs in one inning since Cannon scored 10 runs in the 7th inning against the Believas on Aug 11, 2012.

The Beehs' Andrea Tisler returned to action and showed no rust with two hits and three RBI. The Beehs' girl power contributed to their offensive onslaught with Elsa Wiese going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Almost everybody got at least one hit and at least one RBI. For the Bearers, Bruce Riegel was 3-for-4 with three RBI and David Cho kept swinging a hot stick with a 3-for-4, one RBI day.

Ultimately, though, the Killer Beehs defense was suffocating, holding the Shield Bearers (who were averaging 17 runs over their last two games and 15 runs per game overall) to a meager five runs.

The Shield Bearers, whose logo looks remarkably similar to last year's Witness logo, fell to 3-4 while the Killer Beehs now are the #3 seed with their 4-3 record.

Overall, history was a common school theme for the entire day, as several historic records were shattered today by different teams. This fact indicates Moody Softball is likely having its most competitively balanced season ever, with every team having a chance to win on any given Saturday.

Looking ahead to the Aug 9th games

And if you liked all the action from this week's five games, then you'll love this week's slate of six...count 'em, six...matchups. It starts with the Killer Beehs against the Fruit Of The Spirit at 8am. On paper, that appears to be a blowout waiting to happen but recall that the Fruit almost upset the Halos this day.

One of the two 9am games features a made-for-TV event between the suddenly offensive powerhouse Tectonic Plates and Caravan, still the league's best offensive and defensive team, even after today's games. Meanwhile, Diamond #1 showcases a rematch of this week's Shield Bearers vs. the Killer Beehs. Will the Shield Bearers put up their dukes (or their shields) against the flaming darts (er, stings) of the Beehs this time? Or will the Beehs continue to steamroll the Bearers?

At 10am, one of the two games pits the new & improved Tectonic Plates against the undefeated Halos, where the Plates will look to start (or continue, depending on what happens in their 9am game) another streak of consecutive-inning run scoring to help knock off the last unbeaten team in the league. Meanwhile, Fruit Of The Spirit tackles mighty Caravan on Diamond #1. A Fruit win would be mighty sweet.

Finally, slugger David Fowler and the Shield Bearers look to launch some missiles against the Halos at 11am to round out the action.

OK, kids...school is now out. Recess is in session.