[Q: Did someone pick up the big softball "how to" book from the blanket last week?  It was missing when I packed up stuff.  I just want to know someone has it and it didn't just get left there.  If you have it, please let me know. Thanks!]

Bruisers:  Nancy, RandyB, Jeff (Bruiser return debut!), Simon (Bruiser debut!), Liza, Ron, Rob, KarenC, EricB, EricG, Nora, Shane, Earl, Paul, Alicia (Bruiser fill-in debut!), and ScottE.

Bruiser fans: Wendy, the baby ground squirrel, and Earl's Tesla (which didn't actually get close enough to see the game).

Bruiser diners at Hill Street Cafe: EricB, Nancy, Ron, Jeff, ScottE, Wendy, Paul, Earl, Liza, KarenC, Alicia, and Nora.

Bruises: Randy's knee, Rob's ankle, and the ankle of a Crawdad gal (team self-inflicted, not Bruiser-inflicted!)

First cell phone demerits of the year:  EricG

Box Score:

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	Total
Bruisers	5	0	2	5	0	12
Crawdads	2	0	8	1	2	13

It was a bit of a heartbreaker, this game.  We melted down in the third inning and weren't quite able to fully recover from that, going into the bottom of the last inning ahead by one, then giving up a single and a home run.  Sigh.  We'll have our chance to redeem ourselves from this later in the year, I'm sure.  It should be noted that the Crawdads hit more home runs against us than the Homers did last week.

Defensive outs were made thusly:  In the first inning Simon(3B) made a nice running catch for a popup, then EricG(SS) field hard grounders twice and threw rockets to Ron(1B) twice.  In the second inning, EricG(SS) threw a grounder to Ron(1B), then the Crawdads got themselves out when their runner on second ran right into the batted ball, and then EricG(SS) got a grounder to Ron(1B) for the third out.  In the third inning, we had trouble getting outs (probably due to my pitching).  When we finally did get the outs, the first one was Simon(3B) to Rob(2B) for a force out at second base, then a nice catch by Randy(CF) in a slight collision with Jeff(LF), and then finally the catch of a popup by EricG(SS).  In the fourth inning, Nora(2B) made a nice catch, then EricG(CF) caught a fly ball, and then Rob(3B) threw a ball to Nora(2B) who was able to catch the ball and keep her toe on the base.  In the fifth inning... never mind.  ;)

Offensively, we did much better than last week.  We had no home runs or true triples, but we did get tree doubles from Randy, Jeff, and Shane (who's hit might have been a home run, but the query came a little late, and I didn't see where it landed/went into the trees; next time there's a question, have the runner run all the way home and we'll figure it out later).  RBIs were earned by Jeff, Simon (2), Liza, Ron, Rob, EricB, Shane (2), Earl (2), and Alicia.

Our next game is Tuesday, May 5 when we'll be the home team against the L.A. Radars on field HN (dirt).  Please respond to Nancy's reminder email on Monday, since I won't be at work that day.

Have a great weekend!

Karen :)