Bruisers vs. Crawdads, June 13, 2007

Bruisers: KarenC, EricG, Jes, Jose, Gerardo, Ann, Ron, EricB, Ellie, Tony, Ian, Nancy, Randii and Mandell. Many thanks to Jose, Gerardo and Tony who came out from the Wild Turkeys and Frawgs in response to my very last minute plea for bodies, and a big ol' Welcome Back to Mandell!

Bruiser Fans: Dave Hale & Rachel (thanks, Amy!), Cassie, Simon, Nickole, Terrac, JohnD, and Mary Beth

Victory Diners at Crown City: Ann, Nancy, EricB, Dave, Rachel and KarenC, and Ron and JohnD briefly

Quotes from around the field:

"Hey Mandell, America's calling!"

"Daddy, put your glove on! I don't want to hurt you!"

Box Score:

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	Total
Crawdads	3	1	2	5	5	16
Bruisers	3	8	2	7	X	20

Wow... it's about time! The Crawdads came into the game with one tie and one win under their belts for the season, and the Bruisers came in with one tie and no wins. The outside temperature was hot, the humidity was up, battle was fierce, and the Bruisers finally were able to hold onto a lead long enough to actually win a game. Yeah!

Our defensive was pretty good with only a couple of incidences of diarrhea of the throwing arm. In the first inning the outs were made by a EricG(SS)-KarenC(2B) combo and two nice catches by Gerardo(3B). In the second we had a Mandell(SS)-KarenC(2B) out, and a nice catch by EricB(OF). The third inning featured Mandell's(1B) almost-DP, and a nice popup catch by KarenC(P), and then a good recovery by Mandell(1B) to tag first base ahead of the runner after stumbling.In the fourth, Ron(1B) and Gerardo(3B) were busy with an EricG(SS)-Ron play, a Gerardo-to-Ron play, and then a good catch by Gerardo. For the fifth inning, none of the outs were actually written down, but the two I remember are EricG(RF)'s heartstopping bobble catch and Randii(C) tagging out the runner coming home for the final out.

Offensively, we did quite well, with home runs by EricG and Tony, and plenty of hits (including a couple that might have been tree doubles). RBIs were earned by KarenC (2), EricG (3), Jose, Gerardo (2), Ann (2), Ron, EricB, Ellie (2), Tony (3), Ian, Randii, and Mandell. Almost everyone got at least one hit, and I think we minimized our pop-ups (but still - "No Golfing!") Ann was robbed of a line drive by an exciting running, bobbling catch by the Crawdad manager Charlie, who later, while pitching, was also able to snag a hard grounder by Mandell and get it to first. Other excitement came with Mandell's "tuck 'n' roll" round of first base. EricB gets the Twinkletoe (one toe) Award for sneaking into home ahead of the catcher's tag in the fourth inning when he thought Ellie was called out at first (but she was safe). All in all, nice efforts by everyone.

Our next game is next Tuesday June 19 against the L.A. Radars on field HN where we will be the visiting team. Yes, I double-checked on the schedule. Sorry about last night's mixup.

Have a great weekend!

Karen :)