Bruisers vs. Goat Scouts, August 3, 2009

Bruisers: KarenC, Randy, Shane, Jes, Simon and his amazing turbo yellow socks, Ron, Ann, Jose, Gerardo, Nora, EricB, Paul, Nancy, and ScottE.

Bruiser fans: our newest cheerleader Janet Vertesi

Victory diners at Barn Burner: Gerardo, Jose, Paul, Ann, Janet, KarenC, ScottE, Eric, Nancy, and Ron.

Status of Nancy's bruise from last week's TOAD game: It's now bigger (and more colorful) than the logo on our shirts.

Box score:

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
Bruisers	3	9	5	0	1	1	19
Goat Scouts	2	0	0	6	4	4	16

Why is it, after all these years, and even after knowing the rules, do managers still try and get me to waive the "minimum of 3 women" rule?  Have I ever said Yes?  No.  Especially when I'm sitting in a group of five Bruiserbabes while they're asking me.  Sigh.  So, tonight's win is technically a double win -- win by forfeit, plus wins by runs.  The Goat Scouts had informed us that they had one woman, with one more coming "around 7:00", and accepted the forfeit.  Then, they said they would have two women for the game, the second arriving within ten minutes.  Okay, take off the forfeit and insert phantom woman.  Finally, after much more delay, they took the field with just one woman (who was going to cover both second base AND all of right field) and leaving their rover to also cover all of center field - forfeit back on.  At least they understood playing shorthanded in the field with insufficient women.  Their second woman finally arrived at 5:55, and a third woman at 6:00 during the bottom of the first inning.  Then, to add insult to insult, in the third inning Goats manager Dave removed KarenC and Simon's bats from the field thinking they might be illegal.  Huh?  They were fine.  Of course.

Defensively, we did some pretty exciting stuff.  In the first inning, Jose(SS) caught a hard liner, then Simon(3B) made an unassisted double play with his leaping catch of a line drive, and then doubling off the runner before she could make it back to third base.  In the second inning Nancy(P) grabbed a full-swing bunt dribbler and got it to Ron(1B), then Randy(CF) made an exciting catch of a slightly overrun fly ball, and then Nora(2B) made a nice catch of a soft liner.  In the third, Simon(3B) caught a line drive, and then Gerardo(LF) caught fly balls for the next two outs.  In the fourth inning, Nancy(P) picked up another dribbler (from the same gal batter) and got it to Ron(1B), then KarenC(2B) had to wait on a dribbler and flipped it to Jose(SS)* in time to force the runner, and then there was the Karen(2B)-Paul(3B)-Jose(SS) pickoff of the runner caught in a rundown between 2nd and 3rd bases.  In the fifth inning Nora(2B) picked up a grounder and tossed it high to Ron(1B) (with someone screaming "No!" in the background), causing Ron to make a nice balletic catch with a roll to get the runner, then Gerardo(LF) caught a big fly ball, and then Shane(RF) made a terrific catch at the tree line to deny the batter a double.  In the sixth inning, Nora grabbed a ground ball and stepped on second base for a force, then Ron(1B) made an unassisted out on the gal with the little weak hits, and then Simon(3B) caught a little fly ball to third for the last out.  *Jose gets the night's Twinkle Toes award for keeping his toe on the base while waiting for KarenC's toss to get to him.

Offensively, the Bruisers took advantage of the power play created by the Goat Scout's lack of women (and fielders in general) to take the early lead and maintained it throughout the game, going double mercy in the third inning.  And yes, apparently it is okay to make defensive changes in the middle of the inning (I asked ScottM), as the Goats did during the second inning.  Getting to double mercy is nice, but then it means you only have one out coming to you until you cave in and let the other team score some runs, as we found in the fourth inning when the first (and only) Bruiser batter popped out to the catcher.  Every Bruiser got at least one hit, and almost every Bruiser also scored at least one run.  We had home runs by Simon and Paul, a triple by Jose, and tree doubles by Gerardo(2) and EricB.  RBIs were knocked in by KarenC, Randy, Shane (3), Jes, Simon (2), Ron (2), Jose, Gerardo (2), Nora (3), and Paul (3).

Our next game is Tuesday August 11.  We'll be home team against the Eclectic Eccentrics on field HS (grass).  I think we'll still be missing EricG.  Everyone else please be sure to respond to the game reminder on Monday morning.

Have a great weekend!

Karen :)