Bruisers vs. Crawdads, August 10, 2006

Bruisers: KarenC, Rob, EricG, Earl, Nancy, Jose (borrowed from the Wild Turkeys), Gerardo (also borrowed from the Wild Turkeys), BobG, Pat, Chris, ScottE, Dan, our phantom female, PaulH, and JohnD (2006 debut!).

Bruiser fans: BobT, the Scaffs: Nayiri, Nathaniel and Colin, DaveS, Wendy and Cal.

Bruiser bruises: Pat's hand

Victory diners at Crown City: PaulH, Wendy, Earl, KarenC, BobG, JohnD, ScottE, Nancy, and Chris

Game quotes:
- "Who ARE these people?"
- "Why didn't we do this when we needed it?"
- "There is no lead too big for us to blow"
- "I could play this game all night!" (who said that?!?!)

Box Score:

Inning	1	2	3	4	5	Total
Crawdads	0	0	10	0	8	18
Bruisers	12	0	11	3	X	26

See what happens when you get in a little warmup and practice before the game starts?

It was a feisty bunch of Bruisers (and Turkeys; thanks Jose & Gerardo!) [where was da rest'a youse?] who gathered to hunt and roast Crawdads before dinner. Ann owes Pat a big bottle of whatever drugs she needs for having played the whole game, and somebody owes KarenC some oxygen! One thing we do need to do is rethink the ground rules for that tree area in right and right center... at the very least, the calls should be made from the catcher position, not from on-field or the dugout.

Defensively, we had some great plays. In the first inning, Pat made an unassisted out in the first inning, snagging a hard liner near first base, and making it to the base before the runner. That out was followed up by two quick Jose(SS)-Pat(1B) plays. In the second inning Chris(LF) made two good catches, and EricG(3B) made a good throw to Pat(1B) for the third out. In the third, Dan(C) made a good throw to Pat(1B) and then Rob(3B) made a nice catch. In the fourth, outs came quickly Bob(SS)-Pat(1B), EricG(3B)-Pat, and EricG catching a liner. In the fifth, there are notes about the first two outs, but I know the final out was KarenC(P)-Pat(1B). Player of the game is Pat(1B) for being at first base for the whole game and hanging in there even after her hand was hurt.

Our offense was pretty darned amazing tonight. Sure, we only had one one home run (Jose), and one triple (Gerardo), but we had many many singles and doubles. RBIs were scored by Rob (2), EricG (3), Earl (3), Jose (3), Gerardo, BobG (2), Pat (2), Chris (2), Dan, Nancy (2), and PaulH. I know that only adds up to 22 - four RBIs went unattributed, two each in the first (ScottE, Dan and/or KarenC) and third (JohnD, Rob and/or Pat) innings. We scored 12 runs before the first actual out was made, gave most of it back in the third inning, then scored 11 runs of our own to regain the lead. We even double-mercied the Crawdads momentarily. One (of the few) things it does say on the scoresheet is "Karen hitting good!" (hey, if it's on the scoresheet...). We started out with a set female lineup, then when more guys came so we had to juggle the women through, but it worked out okay, although we did figure out later that the juggling resulted in Pat being gypped out of one of her tu! rns at bat... Sorry Pat!!! KarenC ran a lot, running for herself and for Pat; twice coming in to score (as Pat) and then picking up a bat for her own turn. ScottE gets the Twinkletoes award for sneaking his toe onto home plate while the catcher was coming down with the ball as he arrived.

Our next game is Monday, August 14 (yes, just a few days from today!). We'll be the visiting team against the Gravity Fielders on field HN. I know we'll be missing a lot of folks: the Reddings, Linda, Pat, DaveS, Chris, Ron, Douglas and PaulF, and maybe EricG. Everyone else PLEASE be sure I know if you're coming or not (so far, as of this morning's game reminder, we have four players).

Have a great weekend!

Karen :)