1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R
Pita Pit 3 4 3 7 3 0 6 26
O-fers 3 1 2 6 0 1 2 15
To rephrase John Wayne, “Thirteen errors don’t get it done, Dude.” Alas, the faint hopes for running the table in the Silver Division on Thursday night faded, despite the score above, more with a whimper than with a crunch.
I think it was a simple case of the “tights.” If you look closely, you could see it each of the two previous weeks as well. As we reached 6-0 in league, everyone started doing things just a little differently, not wanting to be the player who caused the unbeaten streak to end. We got by the Mullan boys and squeaked past the Banditos, even though they outplayed us on the offensive side. The atmosphere just felt different against Pita Pit, and it didn’t take long before we collapsed under our own weight.
A few observations:
1. Their shortstop sure can hit. Three home runs, each of them a no-doubter. Yikes! I hate to call for intentional walks most of the time — people show up to hit — but maybe we can get him to fish after ball four next time.
2. Of all the O-fers, I most expected Gary Beck to have a good game. He didn’t disappoint. OK, so he was 1-for-3, but he reached on error once, and we all thought his shot to left field was going to split their outfielders. He could have easily been 3-for-3, and he did make all the plays he needed to make in right field.
If it’s an important game, Beck shows up to play.
3. We’ve known since spring practices that our defense is a collection of duct tape and rubber bands. We’re short on range, for the most part, and too many guys are stretched to fill their defensive slots. Sometimes we just don’t have enough tape. This was one of those times.
4. The hitting wasn’t bad. Fifteen runs is enough to win most of the time. Every inning they hit, we hit back. We didn’t keep up because we couldn’t overcome their offense plus our own defense.
Defensive Play of the Game: The only thing that stands out is Shawn Pearson’s dive at third base to stop a ball, followed by a race to the bag for the force out.
Offensive Play of the Game: Gosh, I guess we have to finally (!) give Art Wright some credit. In the first inning, when the outcome was still in doubt, Art lifted a triple over the right fielder to score two runs and give us an early 3-3 tie. That was as close as we would get to victory in the contest. Art incidentally was 3-for-4 to break a horrible streak that has lasted since birth.
June 26th, 2009 | Tags: O-fers, softball league, ugly loss | Category: League, O-fers, Softball |
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