One Smalls win for man, one giant leap over Pac NW

            1   2   3   4   5   6   7    R
Smalls      2   5   0   0   1   3   1   12
O-fers      2   4   1   1   0   2   3   13

            1   2   3   4   5   6   7    R
Pacific NW  0   2   0   2   x   x   x    4
O-fers      6   1   6   6   x   x   x   19

Subsection 3, paragraph (c) of the Ballplayer’s Guide to Motivation states: “In the event of a dramatic walkoff victory, the winning team shall immediately steamroll the next team it plays, provided the next game takes place on the same field on the same night within 15 minutes of the first game.”

Paragraph (d) states simply, “Or not,” but in this case it actually happened! Awesome!

The hero of the first game was none other than Dave “Mookie” Hunt, who had returned from a steroid suspension slash salary holdout to start only his second game of the season for the O-fers. Diving catches in the outfield! Three hits plus a walk! Lots of exclamation points!!!

The team needed two runs to tie in the bottom of the seventh. After the stupid coach made the first out, Shawn Pearson — who has gone from Mister Inch to Captain Cripple in less than a week — singled to left center. Duane Miller ran for Shawn.

Bobo made the second out on a fly ball. Rick Jackson and Mike Lawley singled to right center, loading the bases for Gary Beck.

But no! Hope was still alive and kicking in the trunk of Corey’s car! Beck singled to left center, driving in a run, and the tying run scored on an error. Lawley and Beck both advanced, bringing up Steve Schmidt, Lord of Second Base.

Smalls wanted no part of the Lord, so they walked him intentionally to bring up Hunt with the bases loaded. Dave sat on the outside pitch and lined it to right field for a base hit and a very exciting 13-12 O-fers victory.

The second game was anticlimactic in the sense that it was really quite boring. Pacific NW Painting was the team that was roaring back against us a couple weeks ago when Scotty Morgan got hurt in the outfield. But they didn’t have Legasa pitching this time, and their hurler had a really rough time of it, walking 10 O-fers.

Robert Day pitched both games and won both, moving his record to 5-2 on the season. He also gets Offensive Play of the Game for his inside-the-park homer to lead off the third inning. Defensive Play of the Game is harder to pick, since there just wasn’t much excitement. In a semirandom selection, let’s go with Rick Jackson‘s catch of a line drive at second base in the second inning. Woot.