Meridians Baseball

Tournament tune-up for both the Meridians and Chiefs see all pitchers on both sides toe the rubber.   Mears cruises through 3, Reese grabs 2 innings with Kopp & Wolt closing it out.   Meridians hitters patient in the 1st to plate 5 runs, which proves to be the difference - Final: 7-4

Visiting scorebook in random dry-erase format so not a whole lot of details, but lasers off the bat of Koppelman (2B), Aultman (RBI) and D. Reese.   

In the tradition of planking.. and Tebow-ing, Woltermann invents the next new phenomena - Trashing!

(he threw his wallet away along with post-game Chipotle crumbs.. he dug around in there for 10 good minutes...)

Photo courtesy of Luke Dolan Digital Designs. 

We start with 8 men at high Noon, but end it with 13 and 2 more Wins.   Scrambling to cover the late arrivals, we have 11 on the roster to start Game 1.  2 late call-offs and a no-show leave us starting the opener with Couture in Left Center and Dolan... pretty much just in Right Field.   The melee does bring about Woltermann's 2014 debut on the mound after he closed out the season for us last year with his one lone inning.   This time he starts it off a little errant, but with maybe the maximum number of pitches required to do so - strikes out the side (3 IP).

Ryan Williams makes a cameo start back at shortstop and didn't seem to miss a beat despite the few years off with good at-bats and a bunt hit.   Reardon mans the dish for all 14 innings.

Woltermann (3-5) and Reardon (2-3) with RBI doubles and Reese goes 2-3, RBI on the day while both he (4 IP to wrap up Game 1) and Mears (7 IP) collect their Sunday Wins.   Web gem from Koppelman with a sliding pick-up in the hole at 3rd and throw to 1st.   Kraus breaks the sound barrier (the Mercedes is a lease...) in time to hit in the 9th spot in Game 1 to prevent an automatic out and plays 'rosham-knuckleball' with Doc during Game 2.

Finals: 3-1 x2 over both Springdale Cleaners and Chill 

11 of 12 Meridians score (12th man forced at home) in this very quick matinee.   Final: 14-0 vs. the Reds in a quick, 3-inning meeting.  They try three arms to no avail and call it a day after the 3rd.   Soto (2-2), Couture and Koppelman with 2 Runs each while Mears helps himself going 3-3, 2 RBI, SB.   6 K's in his 3 innings, but costs himself the short no-hitter by forgetting his PFPs and covering 1st after Duncan snares a sure hit in the hole.  RBI from Biscotti, Parkhurst, Duncan, Soto, Koppelman and Kraus.   Doc breaks up the double play on Parkhurst's clean line drive to right.  (Standard 9-6 fielder's choice.)

The origin story behind the Little Bites Muffins sequel told eloquently by the Lopez-Reese liege... 

In short, Brownie Bites.

The not-so-elder statesmen convene Sunday afternoon after a Meridians-Yankees and Meridians-Bulls CABL match-up for a strategy session BBQ at the house of Couture.   No felines were actually harmed despite the macaroni salad insurgence and only one beer found the ground.  Nice hands, Lopez!   Bailey steals the show though, as she does everywhere she crawls.   Yeah-yeah-yeah!

Despite the total tallies at the end of the night, the pitching tells the tale for the two contests.   Reese starts it off, setting down the side in order the first 2 innings - striking out the side in the 3rd while mixing in an intentional HBP.   8 K's total in 6 innings - the last of which the biggest, with no outs and the bases loaded.   Reardon follows that up with the web gem of the summer, sprawling to the backstop to snare a pop-up.  Those key outs along with a quick 3rd one caps the night for Reese, allowing just another HBP (always on purpose) to score.

With the game still in reach, the Meridians then open things up right away in the bottom of the 6th plating 5.  After back-to-back HBPs for Couture and Duncan to load the bases - Kraus clears the table with one fell swoop, a no-doubter to the top of the hill in right of Roselawn #2.   2 Runs each from Reese and Duncan.  

Final: 10-1 over StarTunes

Springdale Cleaners comes over for Game 2 after giving us our best contest so far the weekend prior.   This Sunday night tells a much different story as we wrap it up in 5 innings with Mears striking out 12 of 16 batters with one lone hit.

B. Reese (2 2Bs on the day), Woltermann (2-4, 2 BBs, SB total) and Humpert each with 2 Runs in Game 2.   D. Reese (2-3, 3 BBs overall) clears the bases in the 1st with his 2B, Parkhurst (who later oversells an inside pitch, but does not hold his ground) plates the 4th and we never look back as we wrap it up with just 4 innings of offense.  Final: 12-1

A quick one with some drama at the end for our closest match-up so far this summer.   Our only knocks from Brady Reese (R), Mears (3B, RBI, R) and Woltermann (2B, SB, R) with our only other RBI from Derek Reese (Sac Fly, SB).

Final: 4-2 vs. Springdale Cleaners

U-S-A!  U-S-A!  U-S-A! 

Biscotti gets a slew of pitches from the Meridians infield, but handles each slider and cutter thrown his way at 1st.   Web gem up the middle with a sliding pick by Clim and a beebee to 1st from behind the 2nd base bag.

Herby and Aultman lead-off Game 2 (Reds) with BBs and each score (B-Reese walks as well), but the lightning ends the night shortly thereafter.