Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Buzzards Game Report #15

July 19, 2009 

Buzzards Devour Valley Cats 9-3 

The day was going to be long and hot.  Near record temperatures of 103 hit Colfax on Sunday to greet the ol’ guys’ baseball team from the Gold Country as they faced the mouthy Valley Cats visiting from Elk Grove.  In the anticipated showdown of the American Division leading Valley Cats (14-1) and the National Division leading Buzzards (13-1), the double-header was key to both teams this late in the season.  The V-Cats, managed by Tony Jackson #24, are in a close race in the American Division with the Reds and Free Agents, so they came with their A-Team and some trash talk to knock-off the Buzzards in at least one of the two games.   

The Valley Cats sent their right-handed perennial all-star, Craig ‘Slugger’ Parker #20, to the mound.  The Ol’ Buzzards countered with ace southpaw, Dave ‘Keppy’ Kephart, who pitched his first no-hitter ‘ever’ earlier in the week for the MSBL Auburn Braves.   

The Buzzards were the visiting team for the first game of the two-game battle.  Ol’ Parker started the game effectively and got thru the first two innings with just a base hit by Keppy.  However, the wheels came off during the third inning as the Gold Country gang scored eight times on five hits, two walks, an error and a baseball size bruise on the back of T-Welz.   

The inning started with a four pitch walk to Pete ‘Baron’ Von Zboray.  Barry ‘Brooklyn’ Forman then hit the second pitch to right field for a single.  Batting next, Taylor ‘Welzy’ Welz fought off seven pitches before number eight nailed him in the middle of the back to load the bases with no outs.  Dan ‘Wookie’ Wukmir followed with a looping single to center field to score the Baron for the first run of the game.  With one out, Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden hit a chopper to short that was misplayed to allow Barry to score the second run.   

Jim ‘Milli’ Milligan then hit a long single to center field to score two runs.  Mike ‘Bake’ Baker followed with a short flare to load the bases.  Pete walked again, this time on five pitches, to force in the sixth run.  Brooklyn hit the next pitch for a double deep down the right field line.  As the ball was heading to the fence it was also curling toward the foul line.  When the ball landed fair by a foot, Buzzman could not contain himself and yelled out, fair ball!, loud and clear so the umpire dare not see it differently.  That double was Barry’s second hit of the inning.  The inning ended with the excellent eight run outburst for a big early lead that also dampened the spirits of the frisky Cats. 

It looked like the Buzzards had Parker in their sights as the inning ended.  However, Craig would pitch the remainder of the game by giving up only three more hits and just one run.  Ol’ #20 gave up nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts with three Cat errors in the losing effort.  If it wasn’t for the big third inning, this would have been a way different ball game. 

The only other Buzzard scoring threat came in the sixth inning with one-out and T-Welz on first after an infield error.  Welzy stole second base before Wookie launched a 3-2 pitch over the right fielder’s head that bounced once before going over the fence for a ground-rule double driving in Welzy.  As the ball was bouncing over the fence, the outfielder was swatting at the air.  It turned out that a small swarm of hornets were hanging around the water just past the fence and did not like being disturbed.  One of them dodged his waving arms and bit him on the neck.  He then ran to the dugout looking for a bee sting kit since he was allergic to bee stings.  Because there was no stinger present, it appeared to be a hornet’s bite.  However, to be cautious Keppy gave him some antihistamine pills to alleviate any swelling.  The player came out and the game resumed.   

The inning didn’t last much longer as Wookie, one pitch later, was fooled by the hidden ball trick.  After a pick-off attempt at second base with Wook sliding back safely, he sat touching the base with his feet and began to brush himself off to stand up.  Meanwhile, the pitcher, Parker, was walking back to the mound looking down as if holding the ball in his glove.  Well, the covering infielder still had the ball in his glove and tagged Wookie hard on the helmet as he got up for the embarrassing out.  On a play you don’t see very often - and work - the Valley Cats would use this same play on T-Welz in the ninth inning after he stole second base after a lead-off single for another ‘trick’ out.  You’ve got to give them credit for pulling that play off, but we need to improve our runner vigilance, ask Blue for time-out, and/or get more help from the base coaches and bench in that situation.  Those sneaky Cats were successful with the tricks, but the Buzzards prevailed in this game 9-3. 

The pitching by Keppy was superb.  The day got hotter as the game went on, but it didn’t seem to bother ol’ rubber arm, who still had it going late and struck out the side in the eighth inning.  He held the strong Valley Cats team to three runs on eight hits with two walks and eight strikeouts and dealt well with the five Buzzard errors.  Kep threw 151 pitches, 95 for strikes and 56 balls in the three hour game. 

The circus music heard in the background occasionally was the Buzzard defense with five fielding and throwing miscues.  On the bright side, there were lots of ground balls so Baker had 13 put-outs at first base while smoothly handling grounders and several challenging throws, and Wookie had seven assists and two put-outs playing second base.  The second out of the sixth inning is worth mentioning as Wook was running to his left to field a grounder by Big Jackson #24 batting right-handed.  When he bent over to field the bouncer, the ball stayed low and Wookie stepped on his glove as the ball entered.  The glove came off with the ball inside and the momentum pulled him down into a complete somersault on the ground with his hat flying off as he landed back on his cleats, a few feet away from his glove.  Ol’ #2 reached over and grabbed the ball out of the glove and threw it to Bake to get the runner at first, then acted nonchalant like he’s done that one before.   

Milli, who caught both games, had three assists in this game.  The first was a nice pick-off throw for the first out of the fifth to get an aggressive runner looking to steal second.  Milli came out of the crouch for a pitch-out and threw a bullet to Baker at first base to tag the sliding runner.  The next batter attempted to bunt, but Milli chased it down and threw a strike to Mike for the second out.  In the seventh inning, the Valley Cats had two hits and a walk to score a run with no outs when Milli alertly started a 2-3-4-3 run down after catching the runner on first base leaning the wrong way after a pitch.  That Cat rally ended with a double-play grounder from Welzy to Wookie to Bake for a nice looking 6-4-3 inning ender.  

Offensively, the big third inning was just about it.  Besides the five hits in the third, there was Kep’s single in the first, Wook’s ground-rule double in the sixth, Woody’s liner to left and stolen base in the seventh, and T-Welz’s flare to left and stolen base in the ninth.  The multi hit group for the first game consisted of the two oldest Buzzards, Barry and Wookie, with two hits (double & single) each.  The ribbies were knocked in by the Baron, Brooklyn-2, Milli-2, Woody and Wookie-2.   

The 9-3 victory felt good and the Buzzards had 45 minutes to savor it before game #2 was to begin.  The sweaty Ol’ Buzzards had lunch and Kelley brought the traditional double-header watermelon, so we were set for the next game.