Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Buzzards Game Report #16

July 19, 2009 

Buzzards Sweep Out The Valley Cats With 6-3 Win 

The Buzzards were ready for game two, but we were a little short of players on this hot, hot day.  With Jackson still on the DL, and the hula boys, Henry and Cook in Hawaii, it was great to see the second game’s Buzzard pitcher, Gary ‘Stoney’ Stonebrook arriving from work during the middle of the first game.   

The Valley Cats sent Big Lefty Lou Valdez #44 to the mound for the second game while pitching for the Ol’ Buzzards was #13, Stoney.  The determined Cats had a single in the first inning, and scored two runs in the top of the second on four base hits.  The last one, dropping into shallow center field, between infield and outfield Buzzards for a catchable out, to take an early 2-0 lead.  Tough play, but do-able for the Buzzards. 

The Buzzards struck back with two runs in the bottom of the inning.  Bob ‘Woody’ Wooden led off with a line drive to right-center field.  Jim ‘Milli’ Milligan followed with a liner to center.  Mike ‘Bake’ Baker batting next, laid down a perfect bunt toward third base for a hit to load the bases with nobody out.  Pete ‘Baron’ Von Zboray must have looked scary to the pitchers ‘cause he walked on four pitches (third walk today) to push in the first run.  Mark ‘Ronnie’ Wronski then hit a chopper to third for a fielder’s choice and scoring the second run.  Score tied at 2. 

The Valley Cats clawed out one more run in the third inning with three singles, and led the game until the bottom of the fourth.  The Buzzards scored one run when Woody led off the inning with a double down the left field line.  With one out, Mike ‘Bake’ Baker hit a 2-0 pitch on a line to left field, knocking in the tying run.  After four the score was 3-3. 

The V-Cats put up a good fight, but they would only get one more hit (a double in the seventh) off Stoney in the last four innings.  There was lots of commotion and fuss in the fifth inning by Tony Jackson when the Valley Cats added a new batter to the bottom of their order.  Not normally a problem, but the batter did not announce himself, nor did manager Tony, so the umpire called him out after he singled to right field and after our alert scorekeeper, Diane, brought it to his attention.  Ol’ Jackson was not happy and held up the game while calling the commissioner and then he whined long and loud until officially protesting the game.  Protesting what, that he can be a loud, dumb ass.  He may win that one. 

He should also learn, don’t tick off the Buzzards.  The Gold Country team scored the decisive three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of the seven inning game.  After Valdez #44 was worn out by pitching and running for six innings, the V-Cats brought in Junior Boreggo #5 to start the bottom of the sixth.  Dave ‘Keppy’ Kephart led off with an opposite field hit down the left field line for a huge double.  Wookie then ran for Keppy.  Woody followed with his third hit of the game, spanking a single to left putting runners at first and third.  Woody then stole second base.  Three pitches later a curve ball becomes a wild pitch and Wookie races home sliding safely for the go ahead run.  Woody advanced to third base on the wild pitch and Milli then drove him in with a deep drive, sacrifice fly, to right field.  Next, Bake walked on four pitches and the Baron singled to left to put two runners on.  Mark ‘Ronnie’ Wronski then hit the first pitch into left field for a base hit scoring Bake for the third run of the inning.  With one more at-bat for the Valley Cats, the Buzzards now had a 6-3 lead. 

The Valley Cats did put one runner on with a double to left field in the seventh inning, but Stoney induced a strike-out and two fly outs - a nice running catch by Jim ‘Wags’ Wagner in right field for the second out and a deep fly out to Dave ‘DK’ Kelley in left field - to end the game and sweep the Valley Cats. 

Nice victories for the National Division leading Buzzards, now with a 15-1 record.  The pitching was the strength today with complete games by Keppy (9 inn.) and Stoney (7 inn.) in the near record heat.  As the mercury hit 103 degrees for Colfax, the 2 ½ hour game was ending.  Those cold drinks tasted especially good after the game.  And the cigars added the right touch for the team gathering at the Ball Park. 

The game’s pitching line for Stoney was three runs (two earned) on nine hits, no walks and nine strikeouts.  He threw 108 pitches to 31 batters (77 strikes & 31 balls).  Those rubber arms sure come in handy.  Stoney was chastised by the field umpire for his hand-to-mouth and hand-to-jersey action while walking around the mound with the ball.  It was reported later that the ump was looking at Stoney for loading-up the baseball before the delivery.  Gary denies all charges and said “if the ball was loaded-up, it would drop a lot more than it already is.”  Gary’s curve ball was awesome today, but it was not due to any foreign or domestic substance on the ball. 

The offense generated six runs from the nine hits, two walks and one error in the second game.  Only six Buzzards got hits against the three Valley Cat pitchers in the second game.  The multi hit group for this game was small again today including Woody 3 for 3 with 3 runs scored and Bake going 2 for 2 plus a walk.  The ribbies were delivered by Bake, Baron, Milli and two for Ronnie. 

The defense was solid giving up just one error in this game.  With Stoney striking out nine Valley Cats, that only left 12 fielding outs for the rest of the team.  There were five ground ball outs and Bake only had three put-outs at first, Wookie had three assists and two put-outs playing second base, while Welzy had two assists and one put-out playing shortstop.  Milli got two put-outs, one for tagging the first strikeout victim in the third inning after the dropped third strike, and the second one was by rule for the Valley Cats batting out of order.  The catcher gets credit for the put-out in that situation.  The fly balls were caught by Woody playing center in the first, Kelley in the fifth and seventh inning playing left, and Wags in right field in the last inning.  The two pop-ups were caught by Stoney leading off the fourth, and Wookie to end the second inning. 

This was a tight game until the bottom of the sixth.  The Ol’ Buzzards did a good job of keeping cool and calm, making the plays and getting some key hits.  Woody and Bake with their five hits were over half of this game’s nine-hit offense.  Good game and a season record of 15-1.  The Buzzards did not clinch the division crown with the sweep.  The Dragons are 3.5 games back with four games left, so a victory over the Dragons next Sunday will sew up the National Division for the second year in a row and earn the team a bye in the first round of the play-offs, on August 23.

Buzzard Note #1: This Sunday the game begins at 2:30 at James Field in Auburn.  This is the live radio broadcast game by KAHI 950 AM.  The announcer does a good job, but if you want your name pronounced correctly put a phonetic spelling next to your name on the bio sheet.  After the game we will have cold drinks and munchies over by the picnic area.  A CD of this game will be available at the next game. 

Buzzard Note #2: The following game on August 2 will be against the Sultans in Colfax and is probably our last home game of the regular season.  The rest of the schedule looks like 8/9 at the Reds, 8/16 at the Astros, 8/23 play-off bye, 8/30 division championship game.  There will be a Labor Day weekend break before the three game NABA championship series begins with a double-header on September 13.  If necessary, a third game will be played the following Sunday on the 20^th.