Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards Game Report #7

May 17, 2009

 

 Buzzards Tame Dragons In The Heat, Win 12-6 

 

The Gold Country Buzzards with 45 minutes to eat, cool down and rest were now ready for round two in the Lembi Field oven.  The Dragons were the visiting team for the second game of the double header in Folsom.  Pitching for the Buzzards was Bob “Woody” Wooden #22 and starting for the Dragons was Rick “Big Arms” Biegacki #46.

 

The determined Dragons opened the game by hitting the ball hard and scoring twice.  The Ol’ Buzzards bounced back with one run in their half of the first inning.  Taylor “Welzy” Welz started it off with a sharp liner to center field.  Welzy stole second base and advanced to third when the throw got past the covering shortstop.  Woody knocked in the run on a sacrifice fly to the center fielder.

 

In the second inning Mark “Ronnie” Wronski singled up the middle with two outs.  After Jim “Wags” Wagner walked, Barry “Brooklyn” Forman hit a rocket shot to center that the fielder was able to get a glove on but not hold on as two runs scored for a 3-2 Buzzard lead.  The Buzzards built on their lead in the third by scoring two more runs with hits by Welzy, Dan “Wookie” Wukmir, a walk to Woody plus two throwing errors by the catcher trying to nail Wookie and then Woody stealing second base.

 

Even though Woody was pitching well – striking out five consecutive Dragons at one point – the Dragons were not going to go down easy.  In the top of the fourth inning, the Dragons showed their teeth and stormed back into the game by scoring four runs and taking back the lead 6-5 with eight batters coming to the plate.

 

The Buzzards tied the game after scoring one run in their half of the fourth.  With one out Ray “Bull Dog” Henry singled to left.  Ronnie followed with a smash through the left side of the infield for his second hit of the game.  With two outs, Brooklyn went opposite field with a double down the left field line scoring Bull Dog from second.  Ronnie coming from first base got the coaching signal to round third and score, but he was thrown out at home by a series of good relay throws.  However, the score was now 6-6 after four innings.

 

Because the second game of a NABA double header only goes seven innings, it was now really a three inning game to determine the winner.  Woody by now had thrown 88 pitches in the sweltering heat with no breeze in sight and the heat was taking its toll on the teams.  A wobbly Wookie came out at shortstop replaced by Welzy in the fifth and the DH, Brooklyn, took Taylor’s place in center field.  With CJ out due to the injury in the first game, Milli hung in there and caught both games but lost ten pounds of water weight in the process.  The Buzzards were short handed forcing Steve “Cookie” Cook and Ronnie to play all of both games in the infield, plus iron men Stoney and Woody played two complete games, one pitching and the other at first base.  Good job by those tough ol’ birds.

 

Going into the fifth inning it was imperative for the Buzzards to tame the Dragons and then score some more.  After a 1-2-3 top of the fifth, the Buzzards had their own big inning with nine batters and scoring four of them.  Cookie started it off with a walk, but was thrown out stealing second base on a close play.  The persistent Buzzards then rattled off six consecutive singles by Baron, Welzy, Wookie, Woody, Milli and Stoney for a 10-6 lead with two innings to go.  Ribbies were knocked in by Wookie, Woody and two by our RBI machine, Milli.  After Stoney’s hit the Dragons changed pitchers and brought in Mark Parsons #32, who got the next two outs to end the inning, but the damage had been done.

 

The Dragons did not go down easy with hits in each of the last two innings, but excellent pitching and good defense held them to zero runs.  The Buzzards scored two more runs in the sixth to score in every inning of the game.  Wags started the inning with a full count walk.  Brooklyn followed with a rope to right field sending Wags to third, but Barry got nailed trying to advance to second on the throw to third base.  A good play and throw by their third baseman got a sliding Forman at second.  The Baron then walked putting two runners on base.  Welzy followed with a blast into the left-center field gap driving in both runners with a double to end the scoring at 12-6.

 

Woody pitched a terrific game during the hottest part of the day.  The high on Sunday was 103 degrees.  Bob looked sharp in facing 31 Dragons and throwing 109 pitches (73 strikes & 36 balls) in giving up three earned runs on seven hits and two walks with eight strikeouts.

 

The Buzzard offense came through with 15 productive hits in scoring 12 runs.  The multi hit group included Wookie, Ronnie and Brooklyn with two hits each and Welzy with an awesome four hit game.  Knocking in the runs were Welzy, Wookie, Woody, Milli and Brooklyn.

 

The defense did not wilt in the heat.  With eight strikeouts (5 swinging & 3 looking) there were 13 outs by the fielders.  Only one fly ball out was recorded in the game (Baron with a nice running catch in right field in the sixth), Woody fielded a pop-up in the first and a come-backer in the fourth, six outs by the shortstop (3 each for Wookie and Welzy), two hot shots at Ronnie playing third base, one bouncer to Stoney at first and a high pop-up to Cookie at second to end the game and a long day on the baseball field.

 

The hot and tired Ol’ Buzzards came from behind in both games today.  With the hard earned victories, the Gold Country Ol’ Buzzards are 7-0 and a nice start to the 2009 season.

 

Buzzard Note #1: No games this Memorial Day weekend.  See ya on May 31.  The schedule shows a home game against the Reds.

 

Buzzard Note #2: Wags will host a team and family party at his new place in Auburn on June 21 after the game.  BBQ ribs, cool drinks and swimming are on the Buzzard menu.  More info to come.

 

Buzzard Note #3: The annual radio game is looking like July 26 against the Dragons in Auburn.  KAHI will broadcast the game live from Lee Field.  Advertising time is available for your business or pleasure.  More info to come.

 

Buzzard Note #4: Mighty Milli continues to knock in key runs and now has 16 ribbies in the seven games.  The other team leaders in stats so far are: Woody-14 runs, Wookie-11 singles, Milli-7 doubles, Woody-6 walks, Welzy-9 steals, Ronnie-.500 batting average (10 for 20), Milli-.714 slugging percentage, and Ronnie-.524 on base percentage.  Complete stats are available on the Buzzards’ web site.

 

Buzzard Note #5: During the month of May, we witnessed one Buzzard get older.  Congrats to David “mMumbles” Kelley for turning 52.  Now only 20 more years to go at PG&E.