Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #11

Game: June 21, 2015

Buzzards pummel Astros, 20-0

The Father's Day game was a morning game at Playfields Park against the hapless Astros. The day started-off cool and breezy in Davis as the Gold Country Buzzards assembled for the mismatch. The Astros fielded nine players against the Buzzard dozen. The Buzzards beat up the Astros 16-6 in April.

The Astros sent their ol' veteran righty, Ron 'Big Boy' Turner #13 to the mound. Ron sat out last season after shoulder surgery. The visiting Buzzards countered with the hard-throwing right-hander, Taylor 'Welzy' Welz #26, starting for the second time this season.

The Buzzards scored first with a run in the top of the first inning. With one out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir popped-up on the first-pitch to the pitcher. The sun, the mound, the wind, and the spin of the earth all contributed to the drop and Wookie was safe at first. After Wook stole second base, Dave 'Evy' Everingham walked on a full-count. Batting clean-up, Mark 'Thunder' Weathers knocked the 0-2 pitch to left-center for a single and sent Wookie across the plate for the first run. A nice play at second base by the Astros' Barry Spiller started the inning-ending double play to halt a rally.

The Buzzards put a second run on the scoreboard in the second dig. Jim 'Milli' Milligan led-off with a sharp grounder to second that was misplayed for an error. Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley then ran for Milli at first. Up Next, Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia pulled a hard grounder down the line that hit third base and bounced sharply into left-field for a single. A wild pitch moved both runners up before Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman hit a sacrifice fly to right-field to score Tomahawk for a 2-zip early lead.

The Ol' Buzzards added on four runs in the top half of the third frame. Welzy nailed a 2-0 pitch and sent it sailing way-over the center-fielder's head for a lead-off triple. Wookie then lined one to left-center to drive-in Welzy. Evy followed with a long single to center-field that sent Wookie to third. Evy was caught in a pickle between first and second on the play, and Wook scored during the run-down. Thunder, batting next, slammed a base hit into center. Tomahawk then got to first via an infield error to put runners at first and second. Milli slapped the first pitch to center-field to score Thunder. Cagey landed at first via another infield boo-boo to load the bases. Up next, Kevin 'Flash' Krantz bounced into a fielder's choice at shortstop to score Tomahawk and make the score 6-0 Buzzards.

The Buzzards changed hurlers to start the fourth with righty, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1 taking the bump. The Buzzards showed no-mercy in the bottom of the fourth frame and scored 11 runs to put away the game. The Buzzies have scored seven runs in an inning twice during the season, but 11 runs is the topper, so far, for runs in an inning.

The scoring tsunami was innocently started with full-count walk to Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri. Welzy slashed a hit to left. Wookie then grounded a hard hit into right-field that scored Salmo and a hustlin' Welzy. Next, Evy walked on five pitches to put runners at first and second. A failed pick-off of Wook at second base put the ball into center- field, advancing the runners with Thunder at the plate. A sac-fly to center scored Wookie. Up next, Tomahawk ripped a single to center putting Buzzards at the corners. With one out and three runs in, Milli launched a sacrifice fly to left-field that scored Evy. Cagey then hit a flare to left. With the line still moving, Flash crushed a 2-1 pitch for a stand-up double to left-center field to drive-in Tomahawk.

With two down and two runners in scoring position, Brooklyn laced a line-drive single to right-field and scored Cagey and Flash. Salmo then came up to bat for the second time in the fourth and took a base on balls again. Batting next, Surf Dawg walked on four pitches to fill the bases with Buzzards for Welzy. Thunder ran for Surf Dawg. T-Welz then smacked a two-out single to left to score two more runs with Brooklyn and Salmo crossing home plate. Wookie, the 14th batter of the inning, blasted a long double to deep right-center to score Thunder. Evy followed with a double to right-center to score Welzy for the 11th run of the inning. The score after four was 17-nothing.

The Buzzard's excellent pitching and good defensive plays shut-down the Astros all game. There was no scoring in the fifth and sixth innings. The Astros brought in their first baseman, righty, John 'Flinger' Schwefel #40 with his unorthodox pitching style, a stiff-back with an over the top fling of the ball, to take over at the end of the fourth.

The Ol' Buzzards scored three more times in the seventh frame. Welzy led-off with a deep double to left-center. Wook then hit a chopper to the first baseman that clanked off of the glove for an error. Evy followed with his patented liner into right-center field to score Welzy. Thunder walked to load the bases. Tomahawk hit into a fielder's choice that scored Wook. Milli, up next, was winged by a pitch to reload the bags. Cagey bounced into a fielder's choice to score Evy and put the finishing touches on a 20-run trouncing.

Surf Dawg finished off the Astros in the bottom of the seventh. The seven-inning mercy-rule stopped the 20-run romp at the 2-hour and 20-minute mark.

Buzzard pitching was impressive. Welzy pitched the first three inning and the line score had lots of zeros. There were no runs, hits, or walks plus three strike-outs. Taylor faced 10 Astros in throwing 33 pitches (24 strikes & 9 balls). Surf Dawg entered the game in the fourth frame and faced 16 Astros in giving up no runs. Gregg threw 49 pitches (26 strikes & 23 balls). The Astros got two hits and two walks off of Novotny, but no runs and one strike 'em out.

The big O scored 20 runs off of 19 hits, six walks and six Astro errors. The hit club for the game included: Brooklyn, Cagey-3, Evy-3, Flash, Milli, Tomahawk, Thunder-2, Wookie-3, and Welzy with four timely hits (triple, double & two singles). The ribbies were cooked up by: Brooklyn-3, Cagey, Evy-3, Flash-2, Milli-2, Tomahawk, Thunder-2, Welzy-2, and Wookie-4. The 20-runs were scored by (in batting order): Welzy-4, Wook-4, Evy-2, Thunder, Tomahawk-2, Milli, Cagey, Flash, Brooklyn, Salmo-2, and Surf Dawg. The eagle-eyed Buzzards with six walks were: Evy-2, Salmo-2, Surf Dawg and Thunder.

The Buzzard defense was solid, but there were no double plays. There were six fly ball outs. Brooklyn in left-field hogged three of them. And all without his standard basket-catch for the game's first out in the bottom of the first, and the first out in the fourth and sixth innings. Flash tracked down two high flyers in the fourth and eighth digs with runners on base, while Cagey caught a deep liner for the last out of the third frame in right-field.

The infield had eight assists with the 11 put-outs. Evy had just one assist at shortstop. It was a nice play in the seven inning, when with one out, a fast runner grounded one deep into the hole. Evy handled the hops and made a strong throw to Cagey. The high throw was snagged with good glove work and an acrobatic first baseman with his foot glued to the bag for a spectacular put-out.

Welzy had six assists and made them all look easy. Three on come-backers (1-3) while pitching and three ground ball outs (4-3) covering second base. Surf Dawg had the other come-backer while pitching in the sixth dig. There were two evil pop-ups ably handled by Evy in the third and Welzy with a long run for the first out of the seventh inning. Milli, behind the plate, had three put-outs while handling Welzy's hot pitches and the three K's. Salmo caught the last three innings and had one put-out with Dawg's K in the fifth. The four strike-outs and one line-out to Welzy to end the fifth accounted for the 21 outs of the game.

It was a good Father's Day blow-out with plenty of good stats for everyone. The Buzzards' record is now 8-3 and comfortably in first place in the 52+ division. The next game is at the Tri City Fields in Rocklin at 10 am. The opponent is the young Dodgers. The Dodgers will want revenge for the 9-3 drubbing they got in April at James Field.

Ol' Buzzards love to dine on young Dodger meat. Come to the game hungry. The next four games are the toughest remaining on the schedule. 1) June 28th vs. Dodgers at Rocklin at 10 am; 2) July 12th vs. Rays at James at 2 pm; 3) July 19th vs. Solons at James at 10 am; 4) July 26th vs. Colt .45s in Davis at 10 o'clock.