Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #10

Game: June 14, 2015

Light Buzzards defeat Yankees, 13-6

At the half-way point of the season, the Buzzards were scheduled to play a light-weight team on a hot afternoon in Citrus Heights. So, lots of Buzzies missed the game for various reasons leaving a stalwart eight behind to defend the C-Bar-C Park diamond against 16 Yankees. The temps were in the low 90s with a nice breeze to make for pleasant game conditions. The field conditions were a different story. The ball field is still suffering from low maintenance and now, a low water supply for the outfield.

The starting pitcher for the visiting Buzzards was the steady, right-hander, Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny #1. While, the Yankees sent their righty, Randy 'Slinger' Dettman #28 to the mound to start the game.

The Buzzards struck first with five runs in their first at-bat. With one out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir slapped an opposite-field liner that the left-fielder muffed for an error. Batting third, Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia knocked a single to center. The clean-up batter, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray was walked on five-pitches to load 'em up for Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman. A close fielder's choice play at second base allowed Wookie to easily score from third and put runners at the corners.

Up next, the catcher, Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri took the seven-pitch base-on-balls to re-load the bases for Surf Dawg. Dawg hit a hard bouncer through the left-side for a two-run single that knocked in Cagey and a hustlin' Brooklyn. With two outs, the gimpy warrior, Mike 'Mickey' Wilson, drew a walk to put runners at first and second. The Baron ran for Mickey at first. Taylor 'Welzy' Welz then smacked a single to center that scored Salmo and kept the bases full. Wookie then walked to force in Surf Dawg and give the Buzzards the five-run early lead.

The Yankees battled back with three runs in the bottom half of the first inning. After two were out on nice defensive plays, a seven-pitch walk and four straight hits were responsible for the crooked number in the scorebook. The score after the first frame had the Buzzards up 5 to 3.

The Ol' Buzzards added a run in the third dig. Welzy led-off with a sharp single to left-field. After second base was stolen, Wookie pulled the 3-0 pitch right-down the first baseline with the hot grounder hitting the bag and bouncing over the first baseman into short right-field to score Welzy. Later, the Buzzards loaded the bases with a lined single to center by the Baron and walks to Brooklyn and Salmo. The Yanks changed hurlers and brought in their shortstop and hard-throwing righty, John 'Stocky' Davis #7. The inning ended shortly with just the one score.

The game stayed at 6-3 until the sixth inning when the Gold Country Eight tacked on two more runs. Welzy started it off with a hard-hit double over the left-fielders head. After an out, Cagey hit a flare to right-center to score Welzy. Cagey stole second and moved to third on the over-throw before the Baron walked. Brooklyn followed with a sharp single to left that scored Cagey from third to make the score 8-3 Buzzards.

The Yanks added a run in their half of the six inning with three singles. Two hits came with two outs to secure the run and tighten the score to 8-4.

The Ol' Buzzards were hurtin' and tired and could not break the game open to shake the Yankees through six innings of play. The boisterous team of 16 players plus a non-playing manager and coach and their fairly large fan club was smelling blood and talking stuff. Yes, the Yankees.

To pad the lead and quiet the Yankee dugout, the Buzzards scored two quick runs in the seventh inning. After one away, Welzy and Wook were walked on five-pitches each by the wild lefty, Jerry 'Look-out' Whelan #11. Look-out was then replaced by the big right-handed first baseman, Jim 'Clank' McAdams #26. After a six-pitch full-count battle, Clank then served up a fastball to Cagey. Kelly launched it to deep left-field for a two-run double scoring Welzy and Wook and taking a 10-4 lead. Welzy #26 replaced Surf Dawg on the mound entering the bottom half of the seventh inning.

The Gold Country Eight notched three more runs on the scoreboard in the eighth inning. Salmo hit a lead-off liner into left-field for a base hit. Surf Dawg then banged out a long single to left with Salmo advancing to third. Surf Dawg stole second, before Welzy's run-scoring single sent Salmo across the plate and Surf Dawg to third. T-Welz then stole second base, putting both runners in scoring position. Up next, Wookie hit a high chopper to a deep playing first baseman. Surf Dawg easily scored on the play with Welzy, blazing around third and heading for home, as the fielder was tagging first base. Welzy beat the throw home as two runs scored on the ground-out by Wook for the last runs of the game for the Buzzies. The Buzzard lead was 13-4.

With time running out, the bottom of the eighth was going to be the last Yankee at-bats of the game. Some sloppy play and a screaming double to the center-field fence by the feisty old veteran, Dave 'Tortuga' Harden, with just one down gave the Yanks hope. However, Welzy shut them down with a grounder and a strike-out to end the afternoon affair.

The final score of the three-hour and six-minute, eight-inning game, was Buzzards 13 and the Yankees 6.

Buzzard pitching was solid with Surf Dawg getting the win. Novotny threw 100 pitches (61 strikes & 39 balls) to 27 Yankees in six innings of work. Gregg gave up four runs (one earned) on eight hits and two walks with five strike-outs. Welzy pitched the last two inning and threw 47 pitches (35 strikes & 12 balls) to 11 Yankees. Taylor gave up two runs (none earned) on two hits and one walk with two K's.

The Ol' Buzzard's offensive engine was operating with only 7½-cylinders at best. The short batting rotation ensured six or seven at-bats each, to add additional wear and tear during the game. The 16 hits were combined with 10 walks and five Yankee errors for the 13 runs. The Buzzard hit club for the game included: the Baron, Brooklyn, Cagey-4, Salmo-2, Surf Dawg-2, Welzy-4, and Wookie-2. The ribbies were knocked in by: Brooklyn-2, Cagey-3, Surf Dawg-2, Welzy-2, and Wook-4. The always important runs were scored by: Brooklyn, Cagey-2, Salmo-2, Surf Dawg-2, Welzy-4, and Wook-2. The six Buzzards taking free passes to first base were: Brooklyn, Mickey, Salmo-2, Welzy, Wookie-2, and three times to the clean-up hitter, the Baron.

The defense was solid especially considering the rough infield and difficult outfield conditions. The eight-man team went with two outfielders: Barry in left-center and Kelly in right-center.

The pitchers did a good job of getting a lot of ground balls for outs, while each outfielder had one fly-ball put-out. Only the hard liner to center-field for a two-run double in the seventh caught a gap in the outfield. With just two outfielders, it was ironic when the first Yankee out of the game was a line-drive scorcher to the right-center field gap, right where Cagey was positioned for an easy out, and to loud groans from the Yankee dugout. For his put-out, Brooklyn made a nice running basket-catch with Yanks on the bases to end the seventh dig.

There were two double plays to the pitchers' delight. In the fourth with a runner at second base and no outs, a short pop-up in front of home plate looked like trouble. Surf Dawg got to the ball from the mound and snagged it, to the surprise of the runner way-off of the bag. Surf Dawg threw a quick strike to Wookie covering second base for the force-out and the first double play.

With the lead-off runner at first in the seventh, another short pop-up was hit closer to the front of home plate than the last double play. Welzy, in full sprint from the bump, then used his Inspector Gadget extendo-arm to reach out and snatch the ball a half-second before it hit the grass. Welzatron then turned and snapped a throw to Mickey at first base to nail the surprised runner.

The Baron held down third base for seven innings and snared two hot liners for put-outs and two tough bouncers for assists (5-3). The Baron covered shortstop with Welzy on the mound for the last two innings. Mickey had a busy game at first base with eight put-outs while covering the bag and the right-side with a bum right hip. Welzy had seven assist playing shortstop and on the bump. Wookie had two put-outs and two assists at second base, while Surf Dawg had one put-out and one assist with the double play in the fourth inning. 

Salmo gets the Iron Man award for catching the entire game and having enough energy for his two hits, two walks and two runs. It was a good overall game with eight tough Buzzards to pull it off.

It may have been the only eight-man (whole game) win of a baseball game in Sacramento in a long time. Not a record the Buzzards were aiming for, but the mighty eight did a fabulous job of bringing home the win.

The 7-3 Buzzards will face the Astros this Sunday at 10 am in Davis at Playfields Park. This is the Father's Day game, but the team has no special plans. There will be cold ones and snacks after the game in the parking lot.