Gold Country Buzzards

Gold Country Ol' Buzzards Game Report #9

Game: June 7, 2015

Buzzards fly the airwaves, bury the Miners 13-3

The Buzzards love the airwaves and were planning to prove it again in the match-up with the Miners at James Field. The afternoon game was broadcast live on KAHI 950 AM and on the internet at kahi.com. For the seventh year in a row, the radio game has followed an A's game. This year the A's game in Boston against the Red Sox went long and ended just in time for the 2 o'clock start time. The high temp in Auburn was 93 degrees, so the game was a warm one.

The Ol' Buzzards were the visiting team and were facing the spunky lefty, Mike 'Hook' Vargas #11 on the mound. The Gold Country Buzzards sent crafty, righty Rick 'Salmo' Salmeri #6 to the bump to face the young Gold Country Miners in a battle royale for local bragging rights with a radio in the dugouts.

The Buzzards jumped on the scoreboard first with two important runs to set the tone for the game. The game opened with a long sharp single to left-field by Taylor 'Welzy' Welz. With one out, Dave 'Evy' Everingham hit a screamer to left-center for a double that put runners at second and third. Later in the inning, Pete 'Baron' Von Zboray hit a clutch two-strike, two-out single to left to drive in both runs to take an early lead.

The Ol' Buzzards added a run in the top of the third on one hit. Kevin 'Flash' Krantz started it off with a hard bouncer to second that was bobbled for a moment, but a moment is all it takes for Flash to beat it out for an E-4. With one out, Dan 'Wookie' Wukmir looped one near the line in shallow right-field for a base hit that sent Flash to third. Evy followed with a deep liner to right-center field, but was caught with a nice running catch. Those young guys sure can cover some ground impressively. Flash tagged-up and scored on the sacrifice fly. The score after three digs was 3-zip Buzzards.

In the fourth frame, the gold country old timers put two more nuggets on the scorer's table. The Baron singled with one out to start the rally. Mark 'Thunder' Weathers ran for the gimpy Baron. After a second-out, Jim 'Milli' Milligan ripped one to left for a loud single. Tom 'Tomahawk' Keatley ran for Milli. With speed on the base-paths, Kelly 'Cagey' Garcia walked on a full-count to load the bases for Barry 'Brooklyn' Forman. With two-outs and two-strikes, Brooklyn singled to the opposite field to knock in Thunder. Flash followed with a liner to left to send Tomahawk home and make the score 5-0.

The Miners were hitting the ball harder in the fourth and fifth innings, but Salmo only needed eight pitches in both innings to put them back on defense. It took 30 pitches to quiet the Miners in the sixth as they put two marks in the scorebook. Two walks and two hits did all the damage to tighten the score at 5-2.

The Buzzards came up with seven runs in the seventh to ice the game. Flash led-off with a liner to left for a single. Welzy followed with a beautiful bunt single up the third base line. Wookie grounded to the second baseman, but beat-out the hand-cuffed fielder for an error. Batting next, Evy slammed his second double to an outfield gap to score Flash and Welzy. Thunder's hard grounder was misplayed by the second baseman for a costly error and sending two hustlin' Buzzards, Wookie and Evy, across the plate.

With one out, Tomahawk slugged a long double to right-center that scored turbo-charged Thunder from first base. Next, Milli drilled a base hit to left to score Tomahawk from second. Tom ran for catcher Jim. With two outs Barry, beat out an infield hit to first that ended with the first baseman with the ball diving then crawling to the bag from foul territory, while Brooklyn raced then tap danced his way past first base for an interesting single. With two on and two out, Flash was then walked by a tired Vargas. Welzy ended the scoring with a line-drive single to left that scored Tomahawk. The score in the Gold Country contest was Buzzards 12 - Miners 2 going into the bottom half of the seventh inning.

The Buzzards now had a 10-run lead and if they could hold the Miners to no runs in their half of the seventh, the game would end with the 10-run mercy rule. The Buzzards brought in Gregg 'Surf Dawg' Novotny to finish-off the Miners in the last inning. Without much fanfare, it was three-up and three-down on nine pitches to end the game with a final score of 12-2 Buzzards.

The 2-hour and 45-minute ball game lasted only seven innings. The Buzzard pitching did a terrific job of mixing it up and limiting the Miner's bats to nine singles. Salmo pitched six innings and faced 30 batters. Rick gave up two runs on nine hits with two walks and one hit batsman. Salmeri threw 97 pitches (57 strikes & 40 balls). Surf Dawg pitched the last inning and closed out the game. Gregg only needed nine pitches (6 strikes & 3 balls) to dismiss the Miners. Novotny gave up no runs, hits or walks in his inning of work.

The offense did its share by getting the lead and building on it throughout the afternoon affair. The Buzzards used 17 hits, three walks and three errors to beat-up the Miners. The hit club for the game includes: Baron-2, Brooklyn-2, Cagey, Evy-2, Flash-2, Milli-3, Tomahawk, Welzy-3, and Wookie. The ribbies were cooked up by: Baron-2, Brooklyn, Evy-3, Flash, Milli, Tomahawk, Thunder-2, and Welzy. The 12 runs were scored by: Baron-2, Evy-2, Flash-2, Milli-2, Tomahawk, Welzy 2, and Wookie. The three Buzzard walkers were: Cagey, Flash and Welzy.

The defense was marvelous with stellar plays all over the field. The outfield was especially busy with eight fly ball outs. Only a couple were routine catches and they were all hit hard hit. The nice running catches stranded nine runners on base. All of the outfielders got to register at least one out.

Barry made the first out of the game in left-field with a charging basket catch. Brooklyn also made his patented basket catches on the run to open the fifth and close the sixth innings. Left-field was also busy in the fourth frame, as Mike 'Mickey' Wilson made a tough catch, looking into the sun to end the inning. Flash had two put-outs in center-field. In the fifth he ran a long way to snag out-number three with two runner moving, and the deep high-fly for the second out in the sixth dig. Tomahawk made his catch in the fifth frame while playing right-field. The hard blast was easily handled by Keatley with runners on base.

There was only one double play. In the third with a runner on first, Evy fielded the grounder and tossed it to Welzy covering second. Taylor made a nice catch and turn, but found the runner in the way. Welzy threw around the obstruction and nailed the runner at first with a strong throw and a nice stretch by Thunder to complete the 6-4-3 double out play.

Welzy caught three evil pop-ups during the game. A nice running one-hander in short right-field in the first inning right after Barry's first-out basket catch made a strong statement about the Buzzard defense. T-Welz's other two were short sun-ball pop-ups in the seventh near second base. Weathers made two nice catches of tough high pop-ups near first base in the second and the fourth innings.

Besides the double play in the third inning, there were only three ground balls resulting in outs and it should have been four. The first out of the second inning was a chopper to Wookie and throw to Welzy (5-4). A bouncer to Evy at short and put-out to Thunder at first. And the final out was a grounder to Thunder at first and a step on the bag ended the game. Worth mentioning was Wook's bare-handed grab of a bunt and one-hop throw to nail the runner on a close play. Except the ump got the sights and sounds at first base confused and made another bad call at first base. The pick-off in the first inning was classic with a good move by Salmo and a quick slap by Thunder for the out. However, an out of position field ump got that call obviously wrong also.

In spite of early calls going against the Buzzards, the team kept its composure and did its talking with the bats and gloves.

It was a good game against a tough opponent with a world-wide radio audience. The teams gathering worked out well and food from Joe Caribe's was excellent. The area by the gazebo was pleasant and the evening weather was just right. Another good day to be a Buzzard.

Buzzard Note #1: The KAHI General Manager has already contacted the team on the great game and excellent broadcast. Sponsors for the radio game can write checks to Gold Country Hardball. Thank you to the team member sponsors for allowing the Buzzards to have a special game and get some radio time, while we are still young enough to hear it. Cash to Wook for the food on Sunday for those that forgot.

Buzzard Note #2: The team member sponsors were: Barry with Back to the Drawing Board, Diane with Diane's Pioneer Costumes, Pete with Keys Plus, Realtor Kelly with RE/MAX, and Taylor wins the longest ad award with Welz Financial Services. Former Buzzards also sponsored the game with Ray Henry and RAH Environmental, and Paul Lee with Felipe's Mexican Restaurant.

Buzzard Note #3: KAHI will keep the podcast of the radio game on their web site for a few weeks. You can down load the game easily from the web site. On the main page, click on the Listen button. Select Audio On Demand. Scroll down the bottom of the page and see the Buzzards team photo. Right click on the words Buzzard Baseball. Next select Save Link As. Then create your file and location for the 2015 Buzzard Baseball file and your done. Need help or questions, call your kids.

Buzzard Note #4: The next game, June 14th, is at 2 pm at C-Bar-C Park in Citrus Heights against the Yankees. Our only scheduled game at C-Bar-C this season. After we demolish the Yanks in seven innings, the plan is to go to Felipe's for food and drink.