B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 27 – for July 11, 2024
Weather: My weather app said Austin was in the low 90s a bit after noon on July 11, with humidity around 38%. Meanwhile, in Newburyport, Massachusetts, it was 90% and the humidity was 55%. What the hey?
Games of Thursday July 11:
10:30 a.m., Gray (3-1) at Maroon (1-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 5 1 3 5 X 14 Maroon 0 3 1 2 1 7 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Maroon – Terry Thompson. Mercenaries: Gray – George Brindley and Peter Sundquist; Maroon – Tim Bruton, Gil Delossantos, Clint Fletcher, Terry Thompson, Mike Velaney, and Rip Wright. Umpires: home plate – Eddy Murillo and Tim Bruton; bases – Adam Reddell and Morgan Witthoft. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Frank Delmonte and Johnny Lee (both 3 for 3) and Peter Sundquist (3 for 3 with a double); Maroon – Tim Bruton (3 for 3 with two doubles) and Terry Thmopson and Mike Velaney (both 2 for 2).
Gray jumped off to a quick lead, scoring five times on six singles and Tommy Gillis’s double (which drove in the first two runs) in the top of the first, and never trailed. Jack Kelly kept the top of the Maroon order from scoring in the home half, working around singles by Alvin Gauna and Joe Roche.
Gray scored just one run in the second: George Brindley (welcome back!) led off with a single, but was erased when Jimmy Sneed started a 6u., 6-3 double play. David Kruse then tripled and scored on Tommy Gillis’s single. Mike Mordecai and Mark Dolan also singled, but Tommy was thrown out at home trying to score on Mark’s hit. Maroon got on the board and narrowed the deficit to 6-3 with three runs on five singles, four by mercenaries, in the bottom of the inning.
After that, though, Gray dominated, outscoring Maroon 8-4 the rest of the way, putting across three runs in the top of the third (Peter Sundquist’s double the key hit) and then five on a walk and six straight singles, all with one out, in the fourth. Maroon managed just one run in the third (on Tim Bruton’s RBI double) and two in the fourth. The first three batters singled in that frame, and Gil Delossantos knocked what looked like a hit to center, but wound up getting thrown out 8-6-3 at first – the throw from Peter Sundquist in left-center went to shortstop Jimmy Sneed at second, trying for Terry Thompson advancing from first; Terry was safe, but Jimmy’s relay to first baseman Johnny Lee beat Gil (I’m imagining a long stretch by Johnny Lee on the play – don’t tell me I’m wrong). Marvin Krabbenhoft’s sacrifice fly got the second run home.
With Gray leading 14-6, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Jimmy Sneed led off with a single, advanced on two ground outs to the right side, and scored on Tim Bruton’s second run-scoring double, Tim completing a perfect game at the plate. But the game ended on Clint Fletcher’s fly to Peter Sundquist in left field. Final score: Gray 14, Maroon 7
11:30 a.m., Red (3-1) at Blue (2-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 4 0 2 4 5 0 15 Blue 0 1 5 4 0 6 16 Pitchers: Red – Donald Drummer; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: none. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Mark Dolan. Perfect at the plate: Red – Tim Bruton (4 for 4 with a double); Blue – George Brindley and David Brown (both 4 for 4). Home run: Pat Scott (inside the park).
Best game of the day, and perhaps the fact that neither team needed mercenaries was a contributing factor. Red jumped to an early lead, scoring four times in the top of the first on five singles, Tim Bruton’s double, and sacrifice flies by Rick Kahn and Denny Malloy, and Donald Drummer then retired Blue in order in the bottom of the inning. Joe Bernal held Red scoreless in the top of the second, working around Bobby Miller’s one-out single, and Blue got on the board in the bottom half with a run on four singles, with Dale Fugate out at home trying to score on Jerry Mylius’s single for the final out.
Red got two runs in the top of the third, as Denny Malloy’s two-out triple scored Morgan Witthoft from first, and Denny in turn was driven in on Hal Darman’s base hit. That put Red up 6-1, but Blue tied the game with a five-run outburst in the home half, on five singles and Dale Fugate’s rally-capping double.
Each team scored four in the fourth. Red’s first four batters singled, two runs scoring, and Adam Reddell brought in the third with a sacrifice fly to right field. Morgan Witthoft singled to bring in Rick Kahn with the fourth run, but the inning ended with Joe Bernal starting a 1-6-3 double play on Gil Delossantos’s grounder back to the box. Blue then tied the game in the home half with a great two-out rally. Terry Thompson grounded out to third baseman Adam Reddell to open the inning, and Adam then made a fine play on Jerry Mylius’s liner for the second out. The next six batters hit safely: Billy Hill singled; Pat Scott legged out a two-run inside-the-park homer (no details on where the ball was hit; I’m guessing it was a gapper to one of the alleys); Joe Bernal singled; Jeff Fisher doubled; and George Brindley and David Brown each singled.
Pat Scott keeps hitting home runs when I’m absent, leaving me no choice but to keep using this file photo of him.
Red went back ahead with five runs in the top of the fifth, on a walk and five singles, the last three coming with two out, off the bats of Tim Bruton (completing a 4-for-4 game), Rick Kahn, and Adam Reddell. Donald Drummer then retired Blue in order in the home half.
Up by five entering the buffet, Red seemed to be in the driver’s seat, but then did not score in the top half, Joe Bernal workig around a one-out single by Gil Delossantos.
Donald Drummer then retired two of the first three batters in the home half, Billy Hill on a fly to left-center and, following Pat Scott’s single, Joe Bernal on a ground out to second base. Down to its final out, Blue then pulled off one of the great rallies of this season. Jeff Fisher singled. George Brindley reached base – I think by single, but it’s possible it was a walk. David Brown singled, completing a 4-for-4 game, and Blue’s second run of the inning came in. Steve Sandall singled, cutting Red’s lead to 15-13. Dale Fugate singled, David Brown coming across to make it a one-run game. Terry Thompson then stepped up and ripped an extra-base hit – Steve came across with the tying run-scoring, and Jeff Fisher, running for Dale, as described by George Brindley:
…scoring from 1st, almost running out of gas, but beat the throw.
Blue walks it off! Final score: Blue 16, Red 15
George Brindley returned to manage Blue to victory.
12:30 p.m., Green (2-2) at Orange (2-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 5 4 5 4 X 21 Orange 0 0 0 5 2 3 10 Pitchers: Green – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Green – Larry Young; Orange – Tim Bruton and Johnny Lee. Umpires: home plate – David Brown; bases – Jeff Fisher. Perfect at the plate: Green – Tommy Deleon and Larry Young (both 4 for 4), Mike Garrison (5 for 5), and Mike Hill (5 for 5 with a double); Orange – Tim Bruton (3 for 3 with a double) and Spike Davidson (2 for 2 with a walk).
Welp, another blowout. Green scored 17 times before Orange was finally able to put a run across, in the bottom of the fourth. Everyone in the Green lineup hit, the team going 33 for 44, all but one of the hits – Mike Hill’s double in the top of the first that drove in his team’s first two runs – a single. The bottom of the lineup was particularly effective for Green, Daniel Baladez, Jim McAnelly, and Larry Young combining for ten hits and 11 runs scored.
Tommy Deleon throttled Orange in its first trip through the batting order, retiring the side in order in the bottom of the first, then getting three straight outs to shortstop Jack McDermott after Ray Pilgrim and Spike Davidson singled to start the bottom of the second. Tommy then got Jim Malloy to hit into a 6-5 force and both Fritz Hensel and Larry Shupe to hit balls in the air that Jack was able to track down. (Dave Berra marked as a “good play” Larry’s pop – in my mind, Jack ranged behind third base into short left field to make a running, across-the-shoulder catch. Your mileage may vary.) In the third, Tim Bruton singled with one out, but first baseman Daniel Baladez made a fine catch of Johnny Lee’s pop to the right side and Tommy got Matt Levitt to hit a two-strike foul.
An aside: Tim Bruton (above, file photo) played all three games, and did not make an out, going 3 for 3 with two doubles in the 10:30 game, 4 for 4 with a double for Red in the 11:30 game, and 3 for 3 with yet another double in the 12:30 game – on the day, 10 for 10 with four doubles, a 1.000 average and a 1.400 slugging percentage.
Orange finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth, scoring five runs on eight singles, and then added two more on a walk and four singles in the fifth. Still, Orange trailed 21-7 at that point, so the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Orange managed to reach double digits by scoring three times, on doubles by Tim Bruton and Tony Garcia and singles by Matt Levitt and Peter Atkins, before running out of outs. Final score: Green 21, Orange 10
Standings – Session Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Gray 4 1 .800 — 62 56 + 6 W4
Green 3 2 .600 1 73 58 +15 W1
Blue 3 2 .600 1 65 58 + 7 W1
Red 3 2 .600 1 69 62 + 7 L1
Purple 2 3 .400 2 41 56 -15 W2
Orange 2 4 .333 2.5 69 73 – 4 L3
Maroon 1 4 .200 3 46 62 -16 L4
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Gray 1-1 3-0 1 0-0 1-1 1-0
Green 1-1 2-1 1 0-0 2-0 1-0
Blue 2-1 1-1 1 0-0 0-0 1-1
Red 1-1 2-1 1 0-0 1-0 1-1
Purple 1-2 1-1 1 0-0 0-2 1-1
Orange 1-2 1-2 0 0-0 1-1 0-1
Maroon 1-2 0-2 0 0-0 0-1 0-1
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 1 1 2 3 1 2 10
Gray 3 X 2 2 4 0 3 14
Green 2 1 X 2 2 3 2 12
Maroon 1 2 3 X 3 0 2 11
Orange 0 0 1 1 X 2 2 6
Purple 3 1 2 3 2 X 0 11
Red 3 1 2 1 2 3 X 12
______________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 12 6 11 11 16 9 11 76
Season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 5
Gregory Bied – 2
Ken Brown – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
David Brown – 1
Tim Bruton – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Larry Fiorentino – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Clint Fletcher – 1
Anthony Galindo – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Rex Horvath – 1
David Kruse – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Eddie Ortiz -1
David Pittard – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Monday July 15 (note the new, earlier game times):
10:00 a.m.: Maroon (1-4) at Green (3-2), Blue umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Blue (3-2) at Orange (2-4), Green umpiring
Noon: Purple (2-3) at Red (3-2), Orange umpiring
Gray has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Seeing as I’m writing this after the games have been played… Will I publish Volume 6, Issue 28 of the Picayune in advance of games of Thursday July 18? One thing is certain: only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Morgan Witthoft submits this excellent photograph and comment:
In case you need content for the science section of the Picayune, this newly fledged young bluebird is evidence that bluebirds are successfully breeding at Krieg.
For my part, Mrs. Keggy and I saw loons at Great East Lake on the Maine-New Hampshire border, and enjoyed this sunset.