B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 6, Issue 40 – for August 29, 2024
Games of Thursday August 29:
10:00 a.m., Green (10-5) at Orange (8-9):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 1 3 2 0 0 2 8 Orange 0 0 3 5 1 X 9 Pitchers: Green – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Spike Davidson. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly and Mike Mordecai; bases – Tommy Gillis and Donnie Janac. Perfect at the plate: Green – Jeff Broussard (3 for 3); Orange: Fritz Hensel (3 for 3) and Jimmy Maloy (2 for 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: Weather: 80 degrees (Heat Index 90); humidity 82%. Partly cloudy; absolutely no breeze. Sticking jerseys, not wicking. By games end, Rex had fish swimming in his shirt that Tom Kelm tried to catch with his rod and plastic worm. (Had to be there.)
Green was looking to clinch the Session 3 title with a victory, but was denied by a tough Orange team playing the spoiler in a hard-fought contest.
Green built an early 6-0 lead, scoring in each of the first three innings while Tommy Deleon blanked Orange over the first two. Green scored once in the first, Mike Hill scoring from first on David Pittard’s base hit to right field – both Dave Berra and Terry Watts called it a single; I’m not sure why David didn’t try for extra bases. Five singles resulted in three runs for Green in the top of the second, and they added two more on four singles and Mike Garrison’s sacrifice fly in the third.
Tommy Deleon allowed two singles in each of the bottom halves of the first two innings, but each time got a flyball out to escape the jam. Orange finally broke through in the third, scoring three runs with two out. Jimmy Maloy led off with a single, but Tommy retired Doc Hobar on a foul caught by catcher Jim McAnelly and Larry Fiorentino on a fly to Jack McDermott in right-center, Jimmy advancing to second after the catch. The next three batters hit safely: Eddie Ortiz singled, putting runners on the corners; Peter Atkins lined a double to deep center field, Jimmy scoring; and Rex Horvath singled to left field, both Eddie and Peter scoring, cutting Green’s lead to 6-3.
Then it was Spike Davidson’s turn to throw a pair of scoreless innings – as Tommy had, he allowed two singles in each of the fourth and fifth innings, but kept Green off the board. In the fourth he benefitted from Rex Horvath turning a 6u., 6-3 double play after Jeff Broussard and Phil Stanch had led off with singles, then got Jim McAnelly to ground out to the third. An inning later, singles by Ralph Villela and Mike Hill put runners on first and second with one out. Ralph took third on David Pittard’s fly to right, and Jack McDermott grounded back to the box.
Orange had taken an 8-6 lead with five runs in the bottom of the fourth, on six consecutive one-out hits (five singles and Jimmy Maloy’s three-run double), the fifth run scoring on Eddie Ortiz’s sacrifice fly to left field. They added one run on four singles in the bottom of the fifth, leaving three runners on base.
Larry Fiorentino drove in what proved to be the winning run with his RBI single in the bottom of the fourth.
So Green was chasing three runs entering the buffet. Spike Davidson got Tommy Deleon to ground out to third baseman Eddie Ortiz to open the inning – at that point, Spike had gotten nine outs from the preceding dozen batters he faced. Green rallied at this point, Mike Garrison, Jack Crosley, and Jeff Broussard each knocking a single to load the bases, Jeff completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Phil Stanch grounded to shortstop Rex Horvath, who threw to Doc Hobar for the force at second; on the play, both Mike and Jack scored, cutting Orange’s lead to one run. Daniel Baladez squared up on a pitch, but lined it within Rex’s reach – he squeezed it for the final out. Final score: Orange 9, Green 8
11:00 a.m., Gray (8-7) at Maroon (3-12):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 1 0 3 0 3 0 7 Maroon 2 2 2 5 5 X 16 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Maroon – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Maroon – Rick Jensen and Eddy Murillo. Umpires: home – Spike Davidson; bases – Larry Fiorentino. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Tommy Gillis (3 for 3 with a double); Maroon – Buddy Gaswint (3 for 3 with two doubles); Rick Jensen, Eddy Murillo, and Chunky Wright (each 3 for 3); and Jimmy Sneed (3 for 3 with a double).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 85 degrees (Heat Index 93); humidity 69%; still no breeze; players seemed to be swimming. Partly cloudy.
Not speaking for Tom Brownfield and James Chavana, but a Maroon player could develop a little bit of a complex over how well the team played in his absence. Maroon put up crooked numbers in five consecutive innings, backed strong pitching by Chunky Wright with solid defense, and rolled to a convincing victory over a Gray team they trailed by five games this session.
Gray broke on top, David Kruse knocking a double to right-center and scoring on Tommy Gillis’s single up the middle in the top of the first, but Maroon won the inning with a pair of two-out runs in the home half. Jack Kelly retired Scott Wright and Joe Roche to start the frame, but walked Anthony Galindo. Jimmy Sneed grounded a single down the third-base side. Buddy Gaswint then drove a pitch to the fence in left, both Anthony and Jimmy scoring, though Buddy settled for a single on the hit.
Gray did not score in the second, as Chunky Wright retired three in a row after allowing a lead-off single to Don Solberg. Maroon again scored two runs with two out in the bottom of the inning, on consecutive singles by Rick Jensen, Eddy Murillo, and Scott Wright.
Gray won the third inning, scoring three runs on four singles, Ken Brown’s double, and David Kruse’s sacrifice fly. Hits by Tommy Gillis, Gary Coyle, and Johnny Lee came with two out. Maroon got two back on four hits in the bottom of the inning, Buddy Gaswint’s double setting up run-scoring singles by Marvin Krabbenhoft and Chunky Wright.
Marvin Krabbenhoft’s RBI single in the bottom of the third drove in the game-winning run for Maroon.
Chunky then threw another scoreless inning, working around Ivan Budiselic’s two-out single in the top of the fourth, and Maroon took full control with five runs in the home half, on three singles and three doubles, the two-base hits by Joe Roche, Jimmy Sneed, and Buddy Gaswint, Buddy’s driving in the fourth and fifth run. Both Jimmy and Buddy completed 3-for-3 games with their doubles.
That made it 11-4 entering the final five-run inning. Gray’s first four batters in the fifth hit safely, singles by Mark Dolan, Ken Brown, and David Kruse loading the bases, and Tommy Gillis knocking in two runs and completing a perfect day at the plate with a double. But Chunky Wright retired the next three batters on ground balls, getting Gary Coyle to hit back to the box and Johnny Lee and Don Solberg to ground out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed. David scored Gray’s third run of the inning on eiher Gary’s or Johnny Lee’s grounder, I’m not sure which.
Maroon won the inning, though, scoring five runs on five singles, Joe Dayoc’s sacrifice fly, and Scott Wright’s double to center, four of the runs scoring after the second out was recorded. Chunky Wright, Rick Jensen, and Eddy Murillo completed 3-for-3 games with their hits.
Gray was chasing nine entering the buffet. Chunky Wright continued to get batters to hit ground balls. He retired Donnie Janac on a grounder to shortstop Jimmy Sneed. Jack Kelly’s grounder to the 3-4 hole was good for a single, but Jimmy fielded Ivan Budiselic’s grounder and threw to first for the second out. Mike Mordecai walked, extending the inning. Mark Dolan followed with a line drive to left, but Scott Wright made an excellent catch of it for the final out. Final score: Maroon 16, Gray 7
Noon, Red (7-8) at Blue (9-6):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 5 5 1 4 5 X 20 Blue 0 3 1 2 1 0 7 Pitchers: Red – Eddy Murillo; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Blue – Tommy Gillis and Mike Mordecai. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Chunky Wright. Perfect at the plate: Red – Tim Bruton (4 for 4 with a double), Donald Drummer (2 for 2 with a walk), and Eddy Murillo and Boo Resnick (both 3 for 3); Blue – Billy Hill (3 for 3) and Jerry Mylius (2 for 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: No breeze; flags as limp as Blue’s offense. Weather: mostly cloudy; 88 degrees (Heat Index 96); humidity 64%.
Blue entered this game with a chance to tie Green for the Session crown, but it was not to be – Red came out hitting, won or tied every one of the game’s innings, including one in which it did not bat, and rolled to a 20-7 victory.
Red scored five times in the first, the last four with two out, on eight consecutive singles after Joe Bernal got Bobby Miller to ground to second baseman Terry Thompson to start the game. Tim Bruton and Rick Kahn followed with singles. Adam Reddell knocked a hit up the middle, Tim scoring easily; Rick took a wide turn at second, and, when the throw in eluded the cut-off, tried for third, but he was thrown out 8-1-5, Pat Scott to Joe Bernal to Mike Mordecai. Didn’t matter, as the next five batters hit safely. Eddy Murillo then retired Blue 1-2-3 in the bottom half.
Red never gave up the lead established by Adam Reddell’s RBI single in the top of the first inning.
Red kept the merry-go-round spinning in the top of the second. Denny Malloy and Donald Drummer both walked to start the inning, and Bobby Miller and Tim Bruton followed with singles, Denny and Donald scoring. Rick Kahn doubled in Bobby; Tim stopped at third, then scored on Adam Reddell’s fly tor right. Rick took third on the play, then scored on Morgan Witthoft’s single up the middle.
That put Red up 10-0. Blue got on the board with three runs in the bottom of the second, on six singles, but left the bases loaded. Joe Bernal held Red to a single run on three singles in the top of the third, helping his own cause by starting a 1-4-3 double play, Terry Thompson on the pivot, for the first two outs of the inning. But Blue only managed one run in the home half, as George Brindley walked with one out and came around on singles by Joe Bernal and Terry Thompson.
Red ran up its lead by scoring four runs in the fourth and five in the fifth, knocking six hits in each frame. Tim Bruton and Rick Kahn hammered back-to back run-scoring doubles to left field in the fourth; Bobby Miller walloped a bases-loaded triple to the fence in right-center in the fifth.
Blue scored in the bottom of each inning, just not enough to keep pace. The bottom of the fourth began with a single by Billy Hill, a walk to Jerry Mylius, and a single by Mike Mordecai that scored Billy’s pinch-runner. But Eddy Murillo got three of the next four batters to fly out, Jeff Fisher delivering a two-out RBI single in between flies to Donald Drummer in right-center.
In the fifth, Richard Battle singled with one out, and came around three consecutive two-out singles, by Dale Fugate, Billy Hill, and Jerry Mylius, Billy and Jerry completing perfect days at the plate. Mike Mordecai ripped a fly to left-center, but Bobby Miller made a terrific play to run it down, Blue once more leaving the bases loaded.
With Red leading by a baker’s dozen, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Tommy Gillis led off with a single, but Eddy Murillo finished up a superb performance as he had begun it, retiring the first three batters in Blue’s order – Pat Scott on a liner to shortstop Tim Bruton; Jeff Fisher on a grounder back to the box, Tommy forced at second; and George Brindley on a fly to left fielder Rick Kahn. Eddy held the first four batters in Blue lineup to a collective 2 for 14 with one walk. Final score: Red 20, Blue 7. Green wins the Session 3 title.
Final standings – Session Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Green 10 6 .625 — 219 184 +35 L1
Purple 9 7 .563 1 201 194 + 7 L1
Blue 9 7 .563 1 201 199 + 2 L1
Red 8 8 .500 2 210 208 + 2 W1
Orange 9 9 .500 2 223 227 – 4 W2
Gray 8 8 .500 2 184 208 -24 L2
Maroon 4 12 .250 6 196 214 -18 W1
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Green 4-4 6-2 2 0-1 4-0 2-1
Purple 3-5 6-2 2 1-1 1-4 2-3
Blue 5-3 4-4 2 1-0 1-2 2-3
Red 3-5 5-3 1 0-0 3-1 1-1
Orange 3-6 6-3 1 0-0 4-3 3-1
Gray 4-4 4-4 1 0-0 1-3 2-0
Maroon 2-6 2-6 0 0-0 1-2 0-3
Session Three umpires:
Daniel Baladez – 1
Richard Battle – 2
Dave Berra – 4
George Brindley – 1
Jeff Broussard – 3
David Brown – 4
Tim Bruton – 1
Gary Coyle – 5
Jack Crosley – 6
Spike Davidson – 3
Mark Dolan – 2
Donald Drummer – 3
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Jeff Fisher – 3
Anthony Galindo – 1
Mike Garrison – 4
Alvin Gauna – 1
Tommy Gillis – 2
Fritz Hensel – 1
Billy Hill – 1
Mike Hill – 3
Rex Horvath – 5
Donnie Janac – 2
Rick Jensen – 6
Jack Kelly – 5
Tom Kelm – 3
Marvin Krabbenhoft – 3
Jim Maloy – 2
Jack McDermott – 2
Bobby Miller – 2
Mike Mordecai – 1
Eddy Murillo – 7
Eddie Ortiz – 1
Adam Reddell – 6
Joe Roche – 2
George Romo – 1
Steve Sandall – 1
Pat Scott – 3
Larry Shupe – 3
Jack Spellman – 2
Jeff Stone – 6
Terry Thompson – 3
Mike Velaney – 2
Trey Wall – 2
Morgan Witthoft – 3
Chunky Wright – 4
Rip Wright – 1
Scott Wright – 4
Larry Young – 7
2024 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gray Green Maroon Orange Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 2 1 4 4 2 3 16
Gray 4 X 3 3 4 0 4 18
Green 3 2 X 4 2 4 4 19
Maroon 1 3 3 X 4 0 3 14
Orange 1 2 3 2 X 3 2 13
Purple 4 2 3 5 3 X 1 18
Red 4 2 2 1 4 4 X 17
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 17 13 15 19 21 13 17 115
Cumulative Standings, Sessions Two and Three:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Green 19 11 .633 — 397 348 +49 L1
Purple 16 12 .571 2 356 317 +39 L1
Gray 16 12 .571 2 327 336 – 9 L2
Red 16 14 .533 3 413 390 +23 W1
Blue 13 16 .448 5.5 341 364 -23 L1
Maroon 12 18 .400 7 380 390 -10 W1
Orange 11 20 .355 8.5 357 426 -69 W2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Green 8- 8 10-3 5 1-1 5-1 5-3
Purple 7- 8 9-4 2 1-1 2-6 2-5
Gray 7- 5 8-7 3 0-0 3-4 6-2
Red 6- 8 10-5 1 0-1 7-1 2-4
Blue 7- 7 6-8 3 1-0 2-3 3-3
Maroon 4-11 7-7 1 0-0 2-4 1-4
Orange 5-10 6-9 1 0-0 4-6 5-3
Season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 6
Ken Brown – 3
David Kruse – 3
Gregory Bied – 2
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Clint Fletcher – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
David Brown – 1
Jack Crosley – 1
Jeff Fisher – 1
Anthony Galindo – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Tommy Gillis – 1
Doc Hobar – 1
Rex Horvath – 1
Denny Malloy – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Eddie Ortiz -1
David Pittard – 1
Joe Roche – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Morgan Witthoft – 1
Schedule for Thursday September 5:
10:00 a.m.: Green at Maroon, Orange umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Orange at Red, Green umpiring
Noon: Blue at Gray, Red umpiring
Purple has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: First games of Session 4! Kicking off the season’s final session, Session 3 champs Green will face Maroon, which finished last for the session but has been on the upswing, winning three of its last five. Orange and Red each won their final game of last session to finish at .500 – they square off at 11:00. Blue and Gray, which finished last session with losses, will try to get back on track at noon. Session 3 ended with six of the seven teams within two games of first place. Will that kind of parity obtain in Session 4? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Keggy and Mrs. K are on the last day of our month-long escape from Austin’s swelter, driving back from New Mexico tomorrow. Picayune deliveries should be more timely for the rest of this season (famous last words). I’m presenting this dog and bobcat for no symbolic reasons, I just like them. Enjoy your holiday weekend!