B League news for Thursday July 24, 2025

B League Picayune

Often in error, never in doubt.

Volume 7, Issue 37 – July 24, 2025

Today’s games were moved to Krieg field 3 in order to stay clear of painting going on around the field 2 concessions building.

Games of Thursday July 24:

10:30 a.m., Orange (6-2) at Maroon (6-2):

		1	2	3	4     BUFFET  FINAL
Orange		4	0	2	0	0	 6
Maroon		3	2	0	5	X	10

Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Orange – Tom Brownfield, Paul Rubin, Jack Spellman, Ralph Villela, and Chris Waddell; Maroon – George Brindleyu. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Hal Darman. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3); Maroon – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a double) and Bobby Miller (3 for 3 with a triple). 

Battle for first place was a well-played game. Brown jumped off to an early lead, scoring four runs in the top of the first on five singles and Ray Pilgrim’s double, the last four hits, by Marvin Krabbenhoft and mercenaries Ralph Villela, Jack Spellman, and Tom Brownfield, coming with two out. Jeff Stone stranded the potential fifth run at third by freezing Paul Rubin with a called strike three on an unhittable pitch that clipped the front edge of the mat.

Maroon then got three runs back in the home half. David Brown made a good play on Ken Brown’s grounder to shortstop leading off the frame, charging the ball and in one smooth motion making a solid throw to first baseman Tom Brownfield that beat Ken by half a step – it was out of an Adam Everett instructional video. Bobby Miller followed with a triple to right field, a quick relay back to the infield keeping him from earning a Pluckers coupon. Four of the next five batters singled, Tony Garcia driving in Bobby and Tom Kelm and Jimmie Maloy knocking home Tony and Jeff Stone.

Jeff Stone threw a scoreless top of the second, working around Ray Pilgrim’s two-out single, and Maroon took the lead with two runs in the home half as the first four batters hit safely: Steve Hamlett beat out an infield single, George Brindley doubled him to third, and they both scored on Ken Brown’s single. Bobby Miller’s single put runners on first and second, but Ray Pilgrim worked out of the jam, getting Tony Garcia to line out to second and Jeff Stone to ground into a 4-6-3 double play, Jack Spellman to David Brown, who made a beautiful pivot and throw to Tom Brownfield, beating Jeff by a step.

Orange grabbed the lead back with two runs in the top of the third, on five singles, but left the bases loaded, Jeff Stone grabbing David Brown’s liner back to the box for the third out.

Maroon got two runners on in the bottom half, on Don Solberg’s lead-off walk and Ivan Budiselic’s two-out single. Steve Hamlett made a bid for extra bases with a screaming line drive down the left-field side on a two-strike pitch, but it was foul by about a foot, ending the inning.

Orange didn’t score in the top of the fourth, Jeff Stone getting Marvin Krabbenhoft to line out to left fielder Don Solberg after Larry Shupe knocked a two-out single.

Maroon exploded for five runs in the bottom of that inning, the first seven batters hitting safely – six singles and a Ken Brown double. Jeff Stone was thrown out trying to stretch his RBI hit to right-center into a double, cut down 9-4 by a strong throw by Ralph Villela. Ivan Budiselic drove in the fifth run with a two-out single.

Orange trailed 10-6 entering the buffet, with its mercenaries due up. Ralph Villela drove a ball to deep left field, but Don Solberg was very well positioned and hardly had to move from his spot, about ten feet in front of the fence, to make the catch. Jack Spellman followed with a drive to left-center that Bobby Miller caught, also without having to move. Tom Brownfield singled, completing a 3-for-3 game, but the game ended with Paul Rubin grounding a ball up the middle that Jimmy Sneed turned into a 6-4 force. Final score: Maroon 10, Orange 6, Maroon extending its winning streak to five games and taking over first place for the session.

11:30 a.m., Green (4-3) at Purple (4-3):

		1	2	3	4	5     BUFFET  FINAL
Green		4	0	4	5	3	X	16
Purple 	        0	3	0	4	1	5	13

Pitchers: Green – Greg Lloyd; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Green – Johnny Lee; Purple – David Pittard and Larry Shupe. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – Jim Maloy and Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Green – Donnie Janac (3 for 3) and Chris Waddell (3 for 3 with a double); Purple – Larry Shupe (4 for 4 with a double). 

Weather report: The KXAN app says the temperature was 90 degrees, felt like 98, with 54% humidity, wind from the South at 4 MPH. Sunny day, a challenge for the fielders at Krieg 3, as the sun was in their eyes.

This game started inauspiciously for Spike Davidson and Purple. Spike got Ralph Villela to hit a pop to second base to open the game, but Larry Young dropped it and Ralph was safe. Spike then got Greg Lloyd to hit a grounder to shortstop Rick Jensen, but Rick threw a grounder to Larry covering second, and the ball rolled past, both runners safe. Doc Hobar hit a clean single to right-center, Ralph scoring easily. Chris Waddell skied a ball to left-center, very high and deep, and Larry Shupe wasn’t able to make the play. (No criticism of Larry intended – I would have failed to catch it as well. But we’ve got some good outfielders in this league who I’m pretty sure would have made the play.) Greg scored on the hit. So instead of getting three outs and a scoreless inning, Spike found himself in a 2-0 hole. Moments later Doc came in on Phil Stanch’s 4-3 ground out, and then Donnie Janac singled in Chris. Purple never did escape this hole.

Purple did not score in the home half, the inning ending on a fine play by second baseman Doc Hobar, who moved to his right to field Raul Deleon’s hard grounder up the middle and flipped to Ralph Villela for the 4-6 force.

Spike retired the side in order in the top of the second, and Purple got on the board with three runs in the bottom half, as the first six batters reached base – Mark Hernandez doubled leading off, Fritz Hensel and Spike Davidson singled, Larry Young walked, and Larry Shupe and David Pittard singled. With three runs in, the bases loaded, and none out, Purple seemed poised to take the lead, and Rick Jensen thought he’d tied the game when he took a 3-1 pitch for what he thought was ball four. But plate umpire Jeff Stone called it a strike, and Greg Lloyd commenced to escape the jam: he got Rick to foul off a pitch for strike three, Richard Battle to pop out to shortstop Ralph Villela, and caught Henry Flores looking at a called strike three.

Green then extended its lead to 8-3 with four runs in the top of the third on base hits by the first six batters – Greg Lloyd’s lead-off pop-fly double to right, followed by five singles. With four runs in, runners on first and second, and none out, it was Spike Davidson’s turn to squash the rally: he got Billy Hill to pop out to second baseman Larry Young, and both Chunky Wright and Johnny Lee to ground into 6-5 force outs, Rick Jensen to David Pittard.

Greg Lloyd faced just three hitters in the bottom of the third. After Raul Deleon flied out to left-center and Mark Hernandez popped out to shortstop, Fritz Hensel knocked a grounder off Greg’s glove toward shortstop Ralph Villela; Ralph’s throw sailed past first baseman Johnny Lee; Raul, running from home for Fritz, forgot that in B League (unlike C League), a runner from home can’t advance on an overthrow (throws into the dugout or out of the field of play excepted), and took off for second, and was called out.

Green then scored five times without making an out in the top of the fourth: the top four batters in the lineup led off with singles, two runs scoring; Buddy Gaswint tripled in two more; and Phil Stanch singled home Buddy.

Green led 14-3 at this point, but to its credit, Purple didn’t quit, scoring four runs after two were out in the bottom of the inning, on singles by its 1-4 hitters.

Four of Green’s first five hitters singled to start the fifth inning, two runs scoring on Johnny Lee’s hit, which really was an extra-base knock, a drive to right-center that reached the fence, though his runner had to stop at first. That runner took third on Ralph Villela’s single and scored on Greg Lloyd’s force-out grounder. The inning ended with Rick Jensen making another 6-4 force on a nice play to his backhand to grab Doc Hobar’s one-hop smash to Rick’s right.

Purple got a single run back in the bottom of the fifth, Larry Shupe’s double to left field rolling to the fence and driving in Spike Davidson’s runner from first.

With Purple trailing 16-8, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Purple had the top of its order up, and its first six batters singled, though not all the balls were well hit – there were a couple of short, looping knocks, and Fritz Hensel’s grounder to second was mishandled at first. Those hits resulted in four runs scoring. Greg Lloyd finally got Spike Davidson to line out to left fielder Donnie Janac for the first out, and Larry Young to ground into a 4-6 force for the second. Larry Shupe singled up the middle to drive in Mark Hernandez, cutting Green’s lead to three runs. David Pittard worked a base on balls, bringing the top of the order up again, the tying run at the plate. But Rick Jensen’s bid to find the 5-6 hole just missed, third baseman Chris Waddell fielding the grounder and stepping on third for the final out. Final score: Green 16, Purple 13, Green taking sole possession of third place for the session.

12:30 p.m., Blue (1-6) at Red (3-6):

		1	2	3	4     BUFFET  FINAL
Blue		5	5	2	4	2	18
Red		5	3	0	0	9	17

Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon and David Pittard (took over in the second inning, details below; Red – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Blue – Raul Deleon and Ray Pilgrim; Red – Tim Coles, Henry Flores, Mark Hernandez, Jeff Stone, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brown (4 for 4), Joe Dayoc (3 for 3 with a double), Tommy Deleon (1 for 1), and Rip Wright (3 for 3); Red – Dale Fugate and Mark Hernandez (both 4 for 4). 

This came so, so close to being the ultimate unicorn of a B League game: a flip-flop game that was almost won by the team trailing when the flip-flop was invoked but instead was won by walk-off (and one run) by the visiting team. It also almost went into an extra inning. It was a wild, wild finish.

Blue came out hot and looked more like the Session 2 champion than the Session 3 cellar dweller, scoring five runs in each of its first two at bats while making just one out, on Daniel Baladez’s liner back to the mound after the first six batters reached to start the game, on five singles and Jimmy Sneed’s walk. In the second inning Blue scored on four singles, two walks, and Jimmy’s double.

Red managed to stay fairly close over the first two innings, scoring five runs on seven singles while making just one out in the first, then three runs on three singles and Anthony Galindo’s double in the second. Chris Waddell led off the second with a single and was forced at second on Henry Flores’s grounder to shortstop. Jack Spellman then came up, took Tommy Deleon’s first pitch for a strike (it was hittable and landed in the middle of the mat, I should have swung). The next pitch was on the inside half, but I didn’t want to pull it, but also I couldn’t really go to right with it; instead I hit it very hard right back up the middle, a one-hopper that banged off Tommy’s left leg, up toward the knee. It sounded like it hit the bone. Tommy, who’s tough as nails, left the game, with Ray Pilgrim entering to play third, David Pittard taking over on the mound, and I just feeling terrible about myself.

Tommy’s leg, afterward.

Close-up of the contusion.

Blue’s onslaught continued in the top of the third, five of the first six hitters, including Ray Pilgrim, knocking singles, two runs scoring and the bases loaded with one out and the top of the order up. But Red escaped thanks to an outstanding defensive play by Mark Dolan, in his first game back from his broken wrist, playing right-center. Steve Sandall lined a ball Mark’s way – off the bat, I thought for certain it would be a hit, and so did David Pittard; pinch-running for Joe Dayoc at second base, David took off for third. But Mark made a great first step toward the ball, caught it chest high, and hurried a throw in to second to double up David, an F-9, 9-6 double play to end the inning.

Blue turned the tables with its own inning-ending double play in the bottom half. Jeff Stone’s walk and singles by Mark Hernandez and Chris Waddell loaded the bases with one out. Henry Flores hit a sharp grounder to the 5-6 hole; shortstop Jimmy Sneed made the play and threw to Ray Pilgrim at third for the force on Mark, and Ray’s peg to Tom Brownfield at second beat Chris to the bag, for a 6-5-4 double play, no run scoring on the play.

More hitting by Blue in the top of the fourth: four runs on five singles and Joe Dayoc’s double. Joe’s two-run knock came after Jack Spellman failed to corral Rip Wright’s liner to Spellman’s backhand – it was in my glove until it wasn’t. Rip’s and Joe’s hits both completed 3-for-3 games at the plate.

Trailing 16-8, Red failed to score in the bottom of the fourth, and the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. David Pittard got two quick outs to start the inning, Tim Coles popping out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed and Jeff Stone flying out to George Brindley in right-center. I’d moved out to coach third base and took some pictures, because I’ve been remiss at this.

Here’s David pitching, to Jeff Stone.

Here are Jimmy Sneed and Ray Pilgrim in field. (I thought it would be more photojournalistic to make it black and white.)

While I was noodling around with my phone camera, something remarkable happened: 11 consecutive Red batters hit safely, everyone in the lineup (and Mark Hernandez twice) coming through with two-out singles, nine runs scoring and Red taking the lead, 17-16.

Steve Sandall fields Mark Hernandez’s hit, which started the nine-run rally. Mark’s second hit of the inning drove in Red’s final, go-ahead run and completed Mark’s 4-for-4 game at the plate.