B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 15 – for April 30, 2026
Department of Corrections: I once again failed to note a couple players who had perfect days at the plate. This past Monday Fritz Hensel went 2 for 2 with a walk for Maroon, and Patrick Schmidt went 3 for 3 for Purple. The Picayune regrets the omissions.
Games of Thursday April 30:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (3-4) at Green (2-4):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 5 0 1 0 6 12 Green 2 5 3 5 X 15 Pitchers: Gray – Luis Sanchez (innings 1 and 2) and Jack Kelly (innings 3 and 4); Green – Rex Horvath. Mercenaries: Gray – Daniel Baladez, Phil Stanch, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Adam Reddell and Peter Atkins; bases – Dave Berra and Pat Scott. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jim McAnelly (2 for 2 with a walk); Green – Gary Coyle and Mike Garrison (both 3 for 3 with two doubles), Spike Davidson (1 for 1 with a walk), Larry Fiorentino (3 for 3 with two doubles and a home run), and Jim Maloy (2 for 2). Home runs: Larry Fiorentino (inside the park) (1) and Terry O'Brien (inside the park) (1).
Weather report: 65 degrees, felt like 65; 91% humidity; wind from the North at 5 MPH; cloudy.
Green put together a solid offensive performance, putting up crooked numbers in each of its four innings, and hitting about equally well versus both Gray hurlers, scoring seven runs in two innings against Luis Sanchez, eight runs in two innings against Jack Kelly.
Gray jumped to an early lead, scoring five runs on six singles in the top of the first, five of its first six batters hitting safely. With the bases loaded, two in, and one out, Jack Kelly hit a hard grounder down the first-base side that Ivan Budiselic made a fine play on, fielding the ball cleanly and making a strong, accurate throw home to catcher Boo Resnick for the second out. But this only briefly delayed Gray’s drive for five, as Scott Wright stepped up and lined a hit to right field that cleared the bases, with Clint Fletcher, running for Jack, scoring from first on what was basically a single.
Green got two back in the home half, as Mike Garrison led off with a double and one out later Larry Fiorentino hammered a drive to the fence in center field for an inside-the-park home run, his first of the season, as seen here:
(Green team mascot Sternicular the Slugmaxxer seemed more concerned with the possibility of rain than with the question of why Larry was wearing his Visser jersey.)
Rex Horvath held Gray scoreless in the top of the second, working around Daniel Baladez’s one-out single, and Green took the lead with five runs in the bottom half, on Ivan Budiselic’s lead-off walk, three singles, an RBI force-out grounder by Boo Resnick, a pop-fly double to left field by Mike Garrison, and Terry O’Brien’s rally-capping single to center field.
Gray scored a single run in the top of the third. Clint Fletcher led off with a double to center field. Luis Sanchez came up and drove a pitch to deep right-center field – off the bat, it looked like it had gapped the outfielders, Larry Fiorentino in right-center and Jim Maloy in right, but Larry made a great read on the ball, raced back and to his left, and made a tremendous over-the-shoulder catch to rob Luis of extra bases. With Larry’s momentum taking him away from the infield, Clint was able to tag up and score from second on the sacrifice fly. It was the best defensive play of the day, in my opinion, and one of the best of this season to date.
Green then won the inning by scoring three times in the bottom half, good defensive plays limiting them. Larry Fiorentino doubled and Doc Hobar walked to open the inning. Gary Coyle hit a pop-fly double down the left-field side, Larry scoring. Rex Horvath’s single through the 5-6 hole drove in both Doc and Gary. Ivan Budiselic lined a ball up the middle that Luis Sanchez, in his first inning on the mound, managed to deflect to shortstop Clint Fletcher, whose flip to second baseman Mike Velaney beat Mike Garrison, running for Rex, to the bag. Jim Foelker then made a nice catch in left-center field of Tom Brownfield’s short fly, catching it at his shoetop. Jim Maloy lined a single through the 5-6 hole and Spike Davidson, making his 2026 debut today as a designated hitter, drew a walk to load the bases. Boo Resnick got hold of a pitch and drove it to left center, but Jim Foelker ran it down and made the catch to end the inning.
Rex Horvath held Gray scoreless again in the fourth, working around singles by Phil Stanch and Jim Foelker, and Green built its lead to 15-6 with five runs on eight hits in the bottom half. The big hit came after Mike Garrison led off with a single: Terry O’Brien lined a ball down the right side, fair by a foot or so, that rolled to the far corner, Terry easily circling the bases for his first home run of the season. Here is Terry’s swing:
(Sternicular’s pretty concerned about the possibility of precipitation. Dude needs to chill.)
Larry Fiorentino followed Terry’s homer with a double, and the next five batters singled, three more runs scoring, though there was an out mixed in there – Doc Hobar low liner up the middle clipped Larry, on the foot I believe, for the only out of the inning.
Chasing nine runs in the top of the buffet, Gray put together a very good inning, scoring six runs on four singles, doubles by Clint Fletcher and Phil Stanch, and walks drawn by Jack Kelly and Mike Velaney. The first two outs were sacrifice flies, by Scott Wright to Jim Maloy in right field and Jim Foelker to Larry Fiorentino in right-center. Mike’s walk actually got the tying run to the plate, but the game ended with Rex Horvath getting Clint, batting for the second time in the inning and looking to complete a 4-for-4 game, to pop out to second baseman Tom Brownfield.
Final score: Green 15, Gray 12
11:30 a.m.: Orange (4-2) at Red (1-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 1 5 5 2 3 16 Red 0 4 1 5 0 10 Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Orange – Jack McDermott; Red – David Brown and Patrick Schmidt; Jim Foelker entered for Rip Wright in the second inning. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Larry Fiorentino. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Peter Atkins (3 for 3 with a walk, two doubles, and a triple), Tommy Deleon (2 for 2 with a walk – Ohtani Award), Matt Levitt (3 for 3), and Adam Reddell (4 for 4 with two doubles); Red – David Brown (1 for 1 with a walk and a home run), Tommy Gillis (3 for 3), Johnny Lee (1 for 1 with two walks), and Patrick Schmidt (2 for 2). Home runs: David Brown (inside the park) (1), Tim Coles (over the fence) (2).
Weather update: much the same, maybe a few degrees warmer.
Orange manager Dave Berra tasked his team with scoring five times in the first inning, and we abjectly failed him, managing just a single run, as Peter Atkins tripled and scored on Adam Reddell’s double. But we did manage to win the inning, as Tommy Deleon held Red scoreless in the home half, allowing only a two-out single to Tommy Gillis.
Orange wound up leading pillar to post, as it won each of the first three innings, steadily building its lead. Peter Atkins and Adam Reddell led the offense, going a combined 7 for 7 with a walk, five of their hits going for extra bases. Peter’s double and Adam’s single capped a five-run outburst in the second inning.
Red got on the board with four runs in the bottom of the second, its first four batters reaching: Tim Coles doubled leading off, Trent Peacock singled, Johnny Lee drew a walk to load the bases, and Jim Foelker, who’d entered and taken over in right field for Rip Wright, singled in Tim. Red looked poised for a five-run inning, but third baseman Adam Reddell made a fine defensive play to relieve the pressure: he fielded Marvin Krabbenhoft’s grounder cleanly, ran to third and stepped on the base for the force there, and then chased Trent to the commit line, forcing him, Trent, to pass it before he, Adam, flipped to catcher Hal Darman to complete the 5u., 5-2 double play. David Brown followed with a three-run inside-the-park home run, as seen here:
Clearly the weight work has been paying off for David, not that Red mascot Femicular the Speedmaxxer noticed, concerned as he was with the gathering rain clouds.
Orange responded by scoring five runs on seven hits by its four-through-ten hitters in the top of the third without making an out: five singles and doubles by Mark Hernandez and Jack McDermott, balls that were absolutely crushed. Red got just one back in the home half: Tommy Gillis singled leading off, advanced on Anthony Galindo’s walk, tagged and took third on Tim Coles’s fly to Matt Levitt in left-center, and scored on Trent Peacock’s ground out to second baseman Jack McDermott. Johnny Lee drew his second walk to extend the inning, but Matt made a good running catch of Jim Foelker’s drive to left-center for the third out.
Peter Atkins and Adam Reddell each scored for Orange in the fourth, Peter drawing a one-out walk, Adam knocking a single, the pair advancing and scoring on hits by Mark Hernandez and Tommy Deleon.
Red got back in the game by scoring five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Tommy Deleon caught Marvin Krabbenhoft looking at a called strike three to start the frame, then walked David Brown and allowed a single to Patrick Schmidt. Mark Dolan hit a humpback liner up the middle; Orange shortstop Jack Spellman made a good play diving to his left to catch the ball on the hop, then shovel the ball to Jack McDermott covering the bag for the force. Whatever good I did with that play I immediately undid by muffing Tommy Gillis’s high pop just behind second base, a catchable ball that instead fell in for a hit. David scored on that ball, and Patrick scored on Anthony Galindo’s single. Tim Coles then capped the rally by slugging an over-the-fence, no-doubt-about-it home run to left center, a mammoth three-run shot, his second of the season, as seen here:
That cut Orange’s lead to 13-10 entering the buffet. Matt Levitt completed a 3-for-3 game by leading off with a single. He took third on Jack McDermott’s one-out base hit, and tagged up and scored on Jack Spellman’s drive to right-center, Anthony Galindo making a good catch about six inches off the ground of the sinking liner. Peter Atkins and Adam Reddell then capped their excellent days by each knocking a double, Adam driving in Jack McDermott and Peter with his knock.
That extended Orange’s advantage to six runs. Trent Peacock and Johnny Lee opened the bottom of the buffet with singles. Jim Foelker scorched a one-hopper right at shortstop Jack Spellman, the ball hit so hard that even a runner as fast as Jim couldn’t beat out the ensuing 6-4-3 double play, Jack McDermott making an excellent pivot despite Spellman’s low feed. Marvin Krabbenhoft made a bid to extend the game with a drive to right field, but Pat Scott got an excellent jump on the ball and made a running catch for the game-ending out.
Final score: Orange 16, Red 10
Tommy Deleon earned his second Ohtani Award of the season, going 2 for 2 with a walk while pitching Orange to victory. The award was presented to him by Toka Ebisu, the Japanese god of good fortune.
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (4-1) at Purple (1-5):
1 2 3 4 FINAL Maroon 4 5 4 1 14 Purple 3 5 0 1 9 Pitchers: Maroon – David Pittard; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Maroon – Trent Peacock and Jack Spellman; Purple – Larry Fiorentino. Umpires: home – Marvin Krabbenhoft; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Brown (2 for 2 with a walk), Fritz Hensel (3 for 3), Trent Peacock (2 for 2), and Allen Phillips (2 for 2 with a walk); Purple – Ray Pilgrim (2 for 2 with a double) and Patrick Schmidt (2 for 2).
A lot of offense early on in this contest. Maroon’s first three batters singled, loading the bases, and Ken Brown walked to push across the game’s first run. Scott Wright pulled a sharp grounder down the first-base side; Shane Hill took a hit away with a good play on the ball, but Scott still got two RBI on the play, as both George Brindley and Steve Browne scored on the play. Ken Brown might have taken third on the play – I think it was Joe Roche who pointed out just how much speed Maroon has in its lineup, particularly in the first four slots, and it’s a true fact. Whether it was from third or from second, Ken then scored the fourth run of the inning on Fritz Hensel’s single. The inning ended with Jimmy Sneed turning a 6u., 6-3 double play on David Pittard’s grounder up the middle.
Purple got three runs back in the home half, as its first three batters hit safely and scored: Peter Sundquist singled, Jimmy Sneed doubled, and the two of them scored on Ray Pilgrim’s single. A single by Phil Stanch and a walk drawn by Billy Hill loaded the bases with one out. Joe Roche grounded into a 4-6 force, Jack McDermott to Jack Spellman, Ray scoring. Rick Jensen lined a ball up the middle, but right-center fielder Ken Brown charged it, playing it on one hop, and fired to second to force out Joe.
Both teams scored five times in the second inning, Maroon on three singles, a walk, Jack McDermott’s sacrifice fly to Larry Fiorentino in right-center, and Steve Browne’s inside-the-park home run, his first of the season, a drive to center that gapped the outfielders and rolled to the fence, as seen here:
Purple responded with five runs on five singles and Ray Pilgrim’s three-run double, an impressive drive to the fence in center field. (Ray drove in five runs with his two hits.) Jack Spellman made a good-looking play to his backhand to get a force out on Larry Fiorentino’s grounder, but, as in the 11:30 game, immediately undid the good with a misplay, bobbling a grounder, I think by Jimmy Sneed, that set up Ray’s big hit.
Maroon kept hitting in the third inning, scoring four runs on seven singles despite useless mercenary Jack Spellman grounding into a 1-6-3 double play. David Pittard then threw a scoreless bottom half, working around Joe Roche’s two-out single.
Maroon pushed across a single run in the fourth. Ken Brown singled with one out and Fritz Hensel with two out. Walked drawn by David Pittard and Allen Phillips brought Ken around to score. Jack Spellman, continuing his uselessness, drove a ball to right field, but Phil Stanch made a good catch of the liner tailing away from him.
Purple got that run back in the bottom half. Patrick Schmidt led off with a single. Larry Shupe hit a hard grounder to the 5-6 hole, but Spellman was able to backhand it, set, and throw to Jack McDermott covering second, Jack making a good play on a low peg. Larry Fiorentino’s single sent Larry Shupe to third, and Peter Sundquist’s fly to Ken Brown in right-center was deep enough to bring him home. Jimmy Sneed grounded a ball to Spellman’s right, he again made a play to his backhand and got the force at second, despite a lousy feed, Jack McDermott saving my skin once again.
As Purple headed out to take the field for the buffet, the sky continued to darken, and then there was a bright lightning flash just to the south, and an immediate thunder crack. Everyone agreed that standing in a steel-enclosed field while holding aluminum bats wasn’t the greatest idea ever: the game was declared over and people headed to their cars. I was barely out of the lot when the deluge hit. Hope everyone made it home safely.
Final score: Maroon 14, Purple 9
2026 standings:
| Final Session 1 standings: | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 5 | 1 | .833 | 0 | 79 | 59 | 20 | W4 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | .667 | 1 | 85 | 86 | -1 | W3 |
| Gray | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1.5 | 80 | 77 | 3 | W1 |
| Red | 3 | 3 | .500 | 2 | 85 | 79 | 6 | W1 |
| Orange | 3 | 4 | .429 | 2.5 | 71 | 83 | -12 | L3 |
| Maroon | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 65 | 73 | -8 | L3 |
| Green | 1 | 5 | .167 | 4 | 71 | 79 | -8 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 4-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 2-1 | 2-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-1 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 2-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Orange | 2-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2-1 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 0-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | ||
| Green | 1-2 | 0-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-2 | ||
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 11 | |
| Gray | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | |
| Orange | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 45 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Ralph Villela – 3
Tim Coles – 2
Tony Garcia – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
David Brown – 1
Steve Browne – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Larry Fiorentino – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
Terry O’Brien – 1
George Romo – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 4 (March 2, March 19, March 30, April 16)
Ray Pilgrim: 3 (March 5, March 23, March 26)
Tommy Deleon: 2 (April 6, April 30)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Monday May 4:
10:30 a.m.: Purple (1-6) at Gray (3-5), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (6-0) at Maroon (5-1), Gray umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green (3-4) at Orange (5-2), Maroon umpiring
Red has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: First Another battle for first place is in store, with Blue, returning from the bye today, putting its ten-game winning streak on the line at 11:30 versus second-place Maroon, which will have home-field advantage. Maroon, riding its own four-game winning streak, is the only team that has beaten Blue so far this season. Gray and Purple will be the warm-up act for that game, facing off at 10:30, Gray looking to improve to 3-0 on the season versus Purple. Both teams are looking to end losing streaks – Purple lost today, Gray has dropped its last three. At 12:30, Green and Orange will each try (and one will fail) to extend a one-game winning streak. They split the first two games they played against each other. Will someone bring Bantha milk for us to enjoy on Star Wars Day this coming Monday? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Podcast review: The Bugle
Describing itself as “an audio newspaper for a visual world,” this UK-based weekly satirical news podcast is reliably funny in an increasingly unfunny world. Originated by John Oliver and Andy Zaltzman in 2007, it’s been hosted by Zaltzman alone since 2016, it has been hosted by Zaltzman with a rotating cast of regular guests including Nish Kumar, Anuvab Pal, Hari Kondabolu, Tom Ballard, Tiff Stevenson, Helen Zaltzman, and the great Alice Fraser. It’s heavy on UK news and politics, but ranges far afield. It’s late, not much to add, I should have written this earlier. I’ll just note that I like it a lot, it generally makes me laugh. Recommended listening speed: Regular speed, the jokes and comments fly fast. New England content: If something newsworthy emanates, sure. Canadian content: Ditto.
Rating: 