B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 10 – April 10, 2023
Games of Thursday April 6 were cancelled due to rain.
Weather: An overcast spring day, with games moved to Krieg 1 due to field 2 being waterlogged from the past week’s rain. It was 62 degrees with 92% humidity at the start of the first game, starting time moved back about 40 minutes to give PARD time to prep the field. Clouds never really cleared, and it didn’t get much warmer.
Games of Monday April 10:
10:30 a.m., Maroon (2-0) at Green (1-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 5 4 0 1 5 X 15 Green 5 1 0 0 0 2 8 Pitchers: Maroon – Joe Bernal (1-5) and Tom Kelm (buffet); Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenary: Green – Terry Thompson (entered for Jeff Fisher in the buffet). Umpires: home plate – Rick Jensen; bases – Jim McAnelly; scoreboard – Jack Spellman. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Brown (2 for 2 with a double), Rex Horvath (3 for 3 with a triple), and Dave Jaffe and Peter Sundquist (each 3 for 3); Green – Gary Coyle (4 for 4), Clint Fletcher (4 for 4 with a double), and Terry Thompson (1 for 1).
A pretty low-scorig affair after each team scored five runs on seven singles in the first inning. Maroon got another four in the top of the second, with Peter Atkins legging out a lead-off triple and Peter Sundquist rounding the bases on what generally was agreed could not in any way be spun as a homerun. What happened was, Peter topped a ball about four feet in front of home plate, where it fell and died without bouncing on the soft dirt. Catcher Jeff Broussard made a quick play to get to it, but his necessarily hurried throw to first sailed past first baseman Ray Pilgrim and up the right-field side. Billy Hill’s pinch-runner scored from first on the play, closely followed by Peter. Rex Horvath followed with a triple to right-center and scored on Scott Wright’s single. Dave Jaffe followed with another single, but Mike Velaney fouled out to third baseman Gary Coyle to end the inning.
Colloquy of the day:
Mike Velaney, following his foul pop: “What a horrible swing.”
Jack Spellman, monotonally: “No, not at all.”
Peter Sundquist refused to accept a Pluckers coupon for his not-a-homerun – really, a single-plus-error. So here’s a picture of Peter and also a picture of the coupon he refused. But wait! What are those spectactular cleats Peter’s wearing? So glad you asked: They’re his new Beebes; Peter is the newest B League foot soldier (get it?) in the Beebe Army.
Green got a run back on three one-out singles in the bottom of the second, initiating a sequence of five half-innings in which a total of only two runs were scored, as both Joe Bernal and Chunky Wright pitched ridiculously well. Chunky retired the side on just four pitches in the top of the third, getting three straight ground outs. Buddy Gaswint led off the bottom half with a single, but Joe retired the next three hitters, on a fly to left-center and two 4-6 force outs. Maroon scored a single run in the fourth when Ken Brown doubled leading off and scored on Larry Shupe’s line-drive single over shortstop, but Chunky got three more ground outs in the inning. Joe worked around a pair of singles in the bottom of the frame.
Maroon put the game away with another five-run inning in the fifth, on five singles and Chris Villareal’s drive over the outfielders, which drove in the fourth and fifth runs. Joe Bernal got two quick outs in the bottom half, walked Jeff Broussard and gave up a single to Chunky Wright, then got Boo Resnick on a grounder to shortstop Rex Horvath, who threw to second for the inning-ending force.
With Maroon leading 15-9, the teams flip-flopped. Green put across two runs on four consecutive one-out singles, the last by Terry Thompson, in for Jeff Fisher, who’d taken himself out of the game due to an injured left shoulder. Ray Pilgrim came up and hit a ball hard but right at Rex Horvath, who started a game-ending 6-4-3 double play that put an end to Green’s four-game winning streak. Final score: Maroon 15, Green 8
11:30 a.m., Gray (0-2) at Purple (0-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 3 0 1 0 1 0 5 Purple 0 0 0 3 4 X 7 Pitchers: Gray – Jerry Mylius; Purple – Tommy Deleon. Umpires: home plate – Rex Horvath; bases – Johnny Lee. Perfect at the plate: Gray – David Kruse (2 for 2 with a double and a walk); Purple – Larry Bunton and Jack Crosley (each 2 for 2) and Ralph Villela (3 for 3).
More outstanding pitching and defense in this game, somehow won by Purple despite their being shut out over the first three innings and hitting into three double plays. Gray scored three times on five singles in the top of the first, with a great defensive play by new Purple shortstop Jim Aaron preventing more damage. With two runs in, runners on first and second, and one out, Jim made a diving play to his left to grab Rick Jensen’s hard grounder up the middle, then made a behind-his-back flip to second baseman Larry Bunton for a force out at second – the defensive play of the day. Greg Lloyd followed with an RBI single, but Ralph Villela gloved Daniel Carjaval’s line drive to third for the final out.
Gray managed just two more runs over the rest of the game, scoring once in the third (David Kruse walked, took third on Tom Brownfield’s single to left-center, and scored on Rick Kahn’s sacrifice fly to Jack Crosley in right field) and once in the fifth (Mick Parker singled with one out, took third on David Kruse’s double to left, and alertly tagged up and scored on Tom Brownfield’s sky-high pop to second baseman Larry Bunton, moving away from the plate to make the catch).
Purple had trouble getting untracked, managing just a single hit in the first (Ralph Villela singled with one out, but was erased on a 6u., 6-3 double play turned by David Kruse), a single hit in the second (Larry Bunton singled with two out), and two in the third (with Gray third baseman Rick Jensen starting an around-the-horn double play to short-circuit the rally).
After Tommy Deleon escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the fourth, Purple finally got on the board in the bottom half, scoring three times to cut Gray’s lead to 4-3. With the top of the order up, five of the first six batters hit safely: Doc Hobar, Ralph Villela, and Don Solberg singled to load the bases for Jim Aaron, who refused a walk and then smashed a three-run double to left field. Larry Bunton followed with single, putting runners representing the fourth and fifth runs of the inning on the corners, but Jerry Mylius got Mike Mordecai to ground to shortstop, David Kruse turning another 6u., 6-3 double play to end the inning.
Trailing 5-3 entering the bottom of the fifth, Purple finally grabbed the lead, scoring four times. Jack Crosley and Don Roets singled to start the inning, Jack taking third on Don’s hit to right field. Jack scored and Don took second when Tommy Deleon grounded out to second. After Marvin Krabbenhoft grounded out to shortstop, the next four batters singled, three runs scoring.
Umpire Rex Horvath thought that five runs had come across and sent Purple out to the field for the buffet. I’m pretty sure – 75%, maybe? – that Purple scored only four times, and so was actually protecting a 7-5, not an 8-5 lead. Didn’t matter: Tommy Deleon worked a 1-2-3 inning to close out the victory, getting Rick Jensen on a grounder back to the box, Greg Lloyd on a grounder to second baseman Don Roets, and Daniel Carjaval on a hard drive to left field, caught (I think) by Mike Mordecai. Final score: Purple 7, Gray 5
12:30 p.m., Gold (1-0) at Blue (1-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gold 0 0 3 1 2 5 11 Blue 0 0 2 3 5 0 10 Pitchers: Gold – Jeff Stone; Blue – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Gold – Hal Darman, Mike Mordecai, and Terry Thompson; Blue – Tom Brownfield. Umpires: home plate – Gil Delossantos; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Gold – Joe Roche (4 for 4 with a double and a; Blue - .
Apologies for a truncated recap and the lack of pictures – the former because I have a hard time reporting in a game I play in when there’s no scorecard available for the opponent, and the latter because my phone ran out of juice. This was yet another low-scoring, extremely well-pitched game, neither team getting on the board over the first two innings. Spike Davidson worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the top of the first; Jeff Stone got a 6-4-3 double-play grounder to end the bottom of the second, then helped himself in the next half-inning by knocking an RBI double to right field to score Joe Roche, whose opposite-field double to left-center had driven in Denny Malloy and Mike Garrison with the first two runs of the game.
Blue got two runs back in the bottom half, almost scored the tying run, but an 8-6-2 relay (Mike Garrison to Jack Spellman to Hal Darman) caught Anthony Galindo (I think) at home plate. In the next half inning it was Blue’s turn to snuff a rally with a relay play: Hal Darman’s two-out single to right-center scored Larry Young from second and would have scored Terry Thompson from first, but Hal tried for second on the play and was thrown out 9-4-6, Bobby Miller (I think) to Tom Brownfield (maybe) to George Romo (for sure). That kept Gold from extending its 4-2 lead.
Blue took the lead in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs. (No details, sorry.) Gold scored twice in the top of the fifth, as Mike Garrison doubled with one out and Joe Roche tripled him home, then scored on Jeff Stone’s sacrifice fly to left center. Blue came right back in the home half, scoring five times on a flurry of hits to go ahead 10-6 heading into the buffet.
Gold was down to its last out, with runners on first and second, after George Romo caught Terry Thompson’s line drive. Each of the next five hitters – Mike Mordecai, Hal Darman, Denny Malloy, Mike Garrison, and Joe Roche – singled, five runs scoring before Jeff Stone grounded out to shortstop to end the inning, with Gold now leading 11-10.
Blue had the top of its order due up and needed just one run to tie, two to win, but Jeff Stone pitched tremendously well. He got Bobby Miller to ground back to the box for the first out, and Richard Battle to ground to shortstop for the second, the throw to first beating Richard by a half-step. Anthony Galindo lined a ball to the right of shortstop Jack Spellman – I thought I had it lined up, but it dipped at the last second and ticked off my glove and into left field. I really should have caught it. Jeff, though, just shook it off and got George Romo to line a ball to left-center that hung up long enough for Mike Garrison to come in a few steps and to his right and catch it for the final out. Final score: Gold 11, Blue 10
Standings – Session Two:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Maroon 3 0 1.000 — 48 32 +16 W3
Gold 2 0 1.000 .5 25 23 + 2 W2
Green 1 1 .500 1.5 26 26 0 L1
Red 1 1 .500 1 26 29 – 3 W1
Blue 1 2 .333 2 49 48 + 1 L2
Purple 1 2 .333 2 26 34 – 8 W1
Gray 0 3 .000 3 36 44 – 8 L4
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Maroon 1-0 2-0 0 0-0 1-0 0-0
Gold 1-0 1-0 1 1-0 0-0 2-0
Green 0-1 1-0 0 0-0 1-1 0-0
Red 0-1 1-0 0 0-0 0-1 0-0
Blue 0-2 1-0 0 1-0 1-0 0-1
Purple 1-1 0-1 0 0-0 0-0 0-0
Gray 0-1 0-2 0 0-2 0-1 0-1
2023 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 1 2 0 0 1 0 4
Gold 1 X 1 1 0 0 0 3
Gray 0 1 X 0 0 0 1 2
Green 0 0 1 X 0 1 2 4
Maroon 1 1 0 2 X 1 0 5
Purple 0 0 1 0 1 X 1 3
Red 1 0 0 0 1 1 X 3
_____________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 3 3 5 3 2 4 4 24
Schedule for Thursday April 13:
10:30 a.m.: Green (1-1) at Blue (1-2), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (1-1) at Gold (2-0), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (3-0) at Gray (0-3), Gold umpiring
Purple has the bye – players from that team will have priority out of the bucket.
Preview: It’s first (Maroon, 3-0) versus last (Gray, 0-3) at 12:30, preceded by four teams currently separated by just a game and a half – the results of the first two games are almost guaranteed to shake up the standings.