B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 14 – for April 27, 2026
Many thanks to Dave Berra and David Brown, who covered my absence today with invaluable scoresheets (by Berra) and recaps (by Brown).
Games of Monday April 27:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (5-0) at Orange (4-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 4 5 0 1 5 X 15 Orange 0 3 1 0 1 3 8 Pitchers: Blue – Joe Bernal; Orange – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Blue – Bobby Miller; Orange – George Brindley, Tom Brownfield, Gary Coyle, Trent Peacock, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone and Steve Browne; bases – Mike Velaney, Jack McDermott, and Ken Brown. Perfect at the plate: Blue – David Brown (3 for 3 with a double), Lawrence Page (3 for 3), and George Romo (4 for 4 with a double); Orange – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a walk and a double) and Don Solberg (4 for 4 with a double and a triple).
Weather report: 80 degrees, felt like 85; 80% humidity; wind SSW at 8 MPH; cloudy; feels like New Orleans. (Not true – New Orleans was sunny and dry today).
A good pitching match-up for the early game on Monday with Tommy DeLeon taking the mound for Orange and Joe Bernal pitching for Blue. Ken Mockler got the Blue offense going with a line drive between the pitcher and SS for a single to center field. JC Schmeil hit the top of the ball on the next pitch and got a single on a ball that came to rest between home plate and third base. Joe Bernal singled on a line drive to right field which scored Ken’s pinch runner. Tom Bellavia hit a hard ground ball through the 5-6 hole which plated JC. George Romo scorched a line drive to left field which scored Joe. David Brown got a fly-ball single to right field which scored Tom for the fourth run of the inning. Daniel Baladez skied a ball that Orange SS Peter Atkins caught in short left field. Lawrence Page hit a ground ball up the middle which loaded the bases with one out. Donnie Janac lined a ball that 3B Gary Coyle reacted well to and caught for the second out of the inning. Mercenary Bobby Miller then hit a deep fly ball to right center field that mercenary George Brindley caught to end the half inning. Matt Levitt led off the bottom of the first inning with a line drive single to left field. Joe Bernal induced a Peter Atkins infield popup that 2B JC Schmeil turned into an out. Don Solberg hit a line drive to right field that put runners on the corners. Mark Hernandez then hit a grounder to SS David Brown who tossed to JC at 2B for out number two and JC then threw to 1B Daniel Baladez to record the third out of the inning and the first double play of the game for the Blue defense.
For the second time in the game, Ken Mockler led off an inning with a hard hit ball to center field. JC hit a ground ball to SS Peter Atkins who tossed to Tom Brownfield for the force at 2B and the only out of the inning. The next six batters in the Blue line up got base hits which produced five runs and a 9-0 lead. The Orange offense plated three in the bottom of the 2nd inning with a single by Gary Coyle, doubles by Tom Brownfield and George Brindley, and a triple by Trent Peacock. Orange would have scored more if not for a sterling play by JC Schmeil, who fielded a hard ground ball by mercenary Scott Wright in the 3-4 hole, spun, and threw a strike to David Brown at 2B for a 4-6 force out. Catcher Donnie Janac got the third out of the inning on a pop up behind the plate.
Shutdown Tommy DeLeon took matters into his own hands in the top of the 3rd inning. Donnie Janac hit a pop up to catcher Trent Peacock, who made a nice running grab moving toward the 1B dugout. Bobby Miller hit a line-drive single to center field, but he was stranded at 1B as Tommy got Ken Mockler on a third strike line drive that landed left of the left-field line, and a high fly ball to LCF Matt Levitt by JC Schmeil.
Orange entered the bottom of the 3rd down 6 runs. After a 6-3 ground out, Don Solberg hit a bomb to right field that Ken Mockler went back on but couldn’t catch. Mark Hernandez and Tommy DeLeon followed Don’s triple with back-to-back singles to score a run and put runners on first-and-third. Tom Brownfield then hit a ground ball to JC Schmeil who started a 4-6-3 double play.
Tommy got a 6-3 ground out and a fly out to left center field to get two quick outs in the 4th inning. George Romo doubled to left field and scored on a single to center by David Brown. The inning ended on a 6-3 ground out on a nice play by Peter Atkins. The bottom of the 4th inning started with a nice defensive play by Joe Bernal for a 1-3 putout. Scott Wright and George Brindley singled, but Joe got out of the inning with a 4-6 ground out and third-strike foul ball (“Change that rule!”).
Blue stretched their lead to 15-4 in the 5th with six singles and a 290-foot line-drive double by Ken Mockler that George Brindley tracked down but missed when the ball popped off the heel of his glove. Orange got one run back in the bottom of the 5th inning with a single by Peter Atkins and another hard hit to right field by Don Solberg. Blue got out of the inning without further damage with a 5-3 ground out on a nice play by George Romo, a fly ball out to Lawrence Page in right center field, and a called strike three by Joe Bernal.
Figures the one day I’m away is the only instance in living memory of Dave Berra treating himself to a beer.
With a 15-5 score entering the buffet inning, the teams flip-flopped. Following a leadoff walk, Blue got its third double play of the game on a ground ball to pitcher Joe Bernal, who started a 1-6-3 twin killing. A BB-1B-2B sequence plated two runs and brought Don Solberg to the plate with a runner on 2B. In his first three at bats, Don had hit a single, double, and triple. For the fourth straight time, Don hit the ball hard to right field, but Ken Mockler fielded the ball cleanly and held Don to a single to prevent the first cycle of the season. Mark Hernandez then hit a hard ground ball to George Romo at 3B who deflected the ball to SS David Brown who threw to 1B for the game-ending 5-6-3 ground out.
Final score: Blue 15, Orange 8
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (3-1) at Gray (3-3):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 4 5 2 3 X 14 Gray 0 0 1 5 7 13 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenary: Maroon – Matt Levitt. Umpires: home – Tommy Deleon; bases – Peter Atkins. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – George Brindley (2 for 2 with a walk), Ken Brown (3 for 3), and Scott Wright (3 for 3 with two doubles); Gray – Jack Kelly (3 for 3). Home run: Allen Phillips (inside the park) (2).
Weather update: much the same except a bit warmer, partly cloudy.
Maroon dominated early and then Gray made things very interesting in the buffet. Maroon came out hitting with singles by Jack McDermott, George Brindley, Ken Brown, Jeff Stone, and Alan Phillips; a double by Scott Wright; and a walk by Fritz Hensel. Gray pitcher Jack Kelly limited the damage to four runs by getting David Pittard on a called third strike and mercenary Matt Levitt on a foul out to catcher Jim McAnelly. The Maroon defense also got off to a good start with catches by Ken Brown on a fly ball and a line drive to right-center field and a catch by Scott Wright on a humpback liner to 3B. When the numbers were tallied at the end of the 1st inning, Maroon led Gray 4-0.
The first six hitters in the Maroon line-up went 1B-BB-2B-1B-2B-1B to plate 5 runs without an out. Maroon pitcher Jeff Stone induced a 6-3 ground out to start the bottom of the 2nd inning before giving up a single to left field by Jim Foelker. On the next pitch, Jeff made the defensive play of the game by catching a scorched line drive by Jim McAnelly and then throwing to David Pittard at 1B to double off Jim.
Maroon extended their lead to 11-0 in the top of the 3rd inning on a single by Fritz Hensel and a home run to right field by Alan Phillips. That was Alan’s second HR of the season. Jack Kelly got out of the inning without further damage by inducing fly ball outs to right center field and left field and a pop up to SS. Gray finally got off the schneid in the bottom of the 3rd. After opening the inning with a line out to 3B and a fly out to left field, Jack Kelly, Clint Fletcher, and Scott Rokita hit singles to plate Jack’s pinch runner.
Allen Phillips hits his second home run of the season, in the top of the third.
Maroon extended their lead in the top of the 4th inning with 3 runs on five singles, Scott Wright’s second double of the game, and a sacrifice fly by Jeff Stone that plated two runs as Steve Browne tagged from 2B, raced around 3B, and got home before the throw reached the plate.
Entering the bottom of the fourth inning, Gray trailed Maroon 14-1. Paul Rubin and Daniel Carvajal led off the inning with singles and Jim Foelker moved Paul to 3B with a sacrifice fly to Matt Levitt in center field. Jeff Stone induced a strike three foul out to get to two outs with a 14-1 lead and no time left on the game clock. In a fit of desperation, Mike Velaney sacrificed a chicken and hit a double to plate Gray’s second run. Dave Jaffe rubbed his lucky rabbit’s foot and hit a single to bring in Gray’s third and fourth runs. Jack Kelly found a penny heads-side-up and hit a single to extend the inning. Clint Fletcher then smacked a double to bring in the fourth and fifth runs of the inning.
With Gray trailing 14-6 at the beginning of the buffet, the teams flip-flopped and Gray continued to hit their way back into the game. Scott Rokita opened the inning with a single to right field. Bobby Miller followed with a hard ground ball to SS George Brindley, who tossed to Jack McDermott at 2B for the first out of the buffet. The next seven hitters went 1B-1B-2B-1B-1B-BB-1B. The final hitter in that sequence was Jack Kelly, who had taken a pinch-runner (Jim Foelker) from home. On Jack’s hit, Dave Jaffe went first-to-third, which drew a throw from the outfield. Jim saw an opportunity to take 2B and was called out for advancing past 1B as a pinch-runner from home. Clint Fletcher singled Dave Jaffe home for the seventh run of the inning. With two out and the tying run at 1B, Scott Rokita’s bid for a perfect day at the plate failed when his hard ground ball down the 1B line was fielded by David Pittard, who made an excellent play to record the final out 3U. Heckuva a comeback try by Gray.
Final score: Maroon 14, Gray 13
12:30 p.m.: Purple (0-5) at Red (1-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 5 5 3 4 1 X 18 Red 1 1 2 0 1 11 16 Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Red - Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Red – David Brown, Steve Browne, and Matt Levitt. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Rick Jensen, Rick Kahn, and Phil Stanch (all 3 for 3) and Peter Sundquist (4 for 4 with a double); Red – Tommy Gillis (4 for 4 with two doubles and a triple).
This was a carbon copy of the 11:30 game. Purple came out hitting with singles by Peter Sundquist, Jimmy Sneed, Shane Hill, Rick Kahn, Pay Pilgrim, and Phil Stanch, and a double by Mike Malay, which produced five runs in the top of the 1st. Purple shuffled their infield defense for this game by moving Joe Roche to 3B, Mike Malay to 1B, and Rick Jensen to 2B. Manager Peter Sundquist looked like a genius when Joe Roche converted hard-hit ground balls to 3B into outs on two of the first three batters. The lone Red hitter to escape Joe’s wrath was Tommy Gillis, who hit a deep fly ball to left field that resulted in a double. Tim Coles drove in Tommy on a ground ball to left field. Johnny Lee followed with a line drive single to right field, but Purple escaped further damage when Rick Jensen fielded a ground ball to 2B and threw the runner out at first.
Purple got five more runs in the second inning with singles by Joe Roche, Rick Jensen, and Patrick Schmidt preceding a Larry Shupe double over the heads of Anthony Galindo and Matt Levitt. Peter Sundquist and Jimmy Sneed then singled before Mike Malay batted in the final two runs with a triple to center field.
[Spellman inserting a bit of narrative here, to note that the only out recorded in the top of the second came when Ray Pilgrim, running for Larry Shupe following Larry’s double – I understand that Larry’s been dealing with knee pain; I feel ya, man – got caught between third and home on Jimmy Sneed’s single when Peter Sundquist ran first to third, not realizing Ray hadn’t committed to trying for home. Ray wound up getting tagged out by Tim Coles near the commit line. I only mention this because of the torches and pitchforks immediately wielded by the members of the Peter Sundquist Appreciation Society who were in attendance, as seen here:
Tough crowd.]
In the bottom of the second, Red scored a run on singles by mercenaries David Brown and Matt Levitt, but the Purple infield was productive once again with ground ball outs to Joe Roche, Rick Jensen, and a very nice play by pitcher Ray Pilgrim.
The Red team avoided giving up a third consecutive five-run inning in the top of the 3rd, but Purple still did plenty of damage. Purple led off the 3rd inning with just their third out of the game on a pop up to short left field. Rick Kahn followed with a single and Billy Hill walked to put runners on first and second base. Ray Pilgrim followed with a deep fly ball to right-center that Anthony Galindo caught for the second out of the inning. With the possibility of a scoreless inning looming, the next four batters in the Purple lineup came through with a pop up, humpback liner, pop up, and ground ball singles to score three runs before an infield pop up was finally turned into the third out of the inning.
The bottom of the third inning started well for the Red team with consecutive singles by Tommy Gillis, Anthony Galindo, and Tim Coles. Johnny Lee drove in Tommy on a sacrifice fly to Patrick Schmidt. Phil Stanch made an excellent catch on a foul ball just inside the fence in right field. With two outs, Marvin Krabbenhoft hit a line drive to left field to bring home Anthony Galindo, but David Brown failed miserably with runners on 1st and 2nd with a ground ball to SS Jimmy Sneed, who flipped to Rick Jensen at 2B to get the third out of the inning.
Peter Sundquist and Jimmy Sneed led off the 4th inning with back-to-back singles. After a fly out to left field, Mark Dolan made the defensive play of the game with a leaping catch of a Shane Hill line drive that would have gotten to the fence if it had not been intercepted. With two on and two out, Purple got four straight singles from the middle of its lineup to score four more runs. The hits included singles by Rick Kahn and Phil Stanch, who were both perfect at the plate. With the potential fifth run at 2B, Anthony Galindo made an outstanding leaping catch of a Joe Roche line-drive that seemed to be gaining altitude as it went. Ray Pilgrim pitched a 3-up, 3-down inning in the 4th by inducing a pop up to 2B, a fouled third strike, and a comebacker that he converted into a 1-3 put out.
The fifth inning began with back-to-back singles by Rick Jensen and Patrick Schmidt, who were both perfect at the plate. A ground ball to SS yielded a force out at third base. Peter Sundquist drove in a run with his fourth hit in four at bats, but Red escaped further damage with outs on pop ups to 2B and SS. Tommy Gillis led off the 5th inning with another deep fly ball that produced a double. Tommy scored later in the inning on another sacrifice fly by Johnny Lee, but the Red team could muster only the single run as time expired.
Red trailed 18-5 entering the buffet, so the teams flip-flopped and discovered that the lopsided score was not the result of Purple’s superiority but instead was due to Purple hitting as the visiting team. After starting the buffet as the visitors with a fly out to Shane Hill in left field, Red had seven consecutive batters reach base, including a Tommy Gillis triple and Tim Coles double. Another fly out to Shane Hill left Red with two outs and an 18-11 deficit. Five singles from the bottom of the Red lineup resulted in an 18-16 score and a runner on 1B. With the tying run at the plate, Ray pitched to the 15th batter of the inning and induced a 4-3 ground out to end the game.
Final score: Purple 18, Red 16
2026 standings:
| Session 2 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 6 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 79 | 45 | 34 | W10 |
| Maroon | 4 | 1 | .800 | 1.5 | 68 | 46 | 22 | W3 |
| Orange | 4 | 2 | .667 | 2 | 73 | 66 | 7 | L1 |
| Gray | 3 | 4 | .429 | 3.5 | 81 | 100 | -19 | L2 |
| Green | 2 | 4 | .333 | 4 | 75 | 75 | 0 | L3 |
| Red | 1 | 5 | .167 | 5 | 69 | 88 | -19 | L1 |
| Purple | 1 | 5 | .167 | 5 | 73 | 98 | -25 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 3-0 | 3-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 2-1 | 2-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-0 | ||
| Gray | 1-3 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1-1 | ||
| Green | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | 0-2 | ||
| Red | 0-3 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 0-3 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-1 | ||
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 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | |
| Orange | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 6 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 42 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Ralph Villela – 3
Tony Garcia – 2
Mike Garrison – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
Tim Coles – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Bobby Miller – 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: 1 (April 6)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday April 30:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (3-4) at Green (2-4), Orange umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Orange (4-2) at Red (1-5), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (4-1) at Purple (1-5), Red umpiring
Blue has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: First-place Blue has the bye. One of Gray or Green will end its losing streak at 10:30. Orange and Maroon, fighting for second place will be the visitor versus 1-5 teams at 11:30 (Orange versus Red, both coming off a loss Monday) and 12:30 (Maroon versus Purple, both coming off a win). Will my role at the Picayune soon be reduced to just creating dumb(er) pictures while the Daves do all the heavy lifting? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Podcast review: The Book Review Podcast from The New York Times
This is a New York Times production, hosted by Gilbert Cruz, a pretty good interviewer. I don’t listen to every episode, just ones with authors or topics that are interesting to me, which is maybe about a quarter of them. Recently I’ve enjoyed interviews with (national treasure) Louise Erdrich and (engaging sci-fi guy) Andy Weir, and a discussion of time-loop novels was decent. On the other hand, the interview with the Avett Brothers bassist, who’s written a book about John Quincy Adams, was a snore. Recommended listening speed: Regular speed, as it’s fairly intelligent conversation. New England content: It’s more New York-centric than Boston-centric. You could listen to the discussion about JQA and not realize he was a Massachusetts guy. Canadian content: Not much.
Rating: 
Mrs. Keggy lookin’ good in the Big Easy. Keggy looking a bit worse for wear, NGL. But I’ll be back for these games after an enjoyable mini-vacation, for the first weekend of JazzFest and sightseeing. I’ve enjoyed the food (shrimp po boys, pretty great), people are friendly (appreciative commentary concerning my Rhode Island Hot Wieners tee-shirt), the weather’s been good (warm, not yet too steamy, didn’t get too badly soaked by rain on Saturday), and there’s music everywhere. Highly recommend the World War II Museum. In conclusion, New Orleans is a land of contrasts.