B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 40 – August 4, 2025
League president Anthony Galindo has announcements pertaining to Austin in August:
Now that hot weather has arrived we are implementing our summer time schedule and rules effective NEXT WEEK on 8/11. Games will start 10, 11 & 12 until further notice. Managers, please make sure all of your players are aware of the time change.
Also effective next week, teams will be allowed to draw up to 12 players under the Extreme Hot Weather Rule. The purpose of the rule is to provide substitution for players who may need relief during the heat. Managers please check with your players before your games and draw according to your needs.
Be careful in this heat and stay hydrated. If you need a break, please let your manager know.
That said, today’s weather wasn’t bad at all: 80 degrees at the start of the 10:30 game, felt like 87, with 80% humidity after it rained a bit earlier in the day. Wind was from the East-Northeast at 5 MPH, and it was overcast. It was up to 85 degrees late in the 11:30 game, humidity down to 61%, wind from the East at 11 MPH. It was hotter, and Saraha-dustier, in New England.
Today was, as Anthony reminded us in advance, National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day, and you all did not disappoint, several people bringing cookies to share, and Spike Davidson showing up with brownies. It makes me emotional, how great you all are. So much so that I failed to take pictures.
Games of Monday August 4:
10:30 a.m., Gray (5-5) at Green (5-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Gray 4 4 5 0 X 13 Green 0 1 1 1 1 4 Pitchers: Gray – Tom Kelm; Green – Greg Lloyd (innings 1-3) and Chunky Wright (inning 4). Mercenaries: Gray – Tom Kelm; Green – Dave Corsi. Umpires: home – Tommy Deleon; bases – George Brindley. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jack Crosley (2 for 2 with a walk), Tommy Gillis (3 for 3), and Adam Reddell (2 for 2 with a walk, a double, and a triple); Green – Mike Garrison (2 for 2 with a walk).
Gray jumped out on top early and put a hurtin’ on Green, building a 13-1 lead through the top of the third and never allowing Green more than a single run in any inning. They scored four times in the top of the first, on Paul Rubin’s lead-off double, three singles, and three walks; four more in the second, on five singles and Adam Reddell’s double, and then five in the third, on four singles, Jack Crosley’s walk, George Romo’s sacrifice fly, and two-run triples by Adam Reddell and Morgan Witthoft. (Adam and Morgan drove in four runs each, and Adam scored three times.)
Meanwhile Tom Kelm pitched superbly. He held Green scoreless in the bottom of the first, second baseman Mike Malay snagging line drives by Doc Hobar and Chris Waddell. Green got on the board with a run on three singles in the second, Chunky Wright and newcomer Dave Corsi delivering run-scoring hits with two out. Here’s Dave at the plate for his first B League at bat, with Tommy Deleon umpiring and Hal Darman catching:
And here’s Dave’s follow-through on his RBI single, in documentary black and white:
Morgan Witthoft made what I think was the defensive play of the day in the bottom of the third. Doc Hobar led off with a drive to right field. Morgan broke in on the ball, realized Doc had legitimately gotten hold of it, and was able to reverse course, move back and make the catch – not the most elegant route, but it was a fine play. Mike Garrison then drew a walk, took third on Buddy Gaswint’s two-out single to right-center, and scored on Phil Stanch’s line single to right.
Chunky Wright took over on the mound for Green in the top of the fourth and threw a scoreless inning, working around Mike Malay’s lead-off single.
Billy Hill singled and his pinch-runner scored from first on Chunky Wright’s pop-fly double down the left-field side to start the bottom of the fourth, but Tom Kelm retired the next three batters.
With Gray up by ten, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Mike Garrison led off with a single, but was erased on a 6u., 6-3 double play turned by George Romo on Chris Waddell’s hard grounder to George’s left. Green got another run across on three consecutive singles, by Buddy Gaswint, Phil Stanch, and Donnie Janac. Billy Hill’s walk loaded the bases, but the game ended on Chunky Wright’s grounder to third base, fielded by Adam Reddell, who tagged the third-base bag for the game-ending out. Final score: Gray 13, Green 4
11:30 a.m., Blue (3-7) at Orange (7-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 2 0 0 0 5 1 8 Orange 3 0 0 4 0 2 9 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Blue – Jack McDermott; Orange – Johnny Lee and Jim Maloy. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3 with a double); Orange – David Brown (4 for 4 with a home run) and Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3). Home runs: George Brindley (inside the park) (4) and David Brown (inside the park) (3).
Quite a defensive battle. Blue broke on top with two runs in the top of the first. Steve Sandall led off the game with a pop-fly double to right, then took third on Tom Bellavia’s ground out to shortstop David Brown, David making a tremendous throw after moving a step to his right to field the ball just in front of the grass. Tom scored on Jimmy Sneed’s grounder to second baseman Clint Fletcher, who moved to his left and made a quick flip for the out at first. George Brindley drew a walk and scored from first on Tom Brownfield’s line double to deep center.
Orange grabbed the lead with three runs in the home half, its first three batters hitting safely and scoring. Clint Fletcher grounded a single through the 5-6 hole, and David Brown followed with a line single up the middle. They both scored on Peter Atkins’ triple to center. Peter tagged and scored the go-ahead run on Daniel Carvajal’s sacrifice fly to Steve Sandall in left field. Ray Pilgrim and Terry Thompson followed with base hits, but Tommy Deleon stranded them, getting both Marvin Krabbenhoft and Larry Shupe to fly out to Tom Bellavia in left-center.
Neither team scored in the second and third. Ray Pilgrim retired Blue in order on three ground balls (one to third baseman Daniel Carvajal, one to second baseman Clint Fletcher, and one to shortstop David Brown) in the top of the second. Johnny Lee led off the bottom of that inning with a single, but Tommy Deleon got Jimmie Maloy and Clint Fletcher to ground into force outs. David Brown singled Clint to second, but Peter Atkins hit a two-strike foul for the third out.
In the top of the third Tom Bellavia singled and Jimmy Sneed walked with two out, but Ray Pilgrim got George Brindley to hit a grounder up the middle that was within reach of David Brown, who fielded it cleanly and stepped on second for the inning-ending force. Tommy Deleon worked around Ray Pilgrim’s one-out single in the home half, getting three outs on balls in the air (fly to George Brindley in right-center, pops to shortstop Jimmy Sneed and third baseman David Pittard).
Tom Brownfield and David Pittard opened the third with singles, but Blue again came up empty, Ray Pilgrim retiring the next three hitters, not allowing any base-runner advance: Daniel Baladez lined out to shortstop David Brown, Tommy Deleon flied out to Peter Atkins in left-center, and Joe Dayoc fouled off a two-strike pitch.
Orange finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs on five singles, the first three of them infield hits. Larry Shupe led off and beat out a grounder to the 5-6 hole. After Johnny Lee flied out to George Brindley in right-center, Jimmie Maloy hit a sharp grounder to shortstop Jimmy Sneed that took a bad last hop and hit off Jimmy’s shoulder and away. Clint Fletcher singled through the 5-6 hole, loading the bases. Everyone moved up a base, Larry scoring, on David Brown’s line single to left-center. Peter Atkins grounded to shortstop, Jimmy Sneed throwing to Tom Brownfield at second for out number two, Jimmie Maloy scoring; the relay to first sailed past first baseman Daniel Baladez, and Clint was able to race home also. Singles by Daniel Carvajal and Ray Pilgrim brought Peter around to score the fourth run of the inning, and Orange took a 7-2 lead into the final five-run inning.
Blue promptly tied the score, scoring five runs on five consecutive hits without making an out: Jack McDermott, Steve Sandall, and Tom Bellavia singled, Jack scoring; Jimmy Sneed doubled to left field, his drive reaching the fence on one hop, both Steve and Tom scoring; and George Brindley drove a ball to right-center and circled the bases with a two-run inside-the-park home run, his fourth of the season.
Tommy Deleon then threw a scoreless bottom half, working around Johnny Lee’s two-out single, and the game proceeded to the buffet with the score tied at 7-7.
Blue went ahead in the top half, its first three batters reaching base: Tom Brownfield singled, completing a 3-for-3 game; David Pittard drew a walk; and Daniel Baladez singled, Tom’s pinch-runner scoring to put Blue up by one. But Ray Pilgrim retired the next three batters. He got Tommy Deleon to foul off a two-strike pitch for the first out. Joe Dayoc grounded into a 6-4 force, David advancing to third. Jack McDermott hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Clint Fletcher, who made a clean play and a snap throw – necessary, Jack was tearing down the line – to first for the third out.
Orange came up needing one to tie, two to win, and they made short work of it. Clint Fletcher led off, knocking a double down the left-field side. David Brown followed and delivered his fourth hit in as many at bats, a drive to right-center that went to the fence – running hard out of the box, David circled the bases for a walk-off two-run inside-the-park home run.
David Brown follows through on his home-run swing. Peter Atkins is on deck, Chunky Wright is umpiring, and Joe Dayoc is the catcher.
Final score: Orange 9, Blue 8, Orange drawing into a tie with idle Maroon for first place for the session.
George Brindley and David Brown are all smiles after receiving Pluckers coupons following their late-game inside-the-park home runs. George’s tied the game in the top of the final five-run inning; David’s walked off Orange’s 9-8 victory.
12:30 p.m., Red (3-8) at Purple (5-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 5 4 1 5 2 17 Purple 3 1 5 4 5 18 Pitchers: Red – Joe Bernal; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Purple – George Brindley, David Brown, David Pittard, and Jimmy Sneed. Umpires: home – Jimmie Maloy; bases – Larry Shupe. Perfect at the plate: Red – Gary Coyle (4 for 4), Anthony Galindo (4 for 4 with two doubles), and Jack McDermott (4 for 4 with a home run); Purple – David Brown (4 for 4 with a double and a home run), Spike Davidson (4 for 4), and David Pittard (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple). Home runs: Jack McDermott (inside the park) (1) and David Brown (inside the park) (4).
I did not expect a game involving two of the league’s best pitchers to be the highest-scoring contest of the day, one in which both teams scored in every inning. But there you go. Red broke out on top and held the lead until the final batter of the game. They scored five times on seven singles in the top of the first while making a single out, Jack Spellman flying out to Jimmy Sneed in left-center. Purple got three of those back in the home half on five singles and Fritz Hensel’s walk. Mark Dolan made two good plays at second base in that frame, going to his right to corral Raul Deleon’s hard grounder up the middle and tagging second for the force for out number one, and catching Larry Young’s line drive for out number two.
Spike Davidson got two quick outs to start the second inning, but Red still managed to push across four runs. Jack McDermott got the first one with an inside-the-park home run, his first of the season, on a drive to left-center (as I may or not be recalling correctly). Jack Spellman lined a 3-1 pitch to center for a single – gotta hack against Spike, he can throw a strike at will – and Anthony Galindo and Joe Bernal followed with back-to-back doubles, Joe’s driving in Spellman and Anthony. Gary Coyle singled, and Spellman, running for Joe, scored from second. The inning ended with Jimmy Sneed in left-center making a good play to run down Rolando Rodriguez’s fly.
Lisa McDermott presents Jack McDermott with a Pluckers coupon after his first home run of the 2025 season.
Jimmy Sneed then opened the home half with a single and eventually scored. He took second on Richard Battle’s single and third on Raul Deleon’s force-out grounder back to the box, Raul called safe at first on the relay, a very close play. Spike Davidson’s single drove Jimmy in.
Purple closed the gap by outscoring Red 5-1 in the third inning. In the top half Mark Dolan drew a one-out walk, took second on Jim McAnelly’s single, and scored on Jack McDermott’s base hit. Red got on out on a good relay to start the home half: Larry Young lined a base hit to right field, between Rolando Rodriguez and Donald Drummer, and tried to stretch it into a double; Rolando ran the ball down, flipped it to Donald, and Donald fired it to Joe Bernal, covering second, for the out. Didn’t matter, though, as seven of the next eight batters hit safely, five runs scoring. David Pittard started the rally with a triple, and Purple’s 1-4 hitters – Henry Flores, Richard Battle, Raul Deleon, and Spike Davidson – each knocked an RBI single to finish it.
That cut Red’s lead to 10-9, but Red scored five times in the top of the fourth without making an out, on eight consecutive singles by its 3-10 hitters, for a bit of breathing room. Only briefly, though, as Purple came back and scored four runs in the home half, the last three with two out, on two singles, walks to David Pittard and George Brindley that sandwiched David Brown’s RBI double, and a sacrifice fly by Jimmy Sneed.
Red led by two entering the buffet, and added two, but left the bases loaded. Jack McDermott singled leading off, completing a 4-for-4 game, took second on Jack Spellman’s pop-fly single to right-center, and scored on Anthony Galindo’s base hit to left-center. First baseman Larry Young made an outstanding play on Joe Bernal’s hard grounder, the runners advancing while Larry got the out at first. Gary Coyle’s single scored Spellman. Rolando Rodriguez flied out to Richard Battle in left field. A single by Dale Fugate loaded the bases, but Spike Davidson got Mark Dolan to ground back to the box for the third out.
That left Blue needing four to tie, five to win. Raul Deleon and Spike Davidson led off the bottom of the buffet with singles, Spike completing a 4-for-4 game at the plate. Fritz Hensel hit a hard one-hopper to the 5-6 hole; Jack Spellman was able to get to it and throw to third baseman Gary Coyle to force out the lead runner. But that would be the only out Red would record. Larry Young singled, loading the bases, and so did David Pittard, everyone moving up one base, Spike’s runner scoring. David Brown came up and drove a pitch to right-center, high and deep; Rolando Rodriguez went back for it, and got a piece of glove on it, but it glanced off his mitt and to the fence – everyone, including David, had time to circle the bases, David coming around with the winning run on his second walk-off inside-the-parker in as many games, the first walk-off grand slam of our 2025 season.
Hats off to David Brown for a tremendous day: 8 for 8 with a double, two walk-off home runs – one a grand slam – and nine RBI, plus four putouts and six assists in the field. He’s now tied for the season home run lead with four other players – see below.
Final score: Red 18, Purple 17
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 8 | 3 | .727 | 0 | 116 | 94 | 22 | W2 |
| Maroon | 8 | 3 | .727 | 0 | 119 | 110 | 9 | L1 |
| Gray | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2 | 138 | 110 | 28 | W3 |
| Purple | 6 | 5 | .545 | 2 | 122 | 119 | 3 | W2 |
| Green | 5 | 6 | .455 | 3 | 99 | 111 | -12 | L3 |
| Blue | 3 | 8 | .273 | 5 | 108 | 123 | -15 | L2 |
| Red | 3 | 9 | .250 | 5.5 | 132 | 167 | -35 | L3 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 4-1 | 4-2 | 1 | 2-0 | 1-0 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 5-1 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Gray | 2-3 | 4-2 | 0 | 0-1 | 3-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 5-1 | 1-4 | 3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | ||
| Green | 2-4 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 1-1 | ||
| Blue | 2-3 | 1-5 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-1 | 2-4 | ||
| Red | 0-6 | 3-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 18 |
| Gray | 3 | X | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 15 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4 | X | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| Orange | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 4 | 17 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 13 |
| TOTAL: | 16 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 21 | 117 |
2025 season home run leaders:
George Brindley – 4
David Brown – 4
Tim Coles – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Doc Hobar – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Jimmy Sneed – 2
Ralph Villela – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 1
Jack McDermott – 1
Ken Mockler – 1
Ray Pilgrim – 1
Jeff Stone – 1
Mike Velaney – 1
Chris Waddell – 1
Chunky Wright – 1
Hit for the cycle:
Scott Wright – June 5
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Schedule for Thursday August 7:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (3-8) at Gray (6-5), Green umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Green (5-6) at Maroon (8-3), Gray umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Orange (8-3) at Red (3-9), Maroon umpiring
Purple has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Red, 0-6 in home games this session, will play host to first-place Orange at 12:30. A loss will virtually eliminate Red from Session 3 title contention. Green has to be hoping for the return of Ralph Villela for its 11:30 game versus Maroon, coming off the bye and looking to retain its hold on first place. And it’s a Civil War reenactment at 10:30, with the Union Blues at the Rebel Grays. Will it be a Chancellorsville or an Appomattox? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Speaking to the greatness of Austin Senior Softball generally and Ken Brown specifically, and at the same time to the utter lameness of Dartmouth alumni services, it was Ken, not the alumni office, that sent me the following:
Just to say, which I can because I was “raised” (if you can call it that) in Rhode Island: Friar Dom is the worst.