B League news for Monday July 6, 2026

B League Picayune

Often in error, never in doubt.

Volume 8, Issue 30 – July 6, 2026

Excellent set of games today, everyone taking care to not overdo it in the fierce heat.

Games of Monday July 6:

10:00 a.m.: Purple (1-4) at Red (2-2):

		1	2	3	4	5    BUFFET   FINAL
Purple		2	3	3	5	2	3	18
Red		0	0	5	2	3	4	14

Pitchers: Purple – Ray Pilgrim; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Purple – Ken Brown, Mike Garrison, Jack Spellman, and Jeff Stone; Red – Steve Browne, Tom Brownfield, Jim Foelker, Rex Horvath, and Alan Phillips. Umpires: home – Spike Davidson; bases – Gary Coyle. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Ken Brown (4 for 4 with a double) and Jack Spellman (4 for 4 with a triple); Red – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3). Hlme run: Tim Coles (over the fence) (3).

Dave Berra’s weather report: 87 degrees, feels like 96; humidity 63%; partly cloudy; wind from the SSW at 6 MPH – nice summer day!

Nine mercenaries filled out the lineups, four for Purple and five for Red, a theme for the day. Purple jumped ahead early and never relinquished the lead, as Ray Pilgrim allowed Red just one hit in each of the first two innings, a lead-off single to Ralph Villela in the bottom of the first and a two-out double in the second to Steve Browne, who tried to make it a triple but was thrown out 10-4-5, Mike Garrison (outstanding throw from deep right field) to Jack Spellman to Ken Brown.

Purple put up crooked numbers in each of the first three innings, building an eight-run lead before Red got a runner around. In the top of the first Jack McDermott singled leading off and came around on Jimmy Sneed’s double; Jimmy scored on Patrick Schmidt’s two-out hit. Jimmy got the big hit in the second inning as well, his two-out triple driving in Purple’s second and third runs in the frame, after mercenaries Ken Brown (double), Jack Spellman, and Jeff Stone knocked consecutive one-out hits, the trio all scoring. Rick Kahn and Patrick Schmidt opened the bottom of the third with singles, but were erased on a 5u., 5-4 double play that was nicely turned by Rex Horvath on Billy Hill’s sharp grounder down the third-base side. Purple’s mercenaries then delivered again: Mike Garrison and Ken Brown each singled, Billy’s pinch-runner (Jack McDermott, I believe) coming around to score, and Jack Spellman lined a triple to right-center to drive in Mike and Ken.

Red got back in the game in the bottom of the third, scoring five runs on seven hits – a double by Ralph Villela and six singles, the last three coming after two were out.

Purple matched that in the top of the fourth, pushing across five runs on four singles and RBI doubles by Ray Pilgrim and Mike Garrison, Mike’s two-bagger and the last three singles coming with two out.

Red scored two runs on four singles in the bottom of the fourth, cutting Purple’s lead to 13-7 entering the final five-run inning.

Purple again put up a crooked number in the fifth. Singles by Jack Spellman (forced at second on Jeff Stone’s grounder to shortstop Ralph Villela), Jimmy Sneed, and Ray Pilgrim resulted in one run. Rick Kahn lined a two-out extra-base hit to right field that brought in Jimmy, but Ray was thrown out 10-4-2 (Tom Brownfield to Tim Coles to Marvin Krabbenhoft) trying to score.

Red came up trailing 15-7, Purple hoping for a scoreless inning to force a flip-flop, but Red wound up winning the frame, pushing across three runs. Anthony Galindo singled with one out, and Tim Coles followed with a titanic over-the-fence home run, almost to dead center field, flying well over the 300-foot sign and up the hill on the far side, as very realistically depicted here:

Singles by Johnny Lee, Steve Browne, and Alan Phillips brought in another run, the inning ending with Mike Garrison in right field making a terrific shoestring catch charging in on Rex Horvath’s opposite-field drive. (Mike said he got a late jump in order to make the catch more memorable, but it was by any measure an outstanding play, the day’s best.)

Leading by five, Purple got its flip-flop in the top of the buffet, scoring three runs on four consecutive one-out singles and Jeff Stone’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in right-center field.

Chasing eight runs, Red went down swinging, scoring four in the bottom of the bottom of the buffet on four singles and RBI doubles by Ralph Villela and Tim Coles. His lead down to four runs, with runners on the corners and one out, Ray Pilgrim bore down and got the final two outs, getting Marvin Krabbenhoft to foul off a two-strike pitch and Steve Browne to hit a grounder to the right of second base that second baseman Jack Spellman was able to get to and flip to Jimmy Sneed covering the bag, beating pinch-runner Ralph Villela, running for Johnny Lee, by half a step.

Final score: Purple 18, Red 14

Meaningless statistic: Purple is 3-1 versus Red this season, 6-17 versus the rest of the league.

11:00 a.m.: Green (2-2) at Gray (2-2):

		1	2	3	4    BUFFET   FINAL
Green		5	2	3	0	3	13
Gray		0	2	5	3	2	12

Pitchers: Green – Spike Davidson; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Green – Anthony Galindo and Patrick Schmidt; Gray – Hal Darman, Trent Peacock, Jack Spellman, and Ralph Villela; George Romo entered the game as an 11th player for Gray after Mike Velaney felt overwhelmed by the heat. Umpires: home – Joe Roche; bases – Peter Sundquist. Perfect at the plate: Green – Ivan Budiselic (2 for 2 with a walk and a triple) and Anthony Galindo (3 for 3); Gray – Jack Kelly (3 for 3). Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (6). 

Dave Berra’s weather update: ditto.

Another hard-fought game, Gray making a battle of it after allowing Green to take an early 7-0 lead, on five runs in the top of the first (on a pair of singles, Gary Coyle’s walk, doubles by Steve Sandall and Tom Brownfield, and Terry O’Brien’s triple) and two more in the second (on a walk, two singles, and Mike Garrison’s RBI triple). Green would have gotten more in the second except that, batting with Ivan Budiselic (lead-off walk) and Patrick Schmidt (single) ahead of him, Anthony Galindo on his RBI single passed Patrick between first and second and, following a rules consultation with Jeff Stone, was declared out.

Spike Davidson had worked a scoreless bottom of the first, allowing singles to Scott Rokita and Jim McAnelly, but stranding them when Mike Garrison made a good catch of Mike Velaney’s drive to left field. Gray broke through in the second, Trent Peacock helping himself with a two-run single that drove in Jack Kelly’s runner (Jack singled leading off) and Ralph Villela (who’d followed with a double).

Green batters delivered two more run-scoring extra-base hits in the top of the third, Tom Brownfield driving in Gary Coyle from first with a double, then scoring on Ivan Budiselic’s triple to right. Ivan scored on a single by Patrick Schmidt to make it 10-2 Green.

Gray won the inning, however, scoring five times in the home half on Scott Rokita’s lead-off double, three singles, and Ralph Villela’s inside-the-park grand slam, his league-leading sixth homer of the season, seen here:

(What Tom Mecredy’s boar is doing sitting between Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham is truly a mystery.)

That cut Green’s lead to three runs entering the final five-run inning, and Gray proceeded to tie the game, Jack Kelly retiring Green in order on three flies in the top half (to Ralph Villela in left, Jim Foelker in right-center, and Bobby Miller in left-center), Gray scoring three times in the bottom half on five consecutive one-out singles and Jim Foelker’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center.

That made it a one-inning game entering the buffet. Green scored three times in the top of the inning. Gary Coyle led off with a double, advanced on Tom Brownfield’s ground out to second baseman Trent Peacock, and scored the go-ahead run on Spike Davidson’s sharp grounder to third base that took a Krieg 2 hop over the glove of George Romo. Spike’s pinch-runner (Terry O’Brien, I think) took third on Ivan Budiselic’s single and scored on Patrick Schmidt’s sacrifice fly to Ralph Villela in left field. Singles by Anthony Galindo and Steve Sandall brought Ivan around to score the third run. (Ivan and Anthony completed perfect days at the plate with their hits.)

Gray needed three to tie, but came up just short. Mike Velaney doubled leading off, and Jack Kelly singled him to third. It looked good for Gray, with Ralph Villela coming up, but Spike Davidson got Ralph to hit a two-strike foul for the first out. Jack Spellman grounded a single up the middle to drive in Mike, Jack Kelly’s pinch-runner (Jim Foelker, I think) taking third. Trent Peacock’s fly to Steve Sandall in right-center was deep enough to bring in the runner, making it a one-run game. Hal Darman singled, Spellman taking second, the potential tying run in scoring position for George Romo, but the game ended when Steve Sandall caught George’s drive to right-center.

Final score: Green 13, Gray 12

More meaningless statistics: Jim McAnelly commented at the conclusion of the game that he thought Gray had played a lot of games decided by just one run, and it’s true: Gray is 4-7 in one-run contests this season, 11 games total, way more than any other team; Orange has played seven (going 5-2), four teams have played six, and Blue has played four. Green actually has a worse record than Gray in one-run games, 1-5 so far this season, .200 winning percentage, compared to Gray’s .364.

		1	2	3	4    BUFFET   FINAL
Orange		5	2	1	5	0	13
Blue		3	2	1	0	0	 6

Pitchers: Orange – Tommy Deleon; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Orange – Steve Browne, Trent Peacock, Alan Phillips, Scott Rokita, and Jeff Stone; Blue – Jim Foelker, Terry O'Brien, and Patrick Schmidt. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Tommy Deleon (2 for 2 with a walk – Ohtani Award), Mark Hernandez and Matt Levitt (both 3 for 3), and Scott Rokita (2 for 2 with a home run); Blue – David Brown (2 for 2 with a double), George Romo (3 for 3), and Patrick Schmidt (2 for 2). Home run: Scott Rokita (inside the park) (2).