B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 20 – May 18, 2026
Games of Monday May 18:
10:30 a.m.: Green (5-6) at Red (3-7):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 5 1 4 0 13 Red 5 5 0 0 0 10 Pitchers: Green – Spike Davidson; Red – Trent Peacock. Mercenaries: Green – Jeff Stone and Scott Wright; Red – George Brindley and Allen Phillips. Umpires: home – Lawrence Page; bases – David Brown. Perfect at the plate: Green – Gary Coyle (3 for 3) and Terry O'Brien (3 for 3 with a double); Red – Johnny Lee and Ralph Villela (both 3 for 3).
Weather report: 87 degrees, felt like 89; 77% humidity (sticky!); wind from the SE 12 MPH; mostly cloudy.
Both teams came out hitting. Green scored three runs in the top of the first on lead-off singles by Doc Hobar and Mike Garrison, a run-scoring double to left field by Terry O’Brien, a run-scoring ground out back to the pitcher by Steve Sandall, and Gary Coyle’s RBI ground-ball single to shortstop. Red topped that, scoring five runs on eight singles in the home half, seven in a row by its first seven batters. Lead-off hitter Mark Dolan singled to left but was gunned down 7-6-4, Mike Garrison to Terry O’Brien to Gary Coyle, trying for a double. That didn’t matter, nor did Ralph Villela falling as he rounded first after his single. Marvin Krabbenhoft made the second out, on a fly to Steve Sandall in left-center; Mark Dolan, running for Johnny Lee, tagged and took third on the play, then scored the fifth run on George Brindley’s single.
Both teams scored five times on six hits in the second, all the scoring taking place after two were out. Green’s 1-5 hitters came through with two-out hits in the top half, Mike Garrison hitting a pop-fly double behind to short right field to drive in the first run, Larry Fiorentino and Steve Sandall slamming triples. In the home half, Red’s 3-8 hitters all reached after two were out, on five singles and Trent Peacock’s walk.
Red led 10-8 at that point, but it was all Green from there. They scored a single run on three singles in the top of the third, then Spike Davidson held Red scoreless in the bottom half, getting three outs in the air after George Brindley singled leading off – Allen Phillips flied out to Mike Garrison in left field, a good catch racing toward the foul line; Mark Dolan popped out to second baseman Gary Coyle; and Anthony Galindo flied out to Mike in left.
Green took the lead in the fourth, scoring four runs. The first five batters hit safely, four singles and a double by Larry Fiorentino, three runners scoring. (Terry O’Brien and Gary Coyle completed 3-for-3 games with their hits.) Trent Peacock got Spike Davidson to hit a two-strike foul, but a walk to Tom Brownfield loaded the bases. Jeff Stone’s fly to George Brindley in right-center was deep enough to score Steve Sandall from third.
Spike Davidson held Red scoreless again in the bottom half. Ralph Villela singled leading off and Johnny Lee with two out, each completing 3-for-3 games, but Spike stranded the two runners, getting fly outs to Larry Fiorentino in right-center for the second and third outs.
Green led by three entering the buffet. Remarkably, both teams went out in order – can’t remember the last time I saw this, neither team putting a runner on base in the buffet. Trent Peacock retired Green’s 1-3 hitters, getting Doc Hobar to pop out to third baseman Tim Coles, Mike Garrison to fly out to Anthony Galindo in left-center, and Larry Fiorentino to foul off a two-strike pitch to right field.
Spike Davidson threw his third consecutive shutout inning in the bottom of the buffet. He got Marvin Krabbenhoft to swing through a two-strike offering, retired George Brindley on a fly to left fielder Mike Garrison, and got Allen Phillips to ground out 5-3 to end the game.
Final score: Green 13, Red 10
11:30 a.m.: Blue (9-1) at Gray (3-8):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET EXTRA FINAL Blue 0 0 3 1 1 7 2 14 Gray 0 5 0 0 4 3 3 15 Pitchers: Blue – Joe Bernal; Gray – Luis Sanchez. Mercenaries: Blue – Johnny Lee and Jeff Stone; Gray – Jack McDermott. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: None.
Weather update: Pretty much the same, maybe a couple degrees warmer with a bit more sun as the morning clouds burned off.
A terrific game, the first extra-inning contest of the 2026 B League season, that started as a defensive battle. Neither team scored in the first, Gray’s Luis Sanchez working around a pair of two-out singles, by Joe Bernal and George Romo, in the top half, and Blue’s Joe Bernal allowing only a one-out single to Bobby Miller in the bottom.
Luis held Blue scoreless in the second as well. After he retired David Brown on a fly out to Paul Rubin in right-center to start the inning, he got Daniel Baladez to ground to third baseman Clint Fletcher; base umpire Ralph Villela called Daniel safe, but after consulting with home umpire Anthony Galindo reversed the call – getting it right, I believe. (I had a good view from the home dugout.) Larry Shupe and Johnny Lee singled, but Luis snagged Jeff Stone’s liner back to the box for the third out.
Gray got on the board with five runs on six singles and some overthrows in the bottom of the second. Luis Sanchez, Jim Foelker, and Mike Velaney singled with one out, loading the bases. Joe Bernal got Jim McAnelly to pop out to shortstop David Brown for the second out, but couldn’t get the third. Jack McDermott popped a Texas League single to short center field, Luis and Jim scoring, and Mike following when the throw in was mishandled; Jack took second on that mistake, and then third when the ball wasn’t corralled. He scored on Paul Rubin’s single on a soft one-hop liner to shortstop David Brown’s left, Paul outrunning the long throw to first. Bobby Miller followed with a single to left field, and Paul never stopped running, scoring from first as another throw in was mishandled.
Blue got on the board and back in the game in the third, scoring three runs on five singles and David Brown’s sacrifice fly to Bobby Miller in left-center in the top half, then holding Gray scoreless in the bottom portion, Joe Bernal allowing two-out singles to Clint Fletcher and Luis Sanchez, then getting Jim Foelker to pop out to David at shortstop.
Blue drew to within a run when it scored a single run in the top of the fourth. Johnny Lee and Jeff Stone knocked back-to-back singles to right field with one out. Ken Mockler lined out to Bobby Miller in left-center, the runners holding at first and second. Tom Bellavia lined a single in front of Jim Foelker in right field, Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner Lawrence Page scoring, but Tom was out 10-4-5-6 trying to take second on the throw to third base – Clint Fletcher made a really smart play, coming off the third base bag to take the throw from Mike Velaney (which I actually thought had about a 50-50 chance of getting the runner, either Jeff Stone or his pinch-runner), firing to Scott Rokita covering second to get Tom.
Joe Bernal then threw another scoreless inning in the home half. He retired the first two batters, allowed a pop-fly single to the right side by Jack McDermott and a sliced opposite-field double to left field by Paul Rubin, but got Bobby Miller to fly out to Daniel Baladez in right field, Daniel’s third catch of the game.
Blue tied the game with a single run in an eventful top of the fifth inning. Joe Bernal drew a lead-off walk. I believe Lawrence Page ran for Joe, and took third on George Romo’s line single to left field. Donnie Janac singled to center field, driving in Lawrence with the equalizer, George stopping at second. David Brown hit a hard one-hopper between first baseman Daniel Carvajal and second baseman Mike Velaney; Mike made an outstanding play to his left to glove the ball, but was unable to find the handle and make a throw to second – everyone was safe, the bases now loaded. Daniel Baladez stepped up, with Tom Bellavia running for him from home, and dribbled a ball toward pitcher Luis Sanchez, who came in and in a single motion barehanded the ball and flipped toward catcher Jim McAnelly. Unfortunately for Blue, Daniel’s follow-through on his swing took him in front of the mat and right between Luis and Jim, and he made it impossible for Jim to handle Luis’s toss. Home plate umpire Anthony Galindo correctly called interference on Daniel, with George, the runner from third, declared out; Donnie, who’d come around on the misplay, was, after some discussion, sent back to third base. Luis then escaped the bases-jammed situation by getting Larry Shupe to line out to shortstop Scott Rokita and Johnny Lee to hit into an inning-ending 5-4 force, Clint Fletcher to Mike Velaney.
I ran the paragraph above through ChatGPT, mentioning also that Gary Coyle and Tom Brownfield were standing by to sort things out, and received back this image. Seems about right.
Gray proceeded to reclaim the lead with four runs in the bottom of the fifth. They loaded the bases on lead-off singles by Scott Rokita, Daniel Carvajal, and Clint Fletcher. Luis Sanchez drove a ball to deep right field that Daniel Baladez got to, but couldn’t corral, the ball glancing off his glove for a bases-clearing triple, Luis then scoring when the relay in was mishandled – effectively, a Little League grand slam.
There was one more bit of drama in this momentous fifth inning. With one out, Mike Velaney dinked a two-strike pitch in front of the plate, toward the first-base side. Catcher Larry Shupe moved to handle the ball, but got tangled up with Mike, who would have been called out for interference except that the ball, untouched, wound up spinning into foul territory for a third strike. We almost had more interference calls in this one inning than we had in the season prior to this inning.
Gray led 9-5 entering the buffet. Blue proceeded to demonstrate why its season record entering the game was 14-2, as its first seven batters hit safely and scored: five singles by mercenary Jeff Stone and the 1-4 batters, two runs scoring; a go-ahead three-run double by Donnie Janac, who drove in five runs in the game and took third on an overthrow; and a run-scoring triple by David Brown on a ground ball through the wickets of second baseman Mike Velaney. David scored the seventh run on Larry Shupe’s ground out to shortstop Scott Rokita.
Blue had a three-run lead entering the home half of the buffet, but Gray had the top of its order due. Paul Rubin worked a lead-off base on balls and took second on Bobby Miller’s single to left-center. Scott Rokita lined a double to right field, driving in Paul. Daniel Carvajal lined a single to center field, Bobby and Scott both scoring, tying the game, Daniel advancing to second on the throw home. (Here’s the video: May 18, 2026: Daniel Carvajal’s game-tying single in the bottom of the buffet )
Paul ran for Daniel. Joe Bernal got Clint Fletcher to pop out to second baseman Jeff Stone. (Here’s the video: May 18, 2026: “I go, I go, I go!” — Jeff Stone catches Clint Fletcher’s pop )
Jeff then made a very good play to his left on Luis Sanchez’s hard-hit grounder to the 3-4 hole, throwing Luis out while Paul took third. (Here’s the video: May 18, 2026: Jeff Stone makes a good play on Luis Sanchez’s hard grounder – sorry, pretty badly framed.)
Joe then got Jim Foelker to pop twice down the third-base side – on the first, George Romo made a great effort, but couldn’t get to the ball; the second was a two-strike foul for the third out, sending the game into overtime.
The top of the extra inning started with one out and George Romo, who’d run from home for Johnny Lee, the last batter of the previous inning, at second base. (There was some grousing about this, but this is a clearly spelled-out B League rule of long standing.) One-pitch rules in effect. Jeff Stone singled cleanly to center field, George scoring to put Blue in the lead. David Brown ran for Jeff and took third on Ken Mockler’s single up the middle. Larry Shupe, chaos agent, ran for Ken. Tom Bellavia singled, another hit up the middle, and David scored, but Larry was thrown out 8-6-5, Bobby Miller to Scott Rokita to Clint Fletcher, trying for third – two excellent throws. Joe Bernal fouled off his one pitch for the third out.
Gray came up needing two to tie, three to win, with one out and Jim Foelker at second base. Mike Velaney grounded out to second baseman Jeff Stone, Jim holding at second. Jim McAnelly knocked a clean single to right-center, Jim Foelker advancing to third. Jack McDermott lined a single to center, Jim Foelker scoring and Jim McAnelly’s pinch-runner Clint Fletcher racing to third. Paul Rubin singled to center, Clint scoring the tying run, Jack advancing to second. (Here’s the video: May 18, 2026: Paul Rubin singles home Clint Fletcher )
Bobby Miller then came up and delivered the game-winner, a clean single up the middle that brought in Jack (Here it is: May 18, 2026: Bobby Miller singles in the winner, Gray walks off Blue 15-14 )
In one of the best games of the season so far, Gray delivers a dramatic victory.
Final score: Gray 15, Blue 14, Gray snapping its six-game losing streak.
12:30 p.m.: Purple (2-8) at Orange (6-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 5 0 2 0 4 3 14 Orange 5 0 1 4 0 2 12 Pitchers: Purple – Joe Roche (innings 1-2) and Trent Peacock (innings 3-buffet); Orange – Tommy Deleon. Mercenaries: Purple – Clint Fletcher, Trent Peacock, and George Romo; Orange – Allen Phillips. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Jim McAnelly. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Pat Scott (3 for 3).
Another hard-fought game, both teams scoring five times in the first, then settling into a defensive battle. Purple got its opening five on seven singles, the last four coming with two out. Orange matched that with five runs on a lead-off double by Jack Spellman and six singles, making one out along the way.
Neither team scored in the second. In the top half, Tommy Deleon worked around singles by Trent Peacock leading off and Shane Hill with two out, getting good defensive plays in the outfield by Pat Scott, who ranged to his right to track down Patrick Schmidt’s opposite-field fly to left-center for the first out, and Allen Phillips, who caught Rick Kahn’s opposite-field fly to right field for the third. Allen singled with one out in the home half, but Joe Roche retired Jack Spellman on a fly to a perfectly positioned Clint Fletcher in left field and Peter Atkins on a 4-6 force to second baseman Mike Malay.
Purple took the lead with two runs in the top of the third on four singles and George Romo’s sacrifice fly to Pat Scott in left-center. Orange got one back in the bottom half. With Trent Peacock taking over on the mound for Purple, Don Solberg walked with one out, tagged and advanced on Mark Hernandez’s drive to deep left field, caught by Clint Fletcher, took third on Tommy Deleon’s single, and scored on Pat Scott’s base hit.
Tommy Deleon retired Purple in order in the top of the fourth, and Orange took the lead with four runs in the bottom half, on four singles, Peter Atkins’s run-scoring double, and Adam Reddell’s sacrifice fly to Patrick Schmidt in right-center.
Purple responded with four runs in the top of the fifth, on a lead-off walk and five singles. (Joe Roche made a bid for a single up the middle, but Jack Spellman made a lunging catch to his left to corral the liner for the first out. (Joe was bitter I cost him a 4-for-4 game.) Patrick Schmidt, subsequently described by Rick Jensen as B League’s most aggressive runner, tried to score the fifth run from first on Phil Stanch’s single to right field – Patrick took third on the hit, and when Allen Phillips’s throw home got past catcher Hal Darman and Hal moved to retrieve it, Patrick broke for home; but third baseman Adam Reddell got to the ball around the on-deck circle and flipped to Tommy Deleon covering home, Tommy making the catch while simultaneously stepping on the mat while Patrick’s foot was still in the air.
Orange did not score in the bottom of the fifth. Pat Scott led off with a single completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate, but Trent Peacock retired the next three batters.
We thought the score was tied 11-11 entering the buffet, but according to Dave Berra’s scoresheet, Purple actually led 11-10. I’m not sure where the discrepancy crept in, but I’m pretty certain Dave’s scoresheet is correct. In any case, Purple scored three runs in the top of the buffet, as five of the first six batters hit safely. Shane Hill led off with a single and scored on Rick Kahn’s triple to center field, Purple’s only extra-base hit in the game. Mike Malay’s single brought in Rick. Joe Roche’s single put runners on first and second, still no out. Rick Jensen grounded a ball to shortstop that Jack Spellman fumbled – it was a double-play grounder if I’d fielded it cleanly, but I was lucky to get a force on Joe’s pinch-runner (Patrick Schmidt, I think) with a quick flip to second baseman Tommy Langa. George Romo followed with a single, driving in Mike, George’s fourth RBI of the game. Tommy Deleon escaped without further damage thanks to two fine defensive plays: Tommy Langa went back on Clint Fletcher’s high pop into short right field and made a tremendous over-the-shoulder catch for the second out, a truly superb play; and Peter Atkins made a terrific running catch of Trent Peacock’s drive to right-center, saving an extra-base hit that likely would have driven in the fourth and fifth runs.
Orange thought it was chasing three runs entering the bottom of the buffet, but was actually four behind. Jack Spellman and Peter Atkins each singled to start the inning, and both scored on Adam Reddell’s double to center field, a tremendously hard-hit drive that carried almost to the fence on the fly. Don Solberg declined a walk, thinking he had a shot at driving in the tying run, and popped out to first baseman Shane Hill. Mark Hernandez grounded out to third baseman George Romo, who made a strong cross-diamond throw for the second out. And the game ended on Tommy Deleon’s grounder to second baseman Mike Malay.
Final score: Maroon 19, Orange 5
2026 standings:
| Session 2 standings: | ||||||||
| Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 9 | 2 | .818 | 0 | 140 | 101 | 39 | L2 |
| Maroon | 8 | 2 | .800 | 0.5 | 147 | 93 | 54 | W3 |
| Orange | 6 | 5 | .545 | 3 | 129 | 139 | -10 | L2 |
| Green | 6 | 6 | .500 | 3.5 | 152 | 143 | 9 | W2 |
| Gray | 4 | 8 | .333 | 5.5 | 146 | 176 | -30 | W1 |
| Red | 3 | 8 | .273 | 6 | 130 | 151 | -21 | L1 |
| Purple | 3 | 8 | .273 | 6 | 126 | 167 | -41 | W1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 4-1 | 5-1 | 0 | 0-1 | 2-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Maroon | 4-1 | 4-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Orange | 3-3 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 2-0 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 4-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 4-1 | 0-2 | ||
| Gray | 2-5 | 2-3 | 2 | 1-0 | 1-4 | 2-3 | ||
| Red | 0-6 | 3-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0-0 | ||
| Purple | 0-5 | 3-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-1 | ||
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 | |
| Gray | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Green | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 7 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 10 | |
| Orange | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 9 | |
| Purple | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | |
| Red | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6 | |
| TOTAL: | 3 | 10 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 60 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Tony Garcia – 3
Ralph Villela – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Steve Browne – 2
Tim Coles – 2
Larry Fiorentino – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
Allen Phillips – 2
Paul Rubin – 2
Peter Atkins – 1
Richard Battle – 1
Joe Bernal – 1
George Brindley – 1
David Brown – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Rick Kahn – 1
Bobby Miller – 1
George Romo – 1
Luis Sanchez – 1
Pat Scott – 1
Jack Spellman – 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)
Spike Davidson: 1 (May 4)
Rex Horvath: 1 (March 30)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Thursday May 21:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (4-8) at Maroon (8-2), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (3-8) at Purple (3-8), Maroon umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Orange (6-5) at Blue (9-2), Purple umpiring
Green has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Blue’s lead in Session 2 is down to just half a game over surging Maroon team, which faces Gray, coming off a big win today, at 10:30 Thursday, weather permitting. A Maroon victory plus a Blue loss in its 12:30 game versus Orange would mean a new team in first place. In between, the two 3-8 teams, Red – coming off a loss today – and Gray, coming off the aforementioned victory, will meet at 11:30. I don’t think it’s a HIPAA violation to break the news that Purple manager Peter Sundquist is going to undergo a second knee surgery soon, and likely is out for at least three months. There might be some roster changes in the offing. Will Peter be able to rehab in time to return to play by Columbus Day? I’m not alone in pulling for him, but one thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
The heck with Pluckers, there’s a new, better reward for the B League. Shane Hill has authorized the Kegster to award Buddy’s Chips as I see fit, and I’m going to be giving them to home run hitters and maybe other game stars. Each chip is good for a free beer at Buddy’s Place, a.k.a. The Home of Happiness, at 8619 Burnet Road. I’m drunk on power, and maybe not just that.
This hearing aid was left behind today. Suspect it might belong to a C Leaguer, but posting this just in case somebody recognizes it.
Podcast review: Escape Pod
A long-running science-fiction podcast founded in 2005 that features weekly standalone science fiction short stories from a mix of established and new authors. They like to present optimistic tales, and try, with mixed results, to work in comedic stories. They’re up to 1,045 episodes, and I’ve listened to each and every one – this was the very first podcast I subscribed to after buying an iPod and starting an iTunes account. Good rotating cast of narrators, and they offer a variety of sub-genres – space opera, little green men, first contact, dystopias, space colonization, multiverses, alternate histories, you name it. Highly recommend. New England content: Occasional/incidental. Canadian content: There have been a handful of Great White North authors over the years. Listening speed: 1X, gotta focus.
Rating: 🎧 🎧 🎧 🎧