B League news for Monday October 14, 2024

B League Picayune

Often in error, never in doubt.

Volume 6, Issue 52 – October 14, 2024

League president Anthony Galindo has announcements:

1. Effective on Monday the 14th, we are moving to field 6 for the rest of the season due to playing conditions on K3. The grass in the outfield is so worn down in some areas that nothing is left but dirt. Needless to say, the field needs time to recover so PARD recommended that we move.

2. Game times for the luncheon are 10:00, 10:45, and 11:30. We will be playing one-pitch with a 40-minute clock and no extra innings. Further, if any time remains on the clock after 4 innings, then the 5th inning will be the buffet.

3. The menu for the luncheon by Lupe’s Tortillas will be the same as last year with beef and chicken fajitas, rice, beans, ice tea and BYOM (bring your own margaritas lol). The food will be served from 11:30 to 1:00. The deadline for confirming your attendance is next Friday the 18th. If you’re bringing a guest, please pay Mike Hill by this date.

Games of Monday October 14:

10:30 a.m., Purple (3-6) at Gray (4-5):

		1	2	3	4	5     BUFFET  FINAL
Purple		2	5	3	5	2	X	17
Gray		0	1	0	0	1	0	 2

Pitchers: Purple – Tom Kelm; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Purple – Dave Jaffe, Jim Maloy, and Jack Spellman; Gray – Anthony Galindo. Umpires: home – Eddy Murillo and Joe Roche; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Daniel Carvajal (4 for 4 with a double), Dave Jaffe (2 for 2 with a walk), Jim Maloy and Jack Spellman (both 3 for 3), and Peter Sundquist (4 for 4); Gray – Anthony Galindo (1 for 1 with a double and a walk), Donnie Janac (2 for 2 with a walk), Mike Mordecai (1 for 1 with a walk), and Chris Waddell (2 for 2 with a double). 

Dave Berra’s weather report: 81 degrees (Heat Index 81), humidity 35%, wind from the north 7 MPH, bright sun, high sky. Beautiful!

Missing the right side of its infield, David Kruse and Gary Coyle, Gray struggled in this one, managing only two runs on nine hits and three walks off Tom Kelm, who recorded four strikeouts and got an excellent double play behind him.

Purple led pillar to post, scoring two runs on four singles in the first inning, Peter Sundquist, Clint Fletcher, and Daniel Carvajal opening up the game with singles, Peter coming around to score. Rip Wright, who squared up on pitches in all four at bats, singled in Clint. After Tom Kelm blanked Gray in the bottom half, working around Tommy Galindo’s one-out double, Purple scored five times in the top of the second, on three singles, Dave Jaffe’s walk, and back-to-back doubles by Clint Fletcher and Daniel Carvajal.

Gray got on the board with Chris Waddell’s RBI double in the bottom of the second, but Purple ran up the score in the middle innings, scoring three times on six hits in the third (Rip Wright doubled to start the rally, and the last four hits were two-out singles) and five runs on seven singles in the fourth while keeping Gray off the board in the bottom halves. Anthony Galindo led off the bottom of the third by drawing a walk, and Ken Brown followed with a hard grounder up the middle, but Tom got a glove on it, knocked it down, and shoveled a throw to second that beat Anthony to the base by half a step – excellent play to help himself.

Purple added three more runs in the top of the fifth. Clint Fletcher, Daniel Carvajal (completing a 4-for-4 game), and Rick Jensen opened the frame with singles, Clint coming around to score. Rip Wright lined out to third baseman Chris Waddell for the first out. Tom Kelm knocked his third single, driving in Daniel. Larry Young hit a sharp grounder to the right of left-handed second baseman Ivan Budiselic, who made a good play to his glove side to get to it and feed to shortstop Ken Brown for a 4-6-3 double play.

Gray got its second and final run in the bottom half. Chris Waddell led off with a single and Mike Mordecai drew a walk, both completing perfect days at the plate. Mark Dolan lined a ball to right-center that off the bat seemed certain to fall in, but Peter Sundquist got an excellent jump on it and charged in and made the catch, then made a strong throw to first baseman Daniel Carvajal to double up Mike. Anthony Galindo followed with a two-base hit to score Chris. The inning ended with Ken Brown flying out to left fielder Clint Fletcher.

Purple, up by 15, stayed in the field, the teams flip-flopping for the buffet. Tom Kelm got two quick outs on grounders to the left side, Tommy Gillis to third baseman Larry Young (good play on the glove and an on-the-money cross-diamond throw that Daniel Carvajal caught cleanly on the hop) and Don Solberg, turning around to bat right-handed, to shortstop Rick Jensen. Johnny Lee singled. Donnie Janac hit a hard grounder to third base that, as Johnny Lee poetically put it, nailed Larry right in the Fruity Pebbles ®. That was another single. But the game ended with Tom getting Ivan Budiselic to swing through a third strike. Final score: Purple 17, Gray 2

11:30 a.m., Maroon (5-5) at Red (5-5):

		1	2	3	4     BUFFET  FINAL
Maroon		3	5	5	1	X	14
Red		2	1	0	0	0	 3

Pitchers: Maroon – Terry Thompson; Red – Eddy Murillo. Mercenaries: Maroon – Pat Scott and Terry Thompson; Red – Tommy Gillis, Johnny Lee, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Mike Mordecai. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Tom Bellavia, Pat Scott, and Scott Wright (all 3 for 3), and Joe Roche (3 for 3 with a triple); Red – Donald Drummer (2 for 2) and Morgan Witthoft (3 for 3 with a double). 

Dave Berra’s weather report: 84 degrees (Heat Index 84), humidity 31%, wind from the North 6 MPH. Still sunny, still beautiful.

Another unexpectedly not-close game. Maroon won the first inning by a run, Joe Roche hammering a bases-loaded triple in the top of the inning, a long drive to the fence in right-center, and Red getting two back in the bottom half. Four of the first five Red batters reached base, Tommy Langa and Morgan Witthoft knocking singles before and after Gil Delossantos popped out to Pat Scott at second, Eddy Murillo driving in Tommy with a double, and Denny Malloy drawing a walk to load the bases. Hal Darman lofted a sacrifice fly to left field, Morgan scoring, but that turned out to be the end of the inning – Donald Drummer had pinch-run at second for Eddy, and was still there when his spot in the order came up after Hal, so he was called out.

Major break for Maroon, which proceeded to score five times in each of the next two innings, the bottom half of the order starting each rally, which consisted of eight singles in the second inning and seven singles in the third – nothing fancy, and in fact the two hits each by Scott Wright and Jack Spellman were all pop flies that landed just out of reach. The hardest hit balls in each frame were off the bat of Terry Thompson and resulted in line outs to second baseman Gil Delossantos and third baseman Chris Waddell.

Red got a single run in the bottom of the second. Donald Drummer led off with a single and took third on Tommy Gillis’s double. Terry Thompson got Johnny Lee to foul off a two-strike pitch and Chris Waddell to line out to shortstop. Tommy Langa singled to right, Donald scoring, but a strong 10-4-2 relay, Alvin Gauna to Scott Wright to Joe Dayoc, cut down Tommy trying to score. (Scott had moved to second base and Tom Bellavia to third after Tom tweaked a hamstring in the top of the inning, Pat Scott moving to left field. We thought we’d pull a chip from the bucket, but Dave Berra pointed out Maroon had 11 players, so acting manager/tactical genius Scott Wright reconfigured the defense and gave Tom a pinch-runner from home.)

Donald’s run turned out to be the last one Red would score, Terry Thompson finishing the game with three consecutive scoreless innings, allowing two singles in each. Maroon added one more run, on Pat Scott’s RBI single, in the top of the fourth, leaving the bases loaded. The teams then flip-flopped for the buffet, in which Morgan Witthoft knocked a one-out double, completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Final score: Maroon 14, Red 3

12:30 p.m., Green (5-4) at Blue (7-2):

		1	2	3	4	5     BUFFET  FINAL
Green		0	1	0	5	0	3	 9
Blue 		3	5	3	0	5	X	16

Pitchers: Green – Tommy Deleon; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenary: Green – Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Eddy Murillo; bases – Morgan Witthoft. Perfect at the plate: Green – Jack Crosley (3 for 3 with a walk); Blue – Joe Bernal and Pat Scott (both 4 for 4) and Jerry Mylius (3 for 3). 

Bit of a blowout in the early going, Blue building an 11-1 lead through three, but Green battled and made it fairly respectable before running out of outs.

Green loaded the bases to start the game, on singles by Mike Garrison and Mike Hill and a walk by Paul Rubin, but Joe Bernal escaped the jam. First he got David Pittard to ground to shortstop George Romo, who threw to third baseman Tony Garcia for the force there; Mike Garrison was caught about a third of the way down the line, in no-man’s-land, tried for home, but was thrown out by Tony to catcher Jerry Mylius, for a 6-5-2 double play. Joe then got Tommy Deleon to foul off a two-strike pitch.

Blue scored three runs on four singles in the home half of the inning.

Green got on the board with a run in the second on three singles, but Blue extended its lead by putting across five runs on a lead-off walk by Terry Thompson and six singles. Green recorded one out in the inning, first baseman Daniel Baladez making a nice play to his right on Jeff Fisher’s hard grounder and throwing to second for the force.

More of the same in the third. In the top half, David Pittard doubled with two out. Tommy Deleon followed with a single to right field; when Jeff Fisher momentarily juggled the ball, third-base coach Jeff Broussard waved David home, but Jeff made a quick recovery and then a very strong throw to Jerry Mylius, beating David by a step and a half. Blue then scored three runs on five singles, three coming with two out.

Green broke through in the top of the fourth, scoring five runs on Jack Crosley’s lead-off walk and six singles, and then held Blue scoreless in the bottom half. Paul Rubin made a fine running catch of George Romo’s deep fly to left-center for the first out, and shortstop Mike Hill made an excellent play to his left to field Terry Thompson’s grounder to the 5-6 hole and throw to second for the inning-ending force.

But Blue reasserted control in the fifth. Joe Bernal worked around a pair of two-out singles and held Green scoreless in the top half, then completed a 4-for-4 day with a run-scoring hit in the bottom of the frame, one of Blue’s seven singles resulting in another five runs. The only out Green recorded came on a terrific play by second baseman Trey Wall, diving to his right behind second base to knock down Steve Sandall’s grounder up the middle and making a quick flip to Mike Hill for the force at second.

Green entered the buffet trailing by ten. They scored three runs, all after the second out was recorded. Peter Sundquist singled and Mike Garrison doubled with one out. Peter scored and Mike took third on Mike Hill’s sacrifice fly to Jeff Fisher in right field. Paul Rubin singled, Mike Garrison scoring. A walk to David Pittard and a single by Tommy Deleon loaded the bases for Jack Crosley, who completed a perfect day at the plate with a single to center, Paul scoring. But the game ended with Joe Bernal catching Trey Wall looking at a called strike three, a just about unhittable pitch that clipped the edge of the mat.

I took some pictures:

Tommy Deleon knocking a single in the buffet; Mike Garrison is running from home. Eddy Murillo is the home-plate umpire, and Jerry Mylius is catching.

Mike Hill (running for David Pittard) and Paul Rubin advance on Jack Crosley’s single; Paul scored the last run of the day.

Trey Wall batting, with Eddy and Jerry.