B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 5, Issue 13 – April 20, 2023
Weather: Started out a little wet, with a light shower erupting at the end of the second C League game and continuing for a few minutes into the B League’s 10:30 opener. It was over within five minutes, and the day gradually lightened and cleared. It was 71 degrees at 10:30, with 100% humidity, up to 74 degrees, humidity dropping to 92% at the start of the second game, sky clearing.
Games of Thursday April 20:
10:30 a.m., Gold (4-0) at Maroon (3-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gold 5 5 0 0 3 X 13 Maroon 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 Pitchers: Gold – Jeff Stone; Maroon – Tom Kelm. Floater: Carl Gallagher played for Gold. Mercenaries: Gold – Jim Maloy; Maroon – Tom Brownfield. Umpires: home plate – Bobby Miller; bases – Jimmy Schull. Perfect at the plate: Gold – Denny Malloy and Jeff Stone (each 2 for 2 with a walk) and Carl Gallagher (2 for 2 with a double); Maroon – Ken Brown (2 for 2 with a walk).
Two big factors behind Gold improving to 5-0 on the session:
1. Jeff Stone threw the best-pitched game of the season to date, holding Maroon to a single run, on a walk and two singles in the bottom of the fourth, while scattering eight hits (all of them singles) over six innings. Jeff recorded three foul strikeouts, started an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play in the bottom of the fifth, and got 11 batters to hit into ground outs. Also he drew a walk and knocked two singles in his three trips to the plate.
And 2. The board has decided Carl Gallagher, rather than being assigned to a single team for the duration of his (short) season, will be assigned to ALL the teams, and will rotate among them. Today it was Gold’s turn, and the team benefited from Carl knocking a single and a double in his two at bats and bringing his stellar defense to left-center field.
Gold scored five times in each of the first two innings as Tom Kelm struggled with his command early on – he issued walks to two of the first three batters in the top of the first, another to Larry Young leading off the second, then no more for the rest of the game. Joe Dayoc’s double drove in the fourth and fifth runs in the first inning, and James Chavana’s sacrifice fly to left plated the fifth run of the second inning. Tom then settled in, retiring Gold in order in the third and stranding runners at second and third in the fourth following Carl Gallagher’s double, getting a ground out and a pop. Maroon barely took advantage, however, managing just the single run in the fourth. Gold finished its scoring with three runs in the top of the fifth, on four singles and James Chavana’s second sacrifice fly. When Maroon did not score in the bottom half, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Jeff Stone got two quick outs, then gave up a single to Ken Brown, the one Maroon hitter he couldn’t solve. Larry Shupe grounded a ball to second baseman Rip Wright, who charged a couple of steps to field it in the baseline, then turned to tag out Ken, advancing from first; Ken stopped and backed up, and there was a brief standoff that extended the game for an additional two or three seconds until Rip just backpedaled to second base and tagged the bag for the final out. Final score: Gold 13, Maroon 1
Quote of the Day: Rip Wright, waving me off after I suggested he’d engaged Ken Brown in a battle of wits: “Well, he’s the doctor.”
11:30 a.m., Blue (2-3) at Red (1-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 0 1 0 0 5 6 Red 2 5 2 3 X X 12 Pitchers: Blue – Gary Bowles; Red – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Blue – Peter Sundquist; Red – David Kruse. Umpires: home plate – Jeff Stone; bases – Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a double) and Jimmy Schull (3 for 3); Red – Hal Darman and David Kruse (each 2 for 2 with a double) and Terry Thompson (3 for 3). Homerun: Paul Rubin (inside the park).
Another extremely well-pitched game, Jack Kelly holding Blue’s strong lineup to just one run over the first five innings while his teammates built a 12-0 lead. Jack was helped by his infield defense, which turned four double plays. After second baseman Donald Drummer made an excellent catch ramging to his left to track down Fritz Hensel’s pop to start the second, Dale Fugate and Jimmy Schull both singled. Stan Fisher grounded to third baseman Daniel Baladez, who fielded the ball cleanly, stepped on third to retire the lead runner, and threw to Donald at second for the double play. An inning later, with one run in with one out on two singles and Anthony Galindo’s double to left field, Jack escaped the inning when George Romo grounded to second and was thrown out at first by Donald Drummer; Bobby Miller tried to score from third on the play, but first baseman Scott Sovereen threw to Hal Darman, who reached high to pull in the throw, keeping his foot on the mat for the inning-ending out. In the fourth inning, following Fritz Hensel’s one-out single, George Brindley started a 6-4-3 double play, Donald Drummer on the pivot. And in the buffet, after Bobby Miller’s lead-off double was followed by six consecutive singles, five runs scoring, Jack got Stan Fisher to line to shortstop before ending the game on a weird-ass double play: Gary Bowles popped a ball to second base, but it popped out of Donald Drummer’s mitt; Donald flipped to Scott Sovereen to retire Gary, and then Scott threw to George Brindley at second base to double up Jimmy Schull – score it 4-3-6.
Donald Drummer and Paul Rubin were the offensive stars for Red, each driving in four runs, Donald on two-run singles in the first and fourth innings, Paul on a three-run inside-the-park homerun in the second and a bases-loaded walk in the fourth. The homerun was actually a hard grounder that just eluded second baseman Larry Fiorentino and wound up rolling to the fence in right, bringing in the third, fourth, and fifth runs in the bottom of the second. (Gregory Bied drove in the first two runs with a single.) Hal Darman continued his hot hitting, driving in two runs in the third with a double to left-center. The teams double-flip-flopped with Red leading by 11. Final score: Red 12, Blue 6
Hal Darman presents Paul Rubin with a Plucker’s coupon following the day’s one round-tripper as Scott Sovereen looks on.
12:30 p.m., Purple (1-3) at Green (2-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Purple 5 0 0 3 5 0 13 Green 0 2 5 5 0 2 14 Pitchers: Purple – Tommy Deleon, Rex Horvath, and Gil Delossantos; Green – Chunky Wright. Mercenaries: Purple – George Brindley, Rex Horvath, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright. Umpires: home plate – Jack Kelly; bases – Donald Drummer. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Larry Bunton (4 for 4 with a double) and Don Solberg (4 for 4); Green - .
Purple jumped to a quick lead in the top of the first inning with five runs on a walk and five hits, which included doubles by Larry Bunton to start the rally and Rex Horvath to complete it. Green couldn’t get much going early on, shut out in the first inning and managing two runs in the second before a 4-6-3 double play (Scott Wright to Rex Horvath to Adam Reddell) snuffed that rally. But Purple wasn’t able to extend its lead, getting shut out by Chunky Wright in both the second (leaving the bases loaded after three two-out singles) and third (two more left on base).
The lead changed hands in four consecutive half-innings beginning in the bottom of the third, when Green scored five times – it’s a blur to me now, just a lot of hits. Purple reclaimed the lead 8-7 with three runs in the top of the fourth, on five singles. Green scored five time again in its half (hit after hit after hit), and then Purple got five without making an out in the top of the fifth, on a walk and four singles and aggressive baserunning. That put Purple up 13-12, and they maintained the lead by blanking Green in the bottom half. Purple manager Gil Delossantos, eschewing the “Don’t just do something, stand there” school of managing favored by Green skipper Tim Balke, made pitching changes in the third (bringing in Rex Horvath and reconfiguring the defense mid-inning) and fourth (himself taking over on the mound), and it paid off in the fifth, when Gil, after walking Jeff Broussard leading off, started a 1-6-3 double play and then got a fly to left-center to send the game to the buffet with Purple still up by a run.
Purple needed to score some runs and extend its lead, but it didn’t happen. With one out, Gil Delossantos singled and Mike Mordecai walked, bringing up the mercenaries, but George Brindley flied out to left-center and Rex Horvath grounded into a force out, leaving Green chasing just one to tie and two to win in the bottom half. Green made short work of it: four straight hits, I think, a quick merry-go-round that ended the game in short order, Green walking off the victory. Final score: Green 14, Purple 13
www.beebesports.com
Standings – Session Two:
Games Runs Runs Run W/L
W L Win %: behind: for: allowed: differential: streak:
Gold 5 0 1.000 — 69 48 +21 W5
Maroon 3 2 .600 2 64 61 + 3 L2
Green 3 2 .600 2 66 65 + 1 W1
Red 2 3 .400 3 63 65 – 2 W1
Gray 2 3 .400 3 68 71 – 3 W2
Blue 2 4 .333 3.5 83 91 – 8 L1
Purple 1 4 .200 4 55 67 -12 L2
Home Visitor Walk-off Extra-inning Flip-flop 1-run games
W-L: W-L: Wins: W-L: W-L: W-L:
Gold 2-0 3-0 2 2-0 1-0 3-0
Maroon 1-1 2-1 0 0-0 1-1 0-1
Green 1-2 2-0 1 0-1 1-1 1-0
Red 1-2 1-1 0 0-0 1-1 0-1
Gray 1-1 1-2 1 0-2 0-1 1-1
Blue 0-3 2-1 0 1-0 1-1 0-1
Purple 1-2 0-2 0 0-0 0-0 0-1
2023 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
Blue Gold Gray Green Maroon Purple Red TOTAL
Blue X 1 2 0 0 2 0 5
Gold 1 X 1 2 1 0 1 6
Gray 0 1 X 0 1 0 2 4
Green 1 0 1 X 0 2 2 6
Maroon 1 1 0 2 X 1 0 5
Purple 0 0 1 0 1 X 1 3
Red 2 0 0 0 1 1 X 4
____________________________________________________________
TOTAL: 5 3 5 4 4 6 6 33
Schedule for Monday April 24:
10:30 a.m.: Maroon (3-2) at Purple (1-4), Red umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Red (2-3) at Green (3-2), Purple umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Gray (2-3) at Blue (2-4), Green umpiring
Gold has the bye – players from that team will have priority out of the bucket.
Preview: With first-place Gold idle, the rest of the league will jockey for second place, currently a tie between Maroon (playing Purple at 10:30) and Green (facing Red at 11:30) Victories by Red (which has yet to defeat Green), Gray (which has yet to defeat Blue), and Purple could result in a three-way tie for second.
Keggy’s Korner:
Hackberry emperor butterflies hanging around the doughnuts this morning.
Also emperors: Jeff Fisher, second from right, and Greg Lloyd, far right, at Big Bend last week. Don’t know the other guys, but I respect second-from-left’s excellent tee shirt.