B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 39 – July 31, 2025
Dave Berra’s weather report, at 10:30 a.m.: 92 degrees, feels like 97. Humidity 45%, wind SW 3 MPH. High, cloudless sky. The later games were much the same, just hotter.
Scott Wright belatedly receives from Maroon manager Dave Berra a Pluckers coupon for the inside-the-park home run Scott hit on Monday.
Games of Thursday July 31:
10:30 a.m., Blue (3-6) at Purple (4-5):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 2 5 5 0 1 13 Purple 1 0 5 5 3 14 Pitchers: Blue – David Pittard; Purple – Greg Lloyd (innings 1-3) and Ray Pilgrim (innings 4 and buffet). Mercenaries: Blue – Gary Coyle, Jack Spellman, and Scott Wright; Purple – Greg Lloyd, Ray Pilgrim, Phil Stanch, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Marvin Krabbenhoft and Daniel Carvajal. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Tom Brownfield (3 for 3) and Gary Coyle (3 for 3 with a triple); Purple – Phil Stanch (3 for 3).
Line score tells the tale: Blue won the first two and a half innings, Purple the second two and a half, ultimately walking off a come-from-behind victory.
Greg Lloyd started on the mound for Purple and gave up two runs on four singles in the first inning, and then five runs in both the second (on three singles, triples by Jack Spellman and David Pittard, and Jimmy Sneed’s double) and third (on a walk and five singles) – Blue reached Greg for a dozen runs while making only five outs. Meanwhile David Pittard allowed just a single run in the bottom of the first (Henry Flores singled in Raul Deleon, who’d singled with one out and taken third on Larry Fiorentino’s double) while stranding two runners, and no runs in the second, leaving the bases loaded on singles by Chris Waddell, Phil Stanch, and Matt Levitt. An alert play to start the frame stole an out: leading off, Greg Lloyd lined a ball to right-center; George Brindley charged it, fielded it on one hop and made a quick flip to second baseman Tom Brownfield, who fired to first, just beating Greg to the bag. Hal Darman told me afterward that it was the first time in his years of B League play that he could recall seeing an outfield-middle infield-first base relay beat a runner-batter to first.
Leading 12-1 heading into the bottom of the third, I wouldn’t say Blue was cocky, but we were pretty confident that we were in position to win. And that remained the case even after Purple scored five times in the bottom of the third, on Larry Fiorentino’s lead-off double, four singles, Chris Waddell’s triple to right-center (absolutely crushed), and Henry Flores’s sacrifice fly.
But then Ray Pilgrim took over on the mound for Purple and Blue failed to score in the top of the fourth, Ray working around singles by Tom Brownfield (his third in as many at bats) and Daniel Baladez. Purple then put up another five runs in the home half on six singles, Matt Levitt’s walk, and Larry Fiorentino’s third double, cutting Blue’s lead to 12-10.
Blue added just one run in the top of the buffet, on back-to-back one-out triples by Scott Wright and Gary Coyle. Facing the top of Blue’s order, Ray Pilgrim got Tom Bellavia to ground to shortstop Rick Jensen, Scott holding at third. Jimmy Sneed came up and ripped a line drive down the third-base side, but within reach of Chris Waddell, who snagged it for the third out.
Purple came up needing two to tie and three to win. David Pittard retired Ray Pilgrim on a fly to Jimmy Sneed in left field to open the inning. Matt Levitt and Raul Deleon followed with singles, putting the tying run on base. David got Larry Fiorentino to hit a two-strike foul for the second out, and victory seemed within reach. But. Rick Jensen singled to right field, Matt scoring to get Purple within a run. Henry Flores lined a single to left; Jimmy Sneed charged the ball, juggled it, and then threw home, a bit off line and not in time to keep Raul from scoring the tying run, with Rick and Henry advancing on the throw. Larry Young came up and knocked David’s first pitch to right field for a clean single to bring in Rick with the winning run. Final score: Purple 14, Blue 13, Purple snapping its four-game losing streak and getting back to .500 for the session.
11:30 a.m., Orange (6-3) at Green (5-4):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 1 0 4 0 1 3 9 Green 0 2 0 1 4 0 7 Pitchers: Orange – Terry Thompson; Green – Greg Lloyd. Mercenaries: Orange – George Brindley and Mark Dolan. Umpires: home – Larry Young; bases – Larry Fiorentino. Perfect at the plate: Orange – David Brown (4 for 4 with a double) and Terry Thompson (2 for 2).
Defensive battle, neither team reaching double digits in scoring over six innings of play. David Brown had a terrific game for Orange, going 4 for 4 and playing excellent defense at shortstop. He opened the game with a double to left field, tagged and took third on Peter Atkins’s fly to Phil Stanch in right field, and scored on Ray Pilgrim’s ground out to shortstop. Green didn’t score in the home half, Terry Thompson working around Ralph Villela’s lead-off single, and Orange didn’t score in the top of the second – Terry led off with a single, but Marvin Krabbenhoft flied out to Buddy Gaswint in left field and Chris Waddell started a 5-4-3 double play, Doc Hobar on the pivot, on Boo Resnick’s grounder.
Green grabbed the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second, on hits by four of the first five batters. Buddy Gaswint led off with a line double to center, and Greg Lloyd singled to left-center. Boo Resnick caught Phil Stanch’s looping liner to second for the first out. Billy Hill hit a ground single down the third-base side, Buddy scoring. Donnie Janac’s single to left loaded the bases, and Greg scored on Chunky Wright’s 6-4 force out.
Orange responded with four runs in the top of the third, on six singles – a very meat-and-potatoes rally. Green didn’t score in the home half, Terry Thompson retiring three in a row after allowing a lead-off single to Doc Hobar.
Greg Lloyd returned the favor in the top of the fourth: he gave up a lead-off single to Boo Resnick, then retired the next three. Phil Stanch made a nice catch of George Brindley’s drive to right-center, briefly juggling it before getting control of the ball for the out.
Phil singled with one out in the bottom of the inning, then was forced at second on Billy Hill’s grounder to second baseman Boo Resnick. Donnie Janac singled Billy’s runner – Mike Garrison, I think – to second, and Chunky Wright’s base hit to left field brought him home, cutting Orange’s lead to 4-3.
Orange had the top of its order up to start the fifth. David Brown and Peter Atkins both singled, putting runners on the corners with none out. Ray Pilgrim hit a sharp grounder to the left of shortstop that Ralph Villela fielded and converted into a 6u., 6-3 double play, David scoring. Daniel Carvajal flied out to Buddy Gaswint in left field for the third out.
Green’s hitters finally got untracked in the bottom of the fourth, scoring four runs on hit by the first six batters. Doc Hobar and Mike Garrison led off with singles, and both scored – Mike all the way from first – on Chris Waddell’s single to left-center. Buddy Gaswint’s second double of the game sent Chris to third. Greg Lloyd singled off Terry Thompson and into right-center field, Chris scoring the tying run. Phil Stanch lined a ball through the 5-6 hole, Buddy scoring to put Green ahead by a run. Green had the fifth run on second with none out, but wasn’t able to get that run in, as Terry Thompson got Billy Hill to swing through a two-strike offering, Donnie Janac to pop out to Boo Resnick at second, and Chunky Wright to ground out to shortstop David Brown.
On to the buffet. Terry Thompson was due up first for Orange, but didn’t bat – Marvin Krabbenhoft came up and singled to start the inning. Boo Resnick followed with a walk. I checked with the Orange bench, and it turned out Terry’s spot in the order had been skipped inadvertently. Nobody on Green noticed at the time, and as batting out of order is an appeal play and no appeal had been made before the next batter came to the plate, so play continued. Larry Shupe grounded a ball to the mound; Greg Lloyd made the play and threw Larry out at first – effectively, a sacrifice to move the runners into scoring position. It worked, as the next three batters singled in runs.
George Brindley’s single to right brought in Marvin’s runner with the tying run. Here’s George lining up the pitch:
And here’s George knocking the ball just beyond the reach of second baseman Doc Hobar, in documentary black and white – get out your magnifying glass, you can see the ball on the other side of Doc’s glove:
Mark Dolan’s single up the middle drove in Boo with the go-ahead run, and David Brown’s line single to left, his fourth hit in as many at bats, scored George from second, Mark taking third and David second on the throw home. Greg Lloyd was able to strand them there, getting Peter Atkins to pop out to shortstop Ralph Villela and Ray Pilgrim to fly out to deep right-center, Phil Stanch making a very good play going back on the ball. (Stating the obvious: Phil has become a really solid outfielder.)
Green needed two to tie in the home half, and had the top of the order due up. Ralph Villela grounded a ball to the left of second base; David Brown moved to his left to smoothly field the ball and make a strong throw to first, beating Ralph by a step, if that, for the first out. David then caught Doc Hobar’s pop for out number two. Mike Garrison lined a double to left-center, bringing up Chris Waddell representing the tying run. Chris grounded the ball to shortstop; David fielded it cleanly and made a strong throw to first baseman Daniel Carvajal for the game-ending out.
I captured David’s throw two-thirds of the way to first…
…and Chris reaching the bag (in documentary black and white) after Daniel had made the catch and started toward the congratulatory scrum around winning pitcher Terry Thompson, while base coach Billy Hill looks on.
Final score: Orange 9, Green 7
12:30 p.m., Gray (4-5) at Maroon (8-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 0 0 3 5 1 5 14 Maroon 1 0 4 0 2 0 7 Pitchers: Gray – David Pittard; Maroon – Terry Thompson. Mercenaries: Gray – Anthony Galindo and David Pittard; Maroon – David Brown, Raul Deleon, Mark Dolan, Henry Flores, Jack Spellman, and Terry Thompson. Umpires: home – Mike Garrison; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Anthony Galindo (3 for 3); Maroon – Mark Dolan (3 for 3). Home run: Paul Rubin (inside the park) (2).
First-place Maroon had only four of its roster in place for this game, filling with half a dozen mercenaries. Both teams had to pick up pitchers, leading to some beforehand pseudo-gamesmanship before Hal Darman and Dave Berra amicably handled the bucket draw, with David Pittard and Terry Thompson each making his second pitching appearance of the day.
They both started sharp: Terry blanked Gray over the first two innings, allowing one single in each frame, escaping the second inning on a 6u., 6-3 double play off the bat of Mike Malay, whose grounder to shortstop took a Sunday hop to Jack Spellman moving to his left. David allowed Gray a single run in the bottom of the first, as Scott Wright led off with a single and his pinch-runner – David Brown, maybe? – scored from first on Don Solberg’s single. David got out of the inning by way of a 6-4-5 double play, George Romo to Mike Malay to Adam Reddell on David Brown’s grounder to shortstop, Mike alertly determining he had a better shot of throwing out Don trying for third than David racing to first. David Pittard worked around a pair of two-out singles in the bottom of the second, and it was still 1-1 Gray through two.
The bats came alive in the third inning. Gray’s first three hitters, Hal Darman and mercenaries Anthony Galindo and David Pittard, singled and scored in the top half: David’s single drove in Hal’s runner; after Jack Crosley drew a bases-loading walk, Adam Reddell’s sacrifice fly to David Brown in left-center scored Anthony; and George Romo’s single delivered David. A single by Johnny Lee re-loaded the bases, but Terry Thompson got Morgan Witthoft to ground into a 6-4 force, another big hop to Spellman moving to his left.
Maroon responded with four runs on six singles in the bottom half. Raul Deleon drove in three runs with his two-out single, David Brown scoring from first, but the inning ended with Raul being hit by Mark Dolan’s sharp grounder to the right side – a single for Mark, but the third out for Maroon.
Gray took the lead with five runs on seven consecutive singles in the fourth, not making an out, and David Pittard then shut out Maroon in the home half, working around Scott Wright’s two-out single.
Gray scored a single run in the top of the fifth. George Romo led off with a single. Left fielder Don Solberg made a good running catch of Johnny Lee’s drive to left field for the first out. Morgan Witthoft hit a hard grounder to the right of second base; Tommy Langa, moving to his right, made a terrific play on the ball, which took a bad final hop off Tommy’s body – he kept the ball in front of him and managed to make a quick scoop throw to second to beat George for the force. Mike Malay then smashed a double to right-center, Morgan easily scoring from first.
David Pittard got two quick outs to start the bottom half, but the next four batters, all mercenaries, knocked singles, two runs scoring. Mark Dolan drove in the second with his third hit in as many at bats.
Gray led 9-7 entering the buffet, very much within striking range of Maroon. They made sure it would be a tougher task by scoring five times, the last three with two out. Anthony Galindo led off with a single, completing a 3-for-3 game. David Pittard popped out to second baseman Tommy Langa, who ranged back and to his left to run the ball down, another excellent play. Paul Rubin stepped up and, as he’d been attempting to do in each of his previous three at bats, tried to drive the ball the opposite way, and this time he succeeded, slicing a ball down the left-field side to the corner; Anthony scored easily, and Paul followed him, never hesitating and beating the relay for his second home run of the season.
Paul Rubin receives a Pluckers coupon from scowling opposing manager Dave Berra after the game.
Paul’s homer made it a four-run game. Jack Crosley and Adam Reddell followed with singles. Don Solberg ran down George Romo’s fly to left for the second out. Johnny Lee “singled” – really a drive to the fence, his runner had to stop at first – and both Jack and Adam scored, making it a six-run game. Morgan Witthoft and Mike Malay singled, Johnny’s runner coming around to score. Seven-run game. Hal Darman lined a pitch for what looked like a hit to left-center, but George Brindley again came up throwing, his peg to second baseman Tommy Langa beating Mike to the bag for the third out.
David Pittard didn’t give Maroon much opportunity to get back into the game in the home half. He got Terry Thompson to hit a foul pop, grabbed by catcher Hal Darman for the first out. Scott Wright singled. But David retired Don Solberg on a two-strike foul, then got Ivan Budiselic to ground out to first baseman Johnny Lee, who made a good backhanded grab when the ball took a high hop, then tagged the bag for the last out. Final score: Gray 14, Maroon 7, Gray defeating Maroon for the first time in 2025 – every team has now beaten every other team at least once this season – and ending Maroon’s six-game winning streak. It was also Maroon’s first loss as home team this session.
Session 3 standings:
| Session 3 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Maroon | 8 | 3 | .727 | 0 | 119 | 110 | 9 | L1 |
| Orange | 7 | 3 | .700 | 0.5 | 107 | 86 | 21 | W1 |
| Gray | 5 | 5 | .500 | 2.5 | 125 | 106 | 19 | W2 |
| Purple | 5 | 5 | .500 | 2.5 | 104 | 102 | 2 | W1 |
| Green | 5 | 5 | .500 | 2.5 | 95 | 98 | -3 | L2 |
| Blue | 3 | 7 | .300 | 4.5 | 100 | 114 | -14 | L1 |
| Red | 3 | 8 | .273 | 5 | 115 | 149 | -34 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Maroon | 5-1 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Orange | 3-1 | 4-2 | 0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | 1-2 | ||
| Gray | 2-3 | 3-2 | 0 | 0-1 | 2-1 | 1-3 | ||
| Purple | 4-1 | 1-4 | 2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | ||
| Green | 2-3 | 3-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-1 | ||
| Blue | 2-3 | 1-4 | 1 | 0-1 | 1-1 | 2-3 | ||
| Red | 0-6 | 3-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1-1 |
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 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 14 |
| Green | 2 | 3 | X | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 17 |
| Maroon | 3 | 4 | 4 | X | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20 |
| Orange | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | X | 3 | 3 | 16 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | X | 3 | 16 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | X | 13 |
| TOTAL: | 15 | 18 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 16 | 20 | 114 |
2025 season home run leaders:
Tim Coles – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Bobby Miller – 4
George Brindley – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Mike Garrison – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
David Brown – 2
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
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
Schedule for Monday August 4:
10:30 a.m.: Gray (5-5) at Green (5-5), Blue umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Blue (3-7) at Orange (7-3), Green umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Red (3-8) at Purple (5-5), Orange umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: August! Wait, today wasn’t a dog day? It was pretty freaking hot. Anyway, the new month opens with first-place Maroon getting a bye day. Orange has a chance to draw into a tie for first with a win at 11:30 over a Blue team that had won two in a row before narrowly losing today. Three teams are tied for third place at 5-5; two of them, Gray (+19 run differential, and the longest active winning streak, two games) and Green (-3 run differential), meet at 10:30; the third, Purple, faces Red at 12:30. Monday is also the tenth anniversary of Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog announcing the end of their relationship on Twitter. Will they ever reunite? Only one thing is certain: time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
This Wilson mitt was left behind in the visitors dugout; I left it in the league cart.
Reminder that Johnny Lee and Arctic Blues Band will be at Lighthouse on the Lake, 513 Sleat Drive in Briarcliff, this Saturday night from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.Don’t forget that you can read current and past editions of this year’s Picayune at: https://austinseniorsoftball.