B League news for Thursday June 27, 2024

B League Picayune

Often in error, never in doubt.

Volume 6, Issue 24 – June 27, 2024

Weather: Temperature in the upper 80s when we started, rising to the mid 90s, with greater Austin under a heat advisory. Sunny throughout. My app says the humidity was just under 50%, but it felt stickier than that. Salute to today’s umpires.

www.beebesports.com

Games of Thursday June 27:

10:30 a.m., Maroon (1-1) at Orange (1-1):

		1	2	3	4	5	6     BUFFET  FINAL
Maroon		0	1	0	0	0	4	0	 5
Orange		0	2	3	0	3	3	X	11

Pitchers: Maroon – Chunky Wright (innings 1-2, 5-6) and James Chavana (3-4); Orange – Ray “Cy” Pilgrim. No mercenaries. Umpires: home plate – Tom Kelm and Rick Jensen; bases – Jeff Stone and Rip Wright. Perfect at the plate: no one from either team. 

Ray Pilgrim threw another terrific game for Orange, holding a solid Maroon lineup to just one run over the first five innings while his teammates built him an 8-1 lead. The one run came in the bottom of the second, on three singles by the bottom half of the Maroon lineup; otherwise, Maroon was held scoreless on one hit in each of the first and third innings, and went out in order in the fourth and fifth – from the end of the second through the fifth, Ray retired 11 of 12 batters, something you don’t see often in B League.

Orange didn’t score in the first, Chunky Wright stranding Larry Fiorentino at third after his two-out triple. Rex Horvath hit a slow roller to third base, but Jack Spellman didn’t throw to first – I thought I had less than a 50% chance of catching Rex, and I thought Larry would break for home if I threw over. That gamble paid off when Eddie Ortiz popped out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed.

Orange erased Maroon’s brief 1-0 lead with two runs in the bottom of the first. Peter Atkins doubled with one out and scored on Matt Levitt’s base hit. Matt took second on the throw home and scored on Larry Shupe’s single.

James Chavana took over at pitcher for Maroon for the top of the third, giving Orange’s lineup a fresh look. They liked it at first, the first five batters facing James reaching on a triple by Doc Hobar, singles by Tony Garcia (Doc scoring) and Larry Fiorentino, a walk to Rex Horvath, and a two-run single by Eddie Ortiz. James retired the next six hitters he faced, getting Ray Pilgrim on a fly to right-center, Peter Atkins on a fly to left-center (excellent catch by Anthony Galindo), and Matt Levitt on a pop to shortstop, then working a 1-2-3 bottom of the fourth.

Chunky Wright returned to the mound for the fifth and sixth and gave up three runs in each frame. Doc Hobar led off the fifth with a hard grounder to third base that, either by topspin or a wayward pebble or both, took a wicked second hop and caromed off third baseman Jack Spellman’s mask.

I thank heaven for my beloved purple mask, else my lovely countenance would be ruined. In the closeup at right, you can see where Doc’s grounder chipped the top bar, instead of smashing into my (still) beautiful face.

One out later, Larry Fiorentino hit his second triple, this one to left-center, driving in Tony Garcia, on whose hard grounder to second baseman Tom Brownfield Doc had been forced out. Rex Horvath grounded out to third, Larry holding, and Eddie Ortiz walked. Ray Pilgrim’s single scored Larry, and Eddie came across on Matt Levitt’s base hit.

Orange scored its final three runs in the sixth on four singles and Eddie Ortiz’s sacrifice fly to left field. This was after Maroon had broken through for four runs on six hits, including doubles by Jack Spellman and Buddy Gaswint, in the top half of the inning.

Chasing six runs entering the buffet, Maroon got a lead-off single from Tom Brownfield, his first hit in his first game returning from injury. But Ray Pilgrim got both Alvin Gauna and Marvin Krabbenhoft to hit into force outs, then caught Chunky Wright looking at a called strike three for the final out. Final score: Orange 11, Maroon 5

11:30 a.m., Purple (0-2) at Green (1-1):

		1	2	3	4	5    BUFFET   FINAL
Purple		0	0	1	5	5	0	11
Green		1	5	3	0	0	3	12

Pitchers: Purple – Jeff Stone; Green – Terry Thompson. Mercenaries: Purple – Larry Fiorentino, Tommy Gillis, Donnie Janac, Candy Perez, and Steve Sandall; Green – David Brown, Jack Spellman, and Terry Thompson. Umpires: home – Scott Wright; bases – Anthony Galindo. Perfect at the plate: Purple – Steve Sandall (3 for 3 with a double); Green – David Brown (3 for 3 with a double). 

The narrative is in the line score: Green built a 9-1 lead in the early innings; Purple stormed back to take an 11-9 lead but was held scoreless in the buffet; and Green rallied for three in the home half to walk off a 12-11 victory.

Terry Thompson was superb on the mound for Green over the first three innings, working around two singles in the top of the first, retiring the side in the order, and giving up a single run in the third, when Steve Sandall led off with a double and scored on Donnie Janac’s base hit. Rick Jensen followed with what looked like a line single to center field, but Jack McDermott charged the ball and came up throwing, his peg to shortstop Ralph Villela beating Donnie to second and robbing Rick of credit for a single and what would have been a 4-for-4 game. Jeff Stone then singled, would have been the fourth straight hit of the inning, which instead ended with Terry Thompson starting a 1-6-3 double play on Rip Wright’s hard grounder back to the box.

Green in the early going scored one run on three singles in the bottom of the first; five runs on six singles, Terry Thompson’s bases-loaded triple, and Ralph Villela’s sacrifice fly in the second; and three runs on three singles and David Brown’s double in the third, those runs all scoring with two out.

Purple got back into the game by scoring five times in both the fourth (on eight singles) and fifth (on five singles and Tommy Gillis’s double) while making just one out in each frame, meanwhile holding Green scoreless in the bottom of each inning, Jeff Stone in each instance working around a two-out single. (One of those singles, not sure which one, was on a grounder to shortstop Rick Jensen that took a bad hop and glanced off Rick’s jaw. The Colonel just shook it off.)

Leading by two entering the buffet, Purple was unable to add to its lead. Rick Jensen singled with one out, but was thrown out 7-4 (Mike Garrison to Mike Hill) when he tagged up and tried to advance on Jeff Stone’s fly to left field. Both Mikes employed fancy footwork on the double play, Garrison in lining up the knuckling fly ball and getting himself in position to make a strong throw, Hill in setting up at second and tagging the bag while corralling the throw at ankle height.

Green came up needing two to tie and three to win. Jeff Broussard popped out to third baseman Candy Perez to open the inning, but mercenaries David Brown, Terry Thompson, and Jack Spellman each singled, David coming around to score, making it a one-run game. Ralph Villela’s single loaded the bases. Paul Rubin grounded back to pitcher Jeff Stone, who threw home for the second out; David Brown, running for Spellman, beat the throw from catcher Tom Kelm to third base, and looked to try for home when the throw squibbed away, but he had run through the bag and had to retreat to tag it, and thought better of trying to advance. (At any rate, that’s how I’m recalling it while also trying to reconcile with Dave Berra’s scoresheet.) Mike Hill then lived up to his Hit Man nickname, knocking a clean single to right field that brought in David with the tying run and Ralph with the winner. Final score: Green 12, Purple 11

Daniel Baladez returned from eye surgery, and coached third base for Green.

 

12:30 p.m., Gray (0-1) at Red (1-0):

		1	2	3	4     BUFFET  FINAL
Gray		3	0	1	3	5	12
Red		3	1	0	3	0	 7

Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Red – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Gray – Candy Perez; Red – David Brown, Jim Foelker, Larry Shupe, and Jeff Stone. Umpires: Home plate – Trey Wall; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3) and David Kruse (4 for 4 with a double); Red – Morgan Witthoft (3 for 3).

Another close game decided in the buffet.

Each team scored three runs on six singles in the first inning. The first six hitters of the game hit safely for Gray, three scoring, the fourth, Don Solberg, out at home on a 9-6-5 relay, Denny Malloy to David Brown to Adam Reddell (I think). Jeff Stone left two runners stranded by striking out both Jack Kelly and Johnny Lee on called strike threes. Red tied the score by knocking five consecutive two-out singles in the home half.

Jeff Stone worked a 1-2-3 top of the third, helped by good defensive plays by shortstop David Brown on Mark Dolan’s grounder, David’s strong throw just beating Mark hustling down the line; Jim Foelker in left, catching Candy Perez’s deep fly; and Denny Malloy in right-center, running down Ken Brown’s liner.

Red briefly took the lead with a single run in the bottom of the second: Rick Kahn singled with one out, took third on Morgan Witthoft’s pop-fly single to right, and scored on Adam Reddell’s sacrifice line drive to Ken Brown in right-center.

Gray got that run back in the top of the third. David Kruse beat out a grounder to third base and took second on an overthrow, then advanced to third on Tommy Gillis’s single to left. Don Solberg, batting right-handed, popped out to shortstop David Brown in short left field. Donnie Janac grounded a ball to shortstop, toward the second-base side; David Brown fielded it, took a couple steps to the bag for the force on Tommy, and threw to first, but Donnie just beat it to avoid the inning-ending double play and allow David Kruse to score.

Red did not score in the bottom half, Jack Kelly working around Jeff Stone’s two-out single, and the score remained 4-4.

Each team scored three times in the fourth, Gray on Johnny Lee’s lead-off walk and five singles, the inning ending with David Brown making a leaping grab of Donnie Janac’s liner to shortstop. Red’s first four hitters singled in the home half, mercenaries Jim Foelker and Larry Shupe scoring on hits by Rick Kahn and Morgan Witthoft (Morgan completing a 3-for-3 day), Rick then advancing and scoring on flies by Adam Reddell (to left field) and Denny Malloy (to left-center).

So it was 7-7 entering the buffet. Gray got clutch production from the bottom half of its lineup in the top of the inning, as Ivan Budiselic singled (completing a 3-for-3 day), Jack Kelly walked, and Johnny Lee singled, loading the bases.

Mark Dolan (above, with Trey Wall umpiring and Hal Darman catching) came up and grounded a ball to second baseman Boo Resnick, who threw to second for the force there, Ivan’s pinch-runner scoring the go-ahead run.

Candy Perez brought in Jack Kelly’s pinch-runner with a sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in left field, the second out of the inning.

Ken Brown singled, Mark Dolan stopping at second.

David Kruse (above, photojournalistically) lined a double to right field, Mark scoring, Ken stopping at third.