B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 4 – March 12, 2026
Department of Corrections: I misreported the final score of the 11:30 game of this past Monday, March 9: Maroon defeated Blue 12-5, not 11-5, as it turns out 5 + 3 + 3 + 1 = 12, go figure. Like anyone needed proof I’m a text guy, not a numbers guy. The Picayune regrets the error.
Games of Thursday March 12:
10:30 a.m.: Red (2-1) at Blue (1-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Red 5 1 0 3 0 9 Blue 1 0 4 5 X 10 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Blue – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Red – Gary Coyle, Jimmie Maloy, and Steve Sandall. Umpires: home – Jeff Stone; bases – George Brindley. Perfect at the plate: Red – Steve Sandall (2 for 2 with two doubles) and Ralph Villela (3 for 3 with a triple and a home run); Blue – Tom Bellavia and Ken Mockler (both 2 for 2 with a double), David Brown and Lawrence Page (both 2 for 2), and J.C. Schmeil (2 for 2 with a double and a triple). Home run: Ralph Villela (inside the park) (1).
Weather report: 66 degrees, 33% humidity, wind from the NNW at 7 MPH, sunny.
Good battle, both teams playing good outfield defense. Red broke on top, with manager-shortstop Ralph Villela leading off the game with an inside-the-park home run to left-center field, his first homer of the season. Red then added four more runs on four singles and a rally-concluding double past third base by Gary Coyle, the last three hits coming with two out. Trent Peacock got two quick outs to start the bottom of the first, retiring Joe Bernal on a pop to Ralph and George Romo on a line drive to left field, right at Tommy Gillis. Tom Bellavia doubled, his drive to left-center short hopping the fence, and scored on Ken Mockler’s single past shortstop into center field. Chris Waddell squared up on a pitch, but Anthony Galindo made a nice catch of the liner in left-center for the third out.
Ralph Villela led off the game with an inside-the-park home run, his first of the season. Super crowded in downtown today thanks to the South-By badgers.
Jimmie Maloy opened the second inning with a drive to left-center, but was robbed of extra bases by Tom Bellavia, who made an excellent catch moving back and to his right. Steve Sandall followed with a pop-fly double to right field and scored on Ralph Villela’s line single through the 5-6 hole. Mark Dolan lined a ball up the middle, only for the ball to be snagged by Joe Bernal, who flipped to first baseman Chris Waddell to double up Ralph, who’d taken one aggressive step toward second and couldn’t get back.
Blue managed the impressive feat of opening the bottom of the second with a walk and a triple and coming away without a run scored. Lawrence Page lined a single to right field leading off. J.C. Schmeil followed with a triple to left-center that gapped the outfielders; Lawrence had an easy path to score, but tripped and fell, in truly spectacular fashion, rounding third base*. With J.C. pulling into third behind him, Lawrence had no choice but to get up and try for home, and was thrown out 8-6-5-2 (Anthony Galindo to Ralph Villela to Gary Coyle to Marvin Krabbenhoft). Phil Stanch hit a sharp grounder back to the box that Trent Peacock snagged; when Trent threw to first for the out, J.C. broke for home, but Johnny Lee’s throw to Marvin Krabbenhoft beat J.C. home to complete a 1-3-2 double play, and crossing off the first square of the 2026 B League Bingo card:
* Not due to a sniper, but it kind of looked that way.
Joe Bernal held Red scoreless in the top of the third, getting three outs on the ground. Anthony Galindo grounded out to shortstop David Brown and Trent Peacock to second baseman J.C. Schmeil to open the inning. Singles by Tommy Gillis and Johnny Lee put runners on the corners, but Joe got Marvin Krabbenhoft to ground out to third baseman Ken Mockler, Joe himself taking the throw at second.
Blue then scored four times in the home half, all coming with two out and cutting Red’s lead to 6-5. David Brown lined a one-out triple to right-center and scored on Larry Young’s ground out to second baseman Mark Dolan. Singles by Joe Bernal, George Romo, and Tom Bellavia resulted in a second run. Both George and Tom scored on Ken Mockler’s double to deep right-center. Chris Waddell grounded a ball to shortstop Ralph Villela; Ralph’s throw to first pulled Johnny Lee off the bag, and Chris was safe, but Ken, thinking it was a sure out, started back to the home dugout and was put out 6-3-4-6 to end the inning. (It’s early season, always lots of base-running follies as we test one another’s arms and new-ish guys learn the intricacies of B League running rules – what happened in this game was nothing compared to what went down at 12:30.)
Red increased its lead to 9-5 with three runs in the top of the fourth, thanks to Ralph Villela. Gary Coyle led off with an infield single, a grounder to third, Ken Mockler’s throw to Chris Waddell skipping past. After Jimmie Maloy flied out to left fielder Lawrence Page, Steve Sandall hit another pop-fly double to right field; Gary had to wait to be sure it would fall, and had to stop at third. Ralph then ripped another extra-base hit to the fence in left-center, both Gary and Steve scoring; Ralph stopped as he rounded third to watch the relay home, and when it sailed past catcher Larry Young, he was able to score. Owing to his stopping, I am scoring it a triple-plus-error rather than a home run. (This put him in line to try for the cycle in his fourth at bat; alas, Ralph did not get a fourth at bat.) Mark Dolan followed with an infield single, Chris Waddell unable to corral shortstop David Brown’s throw, but Joe Bernal got Anthony Galindo to ground into a 5-4 force, Ken Mockler to J.C. Schmeil, and retired Trent Peacock on a two-strike foul pop down the first-base side.
Blue took the lead for the first time with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. There was a base-running shenanigan, but not a folly. Lawrence Page opened the inning with a single to right-center. J.C. Schmeil lofted a fly to right-center that Steve Sandall seemed to have a bead on, only to overrun it (prevailing wind, 180 degrees opposite last week’s wind, was carrying the ball out), resulting in a double. Phil Stanch popped a Texas League single to right field, Lawrence scoring and J.C. taking third. The runners held on Donnie Janac’s fly to Steve in short right-center. David Brown then lined a single to center, driving in J.C., with Phil taking third on the play. David purposely got himself into a rundown between first and second, during which, as David ping-ponged between second baseman Mark Dolan and first baseman Johnny Lee, Phil was able to score. Mark finally ran David back to first base, the best possible result if Red wasn’t going to be able to put him out.
David’s speed paid off again when Larry Young grounded a ball to third baseman Gary Coyle. Gary threw to Mark Dolan at second to try to force out David, and the throw just beat David to the bag, but Mark couldn’t hold on, and everyone was safe. David then scored and Larry’s pinch-runner took third on Joe Bernal’s line double to right field, and George Romo drove in the fifth run of the inning with a line single to left.
Red needed a run to tie entering the buffet, and seemed poised to do so when Tommy Gillis led off with a triple to right-center. But Joe Bernal worked out of the jam: he got Johnny Lee to ground back to the box, Tommy wisely holding; then retired Marvin Krabbenhoft on a pop to second baseman J.C. Schmeil; and ended the game by getting Gary Coyle to fly out to Tom Bellavia in left-center.
Final score: Blue 10, Red 9
11:30 a.m.: Maroon (2-1) at Orange (2-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 1 1 3 0 1 6 Orange 5 5 2 3 X 14 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Orange – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Maroon – Pat Schmidt and Phil Stanch; Orange – Joe Bernal. Umpires: home – Ralph Villela; bases – Trent Peacock. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Pat Schmidt (2 for 2 with a double) and Jeff Stone (3 for 3); Orange – Mark Hernandez (3 for 3), Matt Levitt (3 for 3 with two doubles), and Pat Scott (3 for 3 with a double).
Weather report: 67 degrees, 30% humidity, wind from the North at 9 MPH, sunny.
Orange built an insurmountable lead in the early going, Joe Bernal holding Maroon to a single run in each of the first two innings while Orange pushed across five runs in each home half. Jeff Stone’s two-out RBI single drove in George Brindley with the game’s first run, Maroon briefly taking the lead in the top of the first. Orange got that back when Jack Spellman, running for himself for the first time this season, hit a fly that caught the outgoing wind and sailed over Ken Brown’s head in right-center, Spellman chugging into third with a triple. (Approximate split times: home to first – 7 seconds; first to second – 6 seconds; second to third – 15 seconds.) Peter Atkins ripped a single to left field to drive in the tying run, then took third on Adam Reddell’s single. After Jeff Stone got Don Solberg to pop out to shortstop George Brindley, Peter scored on Jack Crosley’s sacrifice fly to Ken Brown in right-center. Matt Levitt’s double put runners on second and third. Mark Hernandez, who barely had time to get his socks and cleats on after coming straight to Krieg from a VA appointment, knocked Adam and Matt in with a single. Matt ran for Mark and came around on consecutive singles by Pat Scott and Hal Darman to complete the rally.
More of the same in the second. Maroon scored a single run in the top half. Fritz Hensel singled leading off, and his runner was forced out 4-6 on Dale Fugate’s grounder. Dale took third on Pat Schmidt’s double. Phil Stanch singled to right field, Dale scoring; Pat tried to follow him, but was gunned down 10-3-2, Jack Crosley to Mark Hernandez to Hal Darman – it was Mark’s first throw of the day, and he made a good one, taking his time to line it up and hitting Hal in the chest. Joe Bernal then fielded Ken Brown’s grounder up the middle and threw to second for the inning-ending force. Orange got another five in the home half, on five singles and Don Solberg’s double. Mark Hernandez again capped the rally with a two-out, run-scoring single, this one a liner to left field.
Maroon won the third inning. They scored three runs in the top half on four consecutive one-out hits, a double by Jack McDermott followed by three singles, the third run scoring on Fritz Hensel’s RBI force out. Scott Wright scored from first on Jeff Stone’s hit, a drive over Matt Levitt’s head moments after Jack Spellman told the outfielders to play in since Jeff was taking a runner from the plate. (My days of telling outfielders how to do their jobs are over.) Orange got two back in the bottom of the inning. Singles by Pat Scott and Joe Bernal put runners on the corners with one out. Pat scored on Spellman’s sacrifice fly to Phil Stanch in right field, and Joe, showing why he had disdained taking a pinch-runner, scored on Peter Atkins’ triple.
Joe then held Maroon scoreless in the top of the fourth, getting three ground ball outs. Pat Schmidt led off with a single, completing a 2-for-2 day at the plate. He was forced at second on Phil Stanch’s grounder, which Joe deflected to second baseman Jack Spellman, who tossed to shortstop Peter Atkins for the 1-4-6 out. Ken Brown grounded to third baseman Adam Reddell, who threw to second for the force. George Brindley singled Ken to third. Just before Joe made his first pitch to Jack McDermott, Orange manager Dave Berra yelled to Spellman “Play him up the middle!” I took a big step to my right, and Jack immediately scorched a one-hopper to the space I’d vacated; I threw out my glove and luckily snared the ball, then threw to Joe covering second for the inning-ending force. (We’ll see whether Dave’s days of telling infielders how to do their jobs are over.)
Jeff Stone got two quick outs to start the bottom of the fourth, but Orange then strung together three hits and scored two runs thanks to Matt Levitt’s legs: Matt singled, completing a 3-for-3 day at the plate, and scored from first on Mark Hernandez’s base hit – good aggressive two-out send by third-base coach Tommy Langa. (Mark also was 3 for 3 in the game, driving in four runs.) (Dave Berra has ordered Mark to make VA appointments prior to all future Orange games.) Matt then ran for Mark and scored from first on Pat Scott’s double.
Orange led 14-5 entering the buffet. Maroon scored a run on consecutive hits by its first three batters, but also ran into an out: Scott Wright singled leading off and scored from first on Jeff Stone’s gapper to right-center; on the throw in, however, Ken Brown, running for Jeff from home, passed second base and was called out, clearing the bases. David Pittard singled, but Joe Bernal got two more ground ball outs to end the game, getting Fritz Hensel to hit into a 1-4 force and Dale Fugate to ground to first baseman/game MVP Mark Hernandez.
Final score: Orange 14, Maroon 6
12:30 p.m.: Gray (1-1) at Purple (1-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Gray 2 1 1 2 5 5 16 Purple 2 0 1 0 5 1 9 Pitchers: Gray – Jack Kelly; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Gray – George Brindley and Ralph Villela; Jack Spellman (entered for Mike Velaney after Mike's first at bat); Purple – Scott Wright (entered to catch as Billy Hill switched to DH). Umpires: home – Jack Crosley; bases – Tommy Langa. Perfect at the plate: Gray – Jim Foelker (4 for 4), Scott Rokita (4 for 4 with a triple), Jack Spellman (3 for 3), and Mike Velaney (1 for 1); Purple – Shane Hill and Mike Malay (both 3 for 3), and Jimmy Sneed (2 for 2 with a walk and two doubles).
Weather report: 67 degrees, 28% humidity, wind from the North at 13 MPH, sunny. Just a tremendously beautiful day today.
This game was so close for most of its duration that it was a surprise to me when the flip-flop was called in the top of the buffet. Gray could have put it away a bit earlier but for some base-running problems, explained in detail below.
Both teams scored twice in the first, Gray on four singles, Purple on three singles, Jimmy Sneed’s walk, and Rick Kahn’s sacrifice fly to right fielder George Brindley. Mike Velaney drove in Gray’s second run, the played an inning in the field, but then exited the game with a tweaked right quadriceps. After a quick bucket draw, Jack Spellman took his place.
Gray’s mercenaries produced a run in the top of the second: Ralph Villela knocked a one-out double and scored on George Brindley’s single. (Ralph’s two-base hit completed a cycle over the course of two games – he homered, singled, and tripled in the 10:30 game. Not a true cycle for purposes of B League Bingo, however.) Paul Rubin followed with a two-out single, but was cut down 8-4, Rick Kahn to Mike Malay, trying for second – Gray base-running out number one. That singleton was enough to win the inning, as Jack Kelly retired the side in order in the home half.
Gray base-running out number two came when Scott Rokita led off the third with a single to left-center and was thrown out 8-4, Kahn to Malay again, trying to stretch it. Ray Pilgrim got Daniel Carvajal to fly out to Rick in left-center, but the next three batters singled, Jim Foelker advancing on Jack Spellman’s grounder into right-center and scoring on Jim McAnelly’s single to left.
Purple got that run back but also ran into an out in the home half. Mike Malay singled with one out, tried to score from first on Jimmy Sneed’s double to the fence in center field, but was gunned down 9-6-2, Jim Foelker to Scott Rokita to Jim McAnelly – it was about 300 feet of thrown ball, the last 110 or so of which were Scott’s on-the-money one-hopper to Jim for the out. Rick Kahn followed with a single that scored Jimmy, keeping it a one-run game.
Gray base-running out number three came in the top of the fourth, and kept Gray from a big inning, or anyway a bigger one. Ralph Villela led off with a triple. Ralph held up on George Brindley’s 6-3 ground out, Jimmy Sneed making a very strong throw to beat George by a step, then scored on Steve Browne’s double. Ray Pilgrim got Paul Rubin to hit a two-strike foul for the second out. Scott Rokita then stepped up and drove a pitch to deep… center field, I think it was? Anyway, to the fence, and he raced around the bases and made it home well before the throw. Except that he ran just to the right of the mat, not close to the chalk line we’re supposed to run to. There was no play at home, but the rule is the rule. After some (spirited) discussion, it was agreed (effectively, if not universally) that Scott had to be called out.
I really wanted Midjourney to create a video of Scott racing home, but the AI just started weeping and beseeching me to leave it alone. So I got ChatGPT to create this image of the play.
Purple got lead-off singles by Shane Hill and Joe Roche to start the home half of the fourth, but did not score, as Jack Kelly retired Rick Jensen on a fly to George Brindley in right, then got Larry Shupe to ground into an around-the-horn double play.
Both teams scored five times in the fifth, Gray on five singles, Jim McAnelly’s walk, and George Brindley’s double, Purple on five singles and doubles by Jimmy Sneed and Ray Pilgrim. Jimmy’s double was a on a drive to deep left field – Steve Browne went back and to his right for it, got it in his mitt, and looked like he’d made the catch of the season to date, but when he tumbled to the ground, the ball was dislodged from his glove and fell safe to the ground. Shane Hill drove in the fifth run with a drive over the head of George Brindley in right field, playing in with the fifth run on third and one out. Shane returned to the dugout rather than touch first base, which technically means he was out, but I’m still counting the at bat as a hit and his day at the plate as a perfect 3-for-3.
Gray led by three entering the buffet, and scored five times on seven singles while making just one out. (Scott Rokita, Jim Foelker, and Jack Spellman completed perfect games at the plate with their hits in the inning.) Needing eight to tie, Purple got just one run back in the bottom of the buffet, Rick Jensen scoring on Scott Wright’s RBI single. Jack Kelly completed a strong pitching performance by getting two outs on grounders resulting in a force at second and a tag on Larry Shupe advancing from first, and a pop out to second to end the game.
Final score: Gray 16, Purple 9
2026 standings:
| Session 1 standings: | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 3 | 1 | .750 | 0 | 49 | 40 | 9 | W3 |
| Gray | 2 | 1 | .667 | 0.5 | 48 | 41 | 7 | W1 |
| Blue | 2 | 1 | .667 | 0.5 | 31 | 29 | 2 | W1 |
| Red | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 52 | 52 | 0 | L1 |
| Maroon | 2 | 2 | .500 | 1 | 46 | 47 | -1 | L1 |
| Purple | 1 | 2 | .333 | 1.5 | 37 | 44 | -7 | L1 |
| Green | 0 | 3 | .000 | 2.5 | 23 | 33 | -10 | L3 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 2-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-1 | 1-0 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Blue | 1-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Red | 2-0 | 0-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 0-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Purple | 1-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 1-1 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-2 |
2026 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Gray | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Green | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Orange | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 12 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Tony Garcia – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Ohtani Awards (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Joe Bernal: 1 (March 2)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Ray Pilgrim: 1 (March 5)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Monday March 16
10:30 a.m.: Blue (2-1) at Purple (1-2), Green umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Green (0-3) at Gray (2-1), Blue umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Red (2-2) at Maroon (2-2), Gray umpiring
Orange has the bye, with (secondary) priority for its players out of the bucket.
Umpire chip status:
David Brown: 1 green chip
Rex Horvath: 1 green chip
Rick Jensen: 1 green chip
Jeff Stone: 2 green chips
Ralph Villela: 1 green chip
Rip Wright: 1 green chip
George Brindley: 1 red chip
Marvin Krabbenhoft: 1 red chip
Tommy Langa: 1 red chip
Jim Maloy: 1 red chip
Trent Peacock: 1 red chip
Larry Shupe: 1 red chip
Peter Sundquist: 1 red chip
Ralph Villela: 1 red chip
Scott Wright – 1 red chip
Larry Young: 1 red chip
(1 green chip for umpiring a full game behind the plate. 1 red chip for umpiring a full game on the bases. 2 red chips = 1 green chip. 1 green chip gets a player priority out of the bucket.)
Preview: With first-place Orange having a bye, Blue and Gray can tie for the session lead with victories. Blue plays Purple at 10:30, Gray faces Green, returns from its hiatus seeking its first win of the season, at 11:30. The two .500 teams square off at 12:30. Will Scott Rokita tie or come within one of the season home run championship, forcing me to make hard choices concerning asterisks? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Reminder that the season’s first Bobby Fund Burger Cookout is scheduled for Monday March 23.