B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 8, Issue 7 – March 26, 2026
Games of Thursday March 26:
10:30 a.m.: Maroon (2-3) at Purple (3-2):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Maroon 4 0 1 2 3 1 11 Purple 2 1 2 5 0 2 12 Pitchers: Maroon – Jeff Stone; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Maroon – Jim Foelker, Ken Mockler, and Chris Waddell; Purple – Tim Coles and Jack Spellman. Umpires: home – Anthony Galindo and Ralph Villela; bases – Richard Battle and Tommy Gillis. Perfect at the plate: Maroon – Ken Mockler and Chris Waddell (both 3 for 3); Purple – Ray Pilgrim (3 for 3 – Ohtani Award (3)), Jimmy Sneed (4 for 4 with a triple), and Peter Sundquist (4 for 4).
Hard-fought game that had a bit of controversy. Maroon jumped to an early lead, scoring four times in the top of the first on five singles, Fritz Hensel’s walk, and Steve Browne’s opposite-field double to short right field. Steve tried for third on the play, but was thrown out 4-6-5, Jack Spellman to Jimmy Sneed to Tim Coles. The third out of the inning came on another base-runner kill, Ken Mockler out trying to stretch his two-run single to right-center into a double, but gunned down 9-6 by Rick Kahn, giving Don Solberg a run for strongest outfield arm in the league.
Purple got two runs back in the bottom of the first, on three singles and Shane Hill’s sacrifice fly to Steve Browne in left-center. The other two outs came on good defensive plays: Jeff Stone snagged Rick Kahn’s liner back to the box, and second baseman Scott Wright made a good catch, going back and to his right into short right field, of Joe Roche’s short fly.
Ray Pilgrim then held Maroon scoreless in the top of the second, working around Chris Waddell’s one-out single, shortstop Jimmy Sneed making two good plays – he caught Jim Foelker’s lead-off liner low and to his backhand for the first out, then made a good catch going back and to his right of Steve Browne’s pop behind second base.
Purple won the inning with a single run in the home half: Billy Hill singled leading off, and his runner advanced on a pair of infield ground outs and then scored on Tim Coles’s double.
Ray got three ground balls to shortstop Jimmy Sneed for outs in the top of the third. Tony Garcia and Jeff Stone both grounded out 6-3 to open the frame. Scott Wright singled, and came around from first to score on Fritz Hensel’s base hit. Ray then got Allen Phillips to hit into a 6-4 force. Purple then tied the game at 5-5 with two runs in the bottom half: as they had in the first inning, Peter Sundquist and Jimmy Sneed both singled to start the inning and wound up scoring, Peter from first on Jimmy’s hit, Jimmy on Ray Pilgrim’s single after Shane Hill drew a walk.
Maroon pushed across two runs on three singles and an RBI 6-4 force-out in the top of the fourth. Tony Garcia’s single extended the rally, but Ray Pilgrim got his opposite number, Jeff Stone, to hit a two-strike foul.
Purple then took the lead for the first time with five runs in the bottom half, a true two-out rally after Larry Shupe singled to open the inning but was erased on Daniel Baladez’s 1-6-3 double-play grounder. Mercenaries Tim Cole and Jack Spellman extended the inning, Tim knocking his second double in as many at bats and then scoring on Spellman’s dinky pop-fly single over first base. Peter Sundquist lined a single to center, and Jimmy Sneed brought him and Spellman in with a mammoth triple to left-center. Rick Kahn doubled in Jimmy, then scored the fifth run on Shane Hill’s line single to right field.
Maroon tied the game with three runs in the top of the fifth inning, but were deprived of at least one more run by a lineup snafu. Scott Wright singled to start the inning. Fritz Hensel lined out to Ray Pilgrim, good play to his backhand to snag it. Allen Phillips and Ken Mockler both singled, Scott coming around to score. Ray caught Jim Foelker at a called strike three that just clipped the front outside corner of the mat for out number two. Chris Waddell singled, completing a 3-for-3 game, and then both runners – they may have been pinch-runners, I’m not recalling – both scored on Jack McDermott’s base hit. Tony Garcia then stepped up and knocked a single, Chris apparently scoring, but it was realized – I’m not sure by whom – that Tony had batted out of order, ahead of the scheduled batter, Steve Browne. There was quite a bit of confusion as this was sorted out: I (and others, probably) thought that Steve was supposed to bat before Jack McDermott and that the mistake had been missed because Tony had put the ball in play before the error was realized, but this was not so – the mistake was pointed out before Jeff Stone batted, and so Steve was called out, ending the inning and causing Chris’s run to not count.
That’s a long explanation for something that can easily be understood by gazing upon this picture:
Anyway, the game was tied 10-10 entering the bottom of the fifth, and it remained that way as Jeff Stone pulled a Houdini – he allowed Purple to load the bases on Ray Pilgrim’s lead-off single (completing a 3-for-3 day) and walks to Joe Roche and Billy Hill, and then escaped the jam without allowing a run. He got Larry Shupe to hit an infield fly to second baseman Scott Wright, retired Daniel Baladez on a two-strike foul, and got Tim Coles to hit a grounder up the middle that Tony Garcia fielded moving to his left and then stepped on the bag for the inning-ending force.
Tony then led off the top of the buffet inning with a single – owing to the batting-out-of-order ruling, Tony batted twice in a row and singled each time, making him 4 for 5 in the game. He took third on Jeff Stone’s hit, then scored on Scott Wright’s 4-6 force-out grounder. Fritz Hensel hit into a 6-4 force, Jack Spellman’s throw home way too late to get Tony. Allen Phillips grounded out to shortstop Jimmy Sneed also, Jimmy electing to throw to first rather than risk being beaten to second by Fritz’s runner, speedy Steve Browne.
So Purple had just a one-run lead entering the home half of the buffet. Jack Spellman led off with a single to right-center and took third on Peter Sundquist’s looping single up the middle. Jimmy Sneed’s base hit scored Spellman with the tying run, Peter halting at second. Rick Kahn then stepped up – here’s the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Rick’s drive over the head of Allen Phillips, necessarily playing shallow in hopes of preventing Peter from scoring on a single, allowed Peter to trot home with the winning run.
Final score: Purple 12, Maroon 11
Ray Pilgrim earned his league-leading third Ohtani Award of the season.
11:30 a.m.: Red (2-3) at Orange (3-3):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Red 3 4 0 4 5 X 16 Orange 0 0 0 1 2 2 5 Pitchers: Red – Trent Peacock; Orange – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Red – Larry Fiorentino (using his green chip); Orange – Tony Garcia, Ray Pilgrim, George Romo (entered for Tony in the top of the fourth, as Tony's back stiffened up), and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Jack McDermott; bases – Scott Wright. Perfect at the plate: Red – Richard Battle (1 for 1 with two walks), Anthony Galindo (3 for 3 with a walk and a triple), and Ralph Villela (4 for 4 with a double); Orange – Mark Hernandez (3 for 3).
Is it that Orange is running into exceptionally good pitching, or is it just a team-wide slump? (Time will tell.) For the second time this week, the opposing hurler held Orange to one run over the first four innings, Trent Peacock carrying a shutout to the bottom of the fourth, by which time his teammates had staked him to an 11-run lead. Trent retired the side in order in the bottom of the first, after Red had grabbed a quick lead with three runs on two singles, two walks, and a run-scoring 4-6 force out. Ray Pilgrim escaped further damage thanks to mercenary shortstop Tony Garcia, who turned an inning-ending 6u., 6-3 double play on Johnny Lee’s grounder up the middle.
After Red scored four times in the top of the second on three singles, Larry Fiorentino’s walk, and Anthony Galindo’s triple, Trent held Orange scoreless again in the bottom half, escaping a bases-loaded jam. Mark Hernandez led off with a single, and, after his pinch-runner was forced out at second on Pat Scott’s grounder to third baseman Tim Coles, Orange loaded the bases on a single by Matt Levitt and a walk to Tommy Langa. Hal Darman tried to cross up Red’s defense by going to the right of second base, but Mark Dolan ran down Hal’s grounder, stepped on second, and threw to first for a 4u., 4-3 double play.
Neither team scored in the third. Singles by Trent Peacock and Johnny Lee put runners on the corners to start the top half. Tommy Gillis hit a ball sharply down the third-base side, and Adam Reddell made a great play on a short hop, fielding the ball cleanly and firing to second for the force; Trent or his pinch-runner (not sure) waited until Adam made his throw to break for home; your correspondent caught the ball for the force at second, and I saw the runner break; knowing I had a 50-50 chance at best to throw out Tommy, I elected to throw home, and Hal Darman made the catch to complete the 5-4-2 double play. Richard Battle and Marvin Krabbenhoft both drew walks, loading the bases, but Ray Pilgrim retired Larry Fiorentino on a drive to Peter Atkins in right-center.
Red turned its second double play in as many innings in the bottom half. Peter Sundquist singled with one out, then was erased on a 6-4-3 double play, Ralph Villela to Mark Dolan to Johnny Lee, on Ray Pilgrim’s hard grounder to the 5-6 hole, Ralph playing him perfectly.
Ralph then led off the fourth with a double and scored the first of Red’s four runs, on singles by Anthony Galindo and Tim Coles, an RBI force-out grounder by Trent Peacock, a walk to Johnny Lee that loaded the bases, and triple by Tommy Gillis, a ball he absolutely crushed to left field, hitting the foul pole, about a foot up. Richard Battle followed with his second walk, but Ray Pilgrim stranded the runners, getting Marvin Krabbenhoft on a fly to Matt Levitt in left-center.
Orange finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth. Jack Spellman led off and lined a ball up the middle; Trent Peacock got a glove on it, slowing it down for Ralph Villela, who fielded it behind second base and made a strong throw to first for the out. Peter Atkins, Adam Reddell, and Mark Hernandez followed with singles, Peter coming around to score. That was all, however, as Trent Peacock got Pat Scott to line out to third baseman Tim Coles and Matt Levitt to pop out to Ralph at shortstop.
Red scored five times, finally, in the fifth inning, on Larry Fiorentino’s lead-off walk (the eighth issued by Ray Pilgrim), five singles, and Tim Coles’s double. Ralph Villela and Anthony completed perfect days at the plate with their hits.
Red’s lead was at 16-1 entering the bottom of the fifth. Orange got to bat twice more and make the game a little bit more respectable by scoring two runs in each of the fifth, on three singles and a walk drawn by George Romo, who’d entered in place of Tony Garcia, and the buffet, following the flip-flop. Orange’s first four batter reached in that inning. Adam Reddell and Mark Hernandez opened the frame with singles (Mark completing a 3-for-3 day), Adam scoring – he’d taken second on a sloppy throw in on his hit, and scored on Mark’s. Walks to Pat Scott and Matt Levitt loaded the bases. Tommy Langa’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center scored Mark’s runner. Hal Darman also flied out to Anthony, and the game ended on George Romo’s pop out to Tim Coles at third.
Final score: Red 16, Orange 5
12:30 p.m.: Green (1-4) at Blue (4-1):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 3 1 4 5 0 2 15 Blue 3 3 3 4 4 X 17 Pitchers: Green – Trent Peacock; Blue – Lawrence Page. Mercenaries: Green – Mark Dolan, Jim Foelker, Trent Peacock, and Ralph Villela; Blue – Mark Hernandez and Jack McDermott. Umpires: home – Adam Reddell; bases – Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Green – Larry Fiorentino and Boo Resnick (both 2 for 2 with two walks) and Rex Horvath (4 for 4); Blue – David Brown, Mark Hernandez, and Lawrence Page (all 4 for 4), and Ken Mockler (4 for 4 with a double). Ohtani Award – Lawrence Page (1).
Weather report: 81 degrees, 47% humidity, wind from the South at 10 MPH, mostly sunny – another beautiful spring day in Austin.
Green put up a terrific fight against Session One champion Blue and ultimately were done in by one misfire of an inning.
Neither team was able to gain much advantage over the first four innings. Both scored three times in the first: Green on three singles, a walk, and Ivan Budiselic’s sacrifice fly to Tom Bellavia in left-center, Tom coming in and making a very nice catch a couple inches off the ground. That was the second fine defensive play by Blue in the inning – first baseman Mark Hernandez made a nice short-handed play with the glove on Steve Sandall’s hard grounder leading off. In the home half, George Romo tripled in the first run and scored the second, on David Brown’s line single to right field. David took third on Ken Mockler’s Texas League single to right and scored on JC Schmeil’s sacrifice fly to Jim Foelker in left field.
Jim then walked leading off the second and advanced and scored on singles by Mark Dolan and Trent Peacock. Blue then turned the day’s second 5-4-2 double play, on Steve Sandall’s hard grounder to third baseman George Romo: George threw to JC Schmeil for the force at second, and JC made a strong throw home to catcher Chris Waddell to put out Mark.
Blue took the lead with three runs on six singles and Tom Bellavia’s sacrifice fly to Steve Sandall in left-center in the home half, denied more by two good relay plays that cut down runners trying to score. With two runs in, on Tom’s sac fly and Phil Stanch’s RBI single, and runners on first (George Romo) and second (Phil), David Brown lined a single to right-center field; Phil tried to score, but a 9-4-6-2 relay, Larry Fiorentino to Boo Resnick to Ralph Villela to Rex Horvath, cut him down. Ken Mockler followed with a single that scored George; David tried to score from first and was gunned down 9-6-2 (I believe), Larry Fiorentino to Ralph to Rex.
Green went back ahead with four runs in the top of the third, on Boo Resnick’s lead-off walk, two singles, and RBI force-out grounder by Ivan Budiselic, Ralph Villela’s RBI double, and, after George Romo made a good play to his left to snag Jim Foelker’s liner down the third-base side, Mark Dolan’s two-out, two-run single.
That put Green ahead 8-6. Blue reclaimed the lead with three runs in the bottom half, on singles by the first five batters. With runners on first and second and none out, Blue looked poised to score five, but Green turned an unusual double play on Tom Bellavia’s fly to left fielder Jim Foelker – Jack McDermott tagged and took third on the play, but Jim ignored him and threw to second and caught Mark Hernandez trying to advance. Phil Stanch’s two-strike liner down the first-base side landed foul to end the inning, with Blue up 9-8.
Green had seven consecutive batters reach with one out in the top of the fourth, on six singles and Boo Resnick’s second walk of the game. With four runs in and the bases loaded, Mark Dolan hit a grounder to first baseman Mark Hernandez, who elected to try for an inning-ending 3u., 3-2 double play – he beat Mark to first for the out there, but his throw home wasn’t in time to catch Ivan Budiselic’s runner.
Blue got four runs back in the home half, tying the game, on seven singles, the last five coming with two out, and a sacrifice fly by JC Schmeil. The last hit in the sequence was a short pop by Tom Bellavia in front of third base that Mark Dolan just nicked with his glove before it spun into foul territory, for a 20-foot single that loaded the bases. Phil Stanch hit a sharp grounder to the right side, but Ivan Budiselic made a good play on it and threw to second to force out Tom and end the inning.
Disturbing Decontextualized Quote of the Day: Dave Berra to Mark Hernandez: “If I was dying of thirst, I’d drink your piss.”
Green got skunked in the top of the fifth inning. Steve Sandall singled with one out, but second baseman JC Schmeil made an excellent play on Doc Hobar’s hard grounder to JC’s left and a really excellent, smooth feed to shortstop David Brown at second; David’s strong throw beat Doc to first, for a textbook-ready 4-6-3 double play. Blue then scored four times in the home half, on five singles, Ken Mockler’s double, and Jack McDermott’s sacrifice fly to Larry Fiorentino in right-center. (David Brown, Ken Mockler, Lawrence Page, and Mark Hernandez all completed 4-for-4 games with their hits.) The inning ended with Larry Fiorentino recording his third outfield assist of the game: Mark lined a single to right-center that scored Lawrence (or his runner, I don’t recall); David Brown, again running aggressively with two out and knowing he was the fifth run, tried to score as well, but was thrown out 9-6-2, Larry to Ralph Villela to Rex Horvath. (David’s been a running maniac this week, and I am 100% here for it.)
On to the buffet, Blue leading 17-13. Boo Resnick singled to right-center and Larry Fiorentino walked to start the inning, both completing perfect days at the plate. Rex Horvath dumped a single into short right field, his fourth hit in as many at bats, to load the bases. Ivan Budiselic’s fly to Phil Stanch in right-center was deep enough to score Trent Peacock, running for Boo, with Larry taking third. Ralph Villela lined a double past third base and into left field, driving in Larry, Rex’s pinch-runner (Steve Sandall, I believe) stopping at third. Ralph represented the tying run, but neither he nor Steve advanced: Lawrence Page got Jim Foelker to swing through a two-strike pitch, then caught Mark Dolan’s pop in front of the mound for the third out, thereby earning his first-ever Ohtani Award.
Lawrence Page receives his first Ohtani Award from the Kannushi at the Nara temple, as the sacred deer look on.
Final score: Blue 17, Green 15
2026 standings:
| Final Session 1 standings: | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Blue | 5 | 1 | .833 | 0 | 79 | 59 | 20 | W4 |
| Purple | 4 | 2 | .667 | 1 | 85 | 86 | -1 | W3 |
| Gray | 3 | 2 | .600 | 1.5 | 80 | 77 | 3 | W1 |
| Red | 3 | 3 | .500 | 2 | 85 | 79 | 6 | W1 |
| Orange | 3 | 4 | .429 | 2.5 | 71 | 83 | -12 | L3 |
| Maroon | 2 | 4 | .333 | 3 | 65 | 73 | -8 | L3 |
| Green | 1 | 5 | .167 | 4 | 71 | 79 | -8 | L2 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Blue | 4-0 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-0 | ||
| Purple | 2-1 | 2-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 2-1 | ||
| Gray | 1-1 | 2-1 | 1 | 0-0 | 2-0 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 2-1 | 1-2 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 2-2 | ||
| Orange | 2-2 | 1-2 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 2-1 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 0-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-2 | ||
| Green | 1-2 | 0-3 | 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 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| Gray | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |
| Green | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Maroon | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Orange | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| Purple | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Red | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| TOTAL: | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 21 |
2026 season home run leaders:
Richard Battle – 1
Mark Dolan – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
George Romo – 1
Paul Rubin – 1
Ralph Villela – 1
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Ray Pilgrim: 3 (March 5, March 23, March 26)
Joe Bernal: 2 (March 2, March 19)
Lawrence Page: 1 (March 26)
Trent Peacock: 1 (March 9)
Jeff Stone: 1 (March 2)
Schedule for Monday March 30:
10:30 a.m.: Blue at Gray, Purple umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Purple at Orange, Blue umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Green at Red, Orange umpiring
Maroon has the bye, with (secondary) priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: First games of Session Two. Everyone starts 0-0. Will there be roster moves between now and Monday to bring Blue back to the pack? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Umpire chip status:
David Brown: 1 green chip
Rex Horvath: 1 green chip
Rick Jensen: 1 green chip
Jim McAnelly: 1 green chip
Jack McDermott: 1 green chip
Adam Reddell: 1 green chip
Jeff Stone: 3 green chips
Rip Wright: 1 green chip
Scott Wright – 1 green chip (2 red chips)
Larry Young: 1 green chip
George Brindley: 1 red chip
David Brown: 1 red chip
Ken Brown: 1 red chip
Jim Foelker: 1 red chip
Marvin Krabbenhoft: 1 red chip
Tommy Langa: 1 red chip
Jim Maloy: 1 red chip
Trent Peacock: 1 red chip
Steve Sandall: 1 red chip
Larry Shupe: 1 red chip
Peter Sundquist: 1 red chip
Mike Velaney: 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.)
Keggy’s Korner:
This chair was left behind today; David Brown has it and will bring it Monday.
Lawrence Page left his red batting donut behind last week – if you’ve got it, please let him know.
Kind of a late night tonight, as I took a break to watch the (heartbreaking) end of the UT men’s basketball game. I’m considering starting a series of review of the podcasts I listen to. I’m ever on the lookout for dumb content, and some of what I listen to is very dumb indeed. Have a great weekend.