B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 60 – October 16, 2025
Games of Thursday October 16:
10:30 a.m., Orange (9-1) at Gray (4-6):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Orange 5 2 5 1 2 15 Gray 2 1 1 4 4 12 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Orange – Jack Spellman and Chris Waddell; Gray – Tim Coles, Donnie Janac, and Peter Sundquist. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Ralph Villela. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Ray Pilgrim (Ohtani Award); Gray – Tim Coles (3 for 3 with a double), Tommy Gillis and Adam Reddell (both 4 for 4 with a double), and Peter Sundquist (2 for 2 with a walk).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 77 degrees, felt like 77. Humidity 59%, wind from the Southeast at 6 MPH. Cloudy – perfect!
Orange keeps rolling along, building a 13-4 lead through the top of the fourth on timely hitting and solid defense. They jumped to a quick lead with five runs in the top of the first, the last four coming on two-out singles by the six-through-nine hitters. Orange scored twice in the second on two-out RBI singles by David Brown and Ray Pilgrim, and then exploded for five runs on six consecutive hits – five singles and Clint Fletcher’s second double – without making an out in the top of the third.
Meanwhile Ray Pilgrim held Gray to two, one, and one run in the bottoms of those frames. He was aided by double plays turned in the first, 5-4-3, and third, 6-4-3, Terry O’Brien making smooth pivots in each instance. For the game, 12 of the 15 outs Ray recorded came on ground balls.
Gray 3-4 hitters Tommy Gillis and Adam Reddell both went 4 for 4 with a double in the game, Adam driving in two runs in the bottom of the first with his first two-bagger and later adding a pair of RBI singles. Tommy scored three runs and also drove in three. Gray won the last five-run inning and the buffet, scoring four times in each frame while holding Orange to one and two runs, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early deficit.
Four Gray hitters were perfect on the day, to just one, Ray Pilgrim, for Orange. But only two Orange batters made more than one out, and collectively Orange hitters were 24 for 35. Gray hitters, aside from the four who were perfect, went 6 for 19, and that wound up being the difference. Ray recorded his fourth Ohtani of the season, and received his award from the great actress Chiaki Kuriyama.
Final score: Orange 15, Gray 12
11:30 a.m., Green (4.5 – 5.5) at Red (4-6):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Green 1 0 2 0 5 2 10 Red 2 4 1 2 2 X 11 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Red – Joe Bernal. Mercenaries: Green – Tommy Gillis and David Pittard; Red – David Brown. Umpires: home – Jack Kelly; bases – Mike Velaney. Perfect at the plate: Red – David Brown and Mark Dolan (both 3 for 3) and Peter Sundquist (4 for 4 with a double). Home runs: Mike Garrison (inside the park) (7) and Ralph Villela (inside the park) (6).
Dave Berra’s weather update: See Game 1.
Red played pretty well in this game, but let’s be honest, they pulled out a victory on the back of mercenary David Brown, who played provided outstanding defense at shortstop (fielding seven ground balls, resulting in eight outs) while going 3 for 3 at the bat with two RBI and two runs scored. The 6u., 6-3 double play that David turned ended the top of the first, stranding two runners and limiting Green to one run scored, by Steve Browne, who doubled with one out and came in on Mike Garrison’s base hit.
Red took a lead it never relinquished with two runs in the bottom of the first on Jack McDermott’s two-run single, which drove in Peter Sunquist (singled leading off) and Anthony Galindo (doubled with one out). Joe Bernal then held Green scoreless in the top of the second, getting outs on three grounders to David Brown, and Red made it 6-1 with four runs on four singles and Peter Sundquist’s two-run double in the home half.
Red second baseman Mark Dolan made a terrific play in the top of the third to snag Ralph Villela’s screaming one-out liner to Mark’s right. Green still got two runs in the inning, on a two-out, inside-the-park home run by Mike Garrison to right-center, as seen here:
It was Mike’s seventh homer of the season, tying David Brown for the league lead.
Red got a single run back in the bottom of the inning when Rolando Rodriguez ripped a one-out double down the third-base side, fair by inches, and scored on Mark Dolan’s line single up the middle.
Joe Bernal worked a scoreless top of the fourth, retiring three in a row after allowing a lead-off single to Donnie Janac, and Red increased its lead to 9-3 with two runs on three singles and Anthony Galindo’s sacrifice fly in the bottom half.
Green put together its best inning of the day in the top of the fifth, scoring five runs on five singles and doubles by Ralph Villela and Mike Garrison (his fourth and fifth RBI of the game) to cut Red’s lead to a single run. Red got some breathing room going into the buffet by scoring two runs on singles by four of the first five batters in the home half. Jack Spellman’s walk loaded the bases with one out, but Chunky Wright worked out of the jam, getting Anthony Galindo to pop out to shortstop Ralph Villela, ranging into behind second base into the outfield grass, and Joe Bernal to fly out to Steve Browne in left-center – it was the second inning in a row Steve made a catch to defuse a Red rally; he made a really nice grab of Rolando Rodriguez’s sinking liner to end the bottom of the fourth, stranding two runners.
Red led 11-8 entering the buffet. Joe Bernal made a good play on Billy Hill’s hard grounder back to the box and threw to first for the first out. David Pittard ripped a triple to right-center – Rolando Rodriguez broke in a step on the ball, then moved back, but the drive glanced off his glove and by him for three bases; it would have been a great catch. David P. held at third on Tommy Gillis’s grounder to shortstop David Brown, David’s laser strike of a throw beating Tommy by a step. Ralph Villela then stepped up and ripped a liner to right-center, gapping the outfielders; it rolled to the fence for a two-run inside-the-park home run, Ralph’s sixth of the season, as seen here:
That cut Red’s lead to just one run. Steve Browne came up and smacked a triple, putting the tying run a base hit away. Mike Garrison hit a two- or three-hopper to shortstop; David Brown got a good bounce and unleashed another frozen-rope throw to first for the final out, securing Red’s victory.
Final score: Red 11, Green 10
12:30 p.m., Blue (3.5 – 6.5) at Purple (5-6):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Blue 5 0 1 5 2 X 13 Purple 0 2 1 0 1 0 4 Pitchers: Blue – David Pittard; Purple – Ray Pilgrim. Mercenaries: Blue – David Brown, Donald Drummer, and Peter Sundquist; Purple – Anthony Galindo, Mike Garrison, Ray Pilgrim, Jack Spellman, and Chris Waddell. Umpires: home – Jim McAnelly; bases – Dave Berra. Perfect at the plate: Blue – David Brown (3 for 3).
Dave Berra’s weather update: See Game 1.
Eight more mercenaries in this game, with David Brown, Peter Sundquist, Jack Spellman, and Chris Waddell each playing in their third (B League) game of the day. (Donnie Janac and Tim Coles played in two B League games apiece, and I’m pretty certain they played C League games in the morning as well. Apologies if I’m missing anyone else who answered the multiple calls.) Hat tip to David Berra, who umpired the bases, allowing Anthony, Peter, and myself to play.
Blue scored five times in the top of the first on eight consecutive hits, seven singles and Steve Sandall’s double, all well struck, and wound up leading pillar to post. Purple got a couple of singles in the home half, but a nicely turned 5u., 5-3 double play by David Brown on Henry Flores’s grounder down the line ended the threat.
Peter Sundquist and Donald Drummer singled to start the bottom of the second, which meant that all ten batters in the Blue lineup had hit safely their first time up. But Ray Pilgrim worked out of the jam. He got Tom Bellavia to ground into a 4-6 force, nice play by Larry Young to get to a hard-hit ball up the middle, corral it after it hit off the heel of his mitt and into the air, and toss to Tim Coles for the force. A walk to Jimmy Sneed loaded the bases. Steve Sandall hit a grounder to third baseman Chris Waddell, who threw to second for the force there; Larry Young then threw home, and catcher Fritz Hensel made a terrific play on the short hop to force Peter out, the 5-4-2 double play ending the inning.
Purple got on the board with two runs in the bottom of the second. Larry Young led off with a single. Jack Spellman tomahawked a 2-2 pitch to second, Rip Wright making a good catch of the liner. I then ran for Larry from first. Anthony Galindo hammered a ball to left field; Steve Sandall took a step in, and I was certain he had the ball lined up, so I retreated to first to tag up, but the ball sailed over Steve’s head. I was only able to get to third base, depriving Anthony of an RBI triple, at least. Ray Pilgrim followed with a clean single up the middle, driving us both in.
Both teams scored a single run in the third inning, Blue on three singles, Purple on Fritz Hensel’s lead-off walk, Tim Coles’s single, and Mark Hernandez’s sacrifice fly to Tom Bellavia in left-center.
Blue effectively put the game out of reach with five runs in the top of the fourth. The first six batters hit safely, four singles and back-to-back two-run doubles by Steve Sandall and David Pittard. With the fifth run on third and no out, Ray Pilgrim almost got out of the inning, getting Rip Wright to line out to first baseman Mark Hernandez and Tommy Deleon to hit a two-strike foul. But David Brown’s clean single brought in the fifth run; with it, David completed his second perfect game at the plate of the day – he went 9 for 10 all told, as did Peter Sundquist.
In the Beer Garden after the game, some of us were discussing the standard C League defensive configuration, which we agreed looks something like this:
Nine outfielders, six infielders, and Tommy Deleon rearing back and firing overhand. I modeled the outfielders after Peter Sundquist and the infielders after David Brown in honor of their efforts today. (Also: buy Beebe cleats.)
Anyway, Blue’s outburst in the top of the fourth increased its lead to 11-3. Purple didn’t score in the home half – after David Pittard got two quick outs on grounders to the left side, Mike Garrison doubled and Fritz Hensel singled, but Tom Bellavia caught Tim Coles’s fly to left-center to strand them.
Blue added two runs in the top of the fifth: Peter Sundquist singled leading off; Tom Bellavia hit a one-out double; Jimmy Sneed skied a fly to left field, deep enough to score Peter easily while Tom took third; and Steve Sandall tripled, his third extra-base hit of the game. Blue now led by ten.
Singles by Mark Hernandez and Henry Flores to start the bottom of the fifth put runners on the corners with none out. Mark’s pinch-runner scored on Larry Young’s 4-6-3 double-play grounder, nicely started by Rip Wright and pivoted on by Jimmy Sneed.
With Purple down nine, the teams flip-flopped for the buffet. Ray Pilgrim singled, then was forced out 6-4 on Chris Waddell’s grounder to shortstop. Mike Garrison singled. But the game ended with Blue turning its third double play, 1-6-3, David Pittard to Jimmy Sneed to Daniel Baladez, on Fritz Hensel’s hard grounder back to the box.
Final score: Blue 13, Purple 4
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 10 | 1 | .909 | 0 | 148 | 97 | 51 | W7 |
| Maroon | 6 | 5 | .545 | 4 | 122 | 115 | 7 | W1 |
| Red | 5 | 6 | .455 | 5 | 124 | 131 | -7 | W1 |
| Purple | 5 | 7 | .417 | 5.5 | 127 | 144 | -17 | L2 |
| Green | 4.5 | 6.5 | .409 | 5.5 | 126 | 126 | 0 | L2 |
| Blue | 4.5 | 6.5 | .409 | 5.5 | 109 | 129 | -20 | W1 |
| Gray | 4 | 7 | .364 | 6 | 114 | 128 | -14 | L1 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Orange | 6-0 | 4-1 | 2 | 0-0 | 3-0 | 2-1 | ||
| Maroon | 4-2 | 2-3 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-2 | 1-1 | ||
| Red | 3-2 | 2-4 | 1 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 2-0 | ||
| Purple | 3-3 | 2-5 | 2 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 2-2 | ||
| Green | 3-2 | 1.5-4.5 | 1 | 0.5-0.5 | 0-0 | 2-3 | ||
| Blue | 2.5-3.5 | 1-3 | 0 | 0.5-0.5 | 2-2 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 2-3 | 2-4 | 0 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-2 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 6.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 5 | 5 | 25 |
| Gray | 6 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 22 |
| Green | 3.5 | 6 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 23 |
| Maroon | 4 | 5 | 6.5 | X | 4 | 6 | 3 | 28.5 |
| Orange | 5.5 | 7 | 4 | 4 | X | 5 | 5 | 30.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | X | 7 | 25 |
| Red | 2 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 2 | X | 20 |
| TOTAL: | 25 | 27 | 26 | 21.5 | 18.5 | 25 | 31 | 174 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; Green and Blue tied their game of October 2; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 7
Mike Garrison – 7
Bobby Miller – 6
Ralph Villela – 6
Tim Coles – 5
George Brindley – 4
Anthony Galindo – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Doc Hobar – 3
Mike Malay – 3
Paul Rubin – 3
Jimmy Sneed – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 2
Tony Garcia – 2
Rex Horvath – 2
Matt Levitt – 2
Terry O’Brien – 2
George Romo – 2
Pat Scott – 2
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Jack McDermott – 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
Walk-off grand slam:
David Brown (inside the park) – August 4
Ohtanis (winning pitcher + perfect at the plate):
Jeff Stone – 9 (March 20, April 17, July 17, July 21, July 28, September 11, September 15 (2), September 29)
Spike Davidson – 8 (June 19, June 30, August 4, August 7, August 14 (2), September 8, October 9)
Tommy Deleon – 6 (March 3, March 13, April 14, April 28, May 12, September 8)
Joe Bernal – 4 (March 3, April 3, June 5, October 2)
Tom Kelm – 4 (March 3, March 13, May 1, June 16)
Ray Pilgrim – 4 (April 14, August 4, August 7, October 16)
Terry Thompson – 3 (July 31, September 15, September 29)
Donald Drummer – 2 (May 1, August 11)
Jack Kelly – 2 (March 10, May 12)
David Pittard – 2 (June 2, October 13)
Greg Lloyd – 1 (June 26)
Chunky Wright – 1 (June 9)
Schedule for Monday October 20:
10:30 a.m.: Blue (4.5 – 6.5) at Red (5-6), Orange umpiring
11:30 a.m.: Orange (10-1) at Green (4.5 – 6.5), Red umpiring
12:30 p.m.: Maroon (6-5) at Gray (4-7), Green umpiring
Purple has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: Eight dates left in the fourth session, and Orange leads by four full games. Here’s a short version of the current full-season standings:
| Full-season standings: | ||||
| Wins | Losses | Win % | GB | |
| Orange | 30.5 | 18.5 | .622 | 0.0 |
| Maroon | 28.5 | 21.5 | .570 | 2.5 |
| Blue | 25 | 25 | .500 | 6.0 |
| Purple | 25 | 25 | .500 | 6.0 |
| Green | 23 | 26 | .469 | 7.5 |
| Gray | 22 | 27 | .449 | 8.5 |
| Red | 20 | 31 | .392 | 11.5 |
Blue, Purple, Green, and Gray, in fourth through seventh place in Session Four, are within two and a half games of one another for the three-through-six seeds, so there’s still plenty of motivation to win. On Monday Blue and Red will be battling for third place for the session at 10:30. Green wants to avoid the cellar and end Orange’s seven-game winning streak at 11:30. Maroon can solidify its grip on second place with a win at 12:30, but a resurgent Gray team will have a say in the matter. We should be getting our tournament players back from Huntsman. Do I have a literal butt-whupping coming my way Monday? One thing is certain: Only time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Congratulations to the present and past B Leaguers who were part of the team that went 6-0 and won the 70s championship at the Huntsman Games. A number of these players are from Sun City, and I don’t want to misidentify who’s who, but they include Bob Cortez, Joe Gray, Gary Hains, Michael Hale, Frank Lyle, Jim Roundtree, and Frank Shuman. The B Leaguers are: Anthony Galindo (back row, far left), Eddie Ortiz (back row, second from left), Tim Coles (back row, fifth from left/fourth from right), Doc Hobar (front row, second from left), Howard Spates (front row, third from left), and Mick Parker (front row, second from right).
Reminder that Monday will be Bruce Barnett’s Bobby Fund Burger Cookout and Austin Senior Softball Reunion to raise money to aid Austin Senior Softball Players. If you plan to bring something to share, let Bruce know, and plan to bring it to Krieg 2 in advance of the first B League game at 10:30. And bring your own drinks.
Reprinting this reminder from Terry Thompson:
If you have not already signed up to attend the ASSL Annual Picnic, please click the link below and let us know if you will attend. We need a headcount for our caterer, Lupe Tortilla, to ensure that we have food for everyone. The Picnic will be held at Krieg Fields from 10:45a – 1:00p, Monday, Oct. 27.
If you’ve already signed up, you’re good to go. If not, please click the link below and respond:
Boo Resnick and Hotcakes will be playing at Donn’s Depot, 1600 West Fifth Street, this Saturday, October 18, from 9-ish p.m. to 1-ish a.m.
Someone from Green team left behind this hat today. It’s in the equipment cart.