B League Picayune
Often in error, never in doubt.
Volume 7, Issue 50 – for September 11, 2025
Games of Thursday September 11:
Games were played at Krieg field 3 owing to 9/11 ceremonies at field 2.
10:00 a.m., Green (0-2) at Gray (0-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Green 2 3 5 2 2 14 Gray 4 0 4 2 3 13 Pitchers: Green – Chunky Wright; Gray – Jack Kelly. Mercenaries: Green – Larry Fiorentino and Jim Foelker; Gray – Gary Coyle. Umpires: home – David Brown; bases – Peter Atkins. Perfect at the plate: Green – Larry Fiorentino (3 for 3 with two doubles) and Phl Stanch (4 for 4); Gray – Gary Coyle (2 for 2 with a walk) and Mike Malay (4 for 4 with a triple). Home run: Mike Garrison (inside the park) (4).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 81 degrees, felt like 86. Humidity 70%, wind from the South at 3 MPH. Partly cloudy – very pleasant!
Hard-fought game came down to the final out. Gray jumped out on top, as Jack Kelly held Green to two runs in the top of the first, on Ralph Villela’s game-opening double to left-center field and two singles, and then scored four times in the home half. After Tommy Gillis led off with a double, Mike Garrison ran down George Romo’s fly ball into foul territory in left field for the first out. The next three batters hit safely: Morgan Witthoft and Jack Crosley singled, Jack’s hit driving in Tommy, and then Mike Malay smacked a triple to the fence in right, driving in Morgan and Jack. Mike then tagged up and scored on Dave Jaffe’s sacrifice fly to Mike Garrison in left.
Green grabbed the lead in the second inning and never let go. They scored three times on five singles and Mike Garrison’s sacrifice fly, again to Dave Jaffe in left field, in the top of the inning, and then Chunky Wright blanked Gray in the home half. Chunky got outs to shortstop Ralph Villela to start the inning, a grounder and a pop, and then let Gray load the bases on a single by Tommy Gillis that was sandwiched by walks to Gary Coyle and George Romo. Chunky escaped the jam by getting Morgan Witthoft to pop out to Ralph.
Green’s first five batters hit safely and scored in the top of the fifth, the inning starting with four singles, two runs scoring. Larry Fiorentino then lined a pitch to right for a two-run double. With three runs in, none out, and runners on second and third, all Green needed was some smart situational hitting, and that’s what they got – consecutive sacrifice flies to busy Dave Jaffe in left field, by Jim Foelker and Ralph Villela, to complete the rally.
Gray hung tough, scoring four runs while producing eight hits in the bottom of the fourth. And really it was almost nine hits. How could this be? I will tell you. Jack Crosley and Mike Malay led off with singles. Dave Jaffe hit a pop to short left-center field. As Dave Berra described it, shortstop Ralph Villela went back on the pop, but dropped the ball while avoiding a collision with Steve Browne charging in from left-center. Ralph, on his butt, somehow retrieved the ball and, from his seated position, managed to throw to Chris Waddell at third to force out Jack, who’d had to hold up to see if the ball would be caught. Here is an incredibly accurate rendering of the play:
Okay, maybe the picture doesn’t do the play proper justice. Fortunately, there’s video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Instead of bases loaded, none out, there were runners on first and second with one down. Johnny Lee singled, Mike Malay scoring, but Green got another out on the play, as Johnny Lee’s pinch-runner forgot himself, advanced past first on an overthrow back to the infield, and was called out. That was two out. The next five batters singled – Hal Darman, Jack Kelly, Gary Coyle, Tommy Gillis, and George Romo – and three more runs scored. So four runs were in on eight (almost nine) hits, with the bases loaded, before Green finally recorded a defensive out, as Morgan Witthoft flied out to Phil Stanch in right-center.
Green led 10-8 entering the final five-run inning, in which both teams scored twice. Phil Stanch led off the top of the frame with a single, and Mike Garrison followed with a drive to the fence in center field for an inside-the-park home run, his fourth of the season. Here’s what it looked like from my vantage point:
Jack Kelly retired the next three hitters. Gray then got those runs back in the home half with four singles and a sacrifice fly by Johnny Lee to Phil Stanch in right-center. Chunky Wright escaped without further damage by getting Jack Kelly to ground into a 3u., 3-6 double play, Greg Lloyd to Ralph Villela.
Green increased its lead to four runs with two more runs in the top of the buffet. With one out Chunky Wright singled. Larry Fiorentino then completed a perfect day at the plate with his third hit, his second double scoring Chunky from first. Gray shortstop George Romo made a terrific play going back to run down Jim Foelker’s pop fly to short left field for the second out. Ralph Villela and Phil Stanch followed with singles, Phil completing a 4-for-4 game, and Larry came around to score – unclear to me which of those hits actually drove him in, but in any case, Green led 14-10 entering the bottom half.
Gary Coyle singled to start things for Gray, completing a perfect day (2 for 2 with a walk) at the plate. Tommy Gillis flied out to Mike Garrison in left field. George Romo singled, and Morgan Witthoft lashed a triple to the fence in left-center field, driving in Gary and George. Morgan held at third when Jack Crosley grounded out to second baseman Larry Fiorentino for the second out. A single by Mike Malay, his fourth hit in as many at bats, drove in Morgan and made it a one-run game. But Chunky Wright got Johnny Lee to ground a ball to shortstop Ralph Villela, who threw to Larry Fiorentino covering second for the game-ending force out. Final score: Green 14, Gray 13
11:00 a.m., Orange (1-0) at Purple (2-0):
1 2 3 4 5 BUFFET FINAL Orange 4 3 3 0 5 2 17 Purple 4 1 1 0 2 0 8 Pitchers: Orange – Ray Pilgrim; Purple – Spike Davidson. Mercenaries: Orange – Tom Brownfield, George Romo, and Chris Waddell; Purple – Mike Malay. Umpires: home – Chunky Wright; bases – Mike Garrison. Perfect at the plate: Orange – Daniel Carvajal (3 for 3 with a walk and two doubles) and Chris Waddell (4 for 4).
Dave Berra’s weather report: 86 degrees, felt like 90. Humidity 58%, wind from the SSE at 6 MPH. Partly cloudy – heating up!
David Brown has the recap:
On a day of hard-hit balls and bad hops, mercenary George Romo was a rock at 3B for the Orange team. In the top of the first, the Orange lineup peppered the left- and right-field lines and produced four runs on singles by Clint Fletcher, Ray Pilgrim, and Boo Resnick, a double by Daniel Carvajal, and a triple by David Brown. In the bottom of the inning, Purple put up four runs as well on a walk by Matt Levitt; singles by Larry Fiorentino, Spike Davidson, and Mark Hernandez; and doubles by Raul Deleon and Tim Coles. Purple was threatening a five-run first with runners on 1st and 2nd and only one out, but George Romo fielded a hard ground ball to 3B and threw a strike to fellow mercenary Tom Brownfield at 2B who made a strong throw to Daniel Carvajal at 1B for the inning-ending double play.
Orange scored three more runs in the 2nd inning on a walk, three singles, and a double. With runners on 2nd and 3rd and two outs, Purple pitcher Spike Davidson escaped further damage by catching the edge of the mat on a 3-2 pitch to get a called strike three. Purple had two walks and three singles in the home half of the 2nd, but only scored one run owing to a 6-4-3 double play early in the inning and a pop out to SS with the bases loaded to end the inning.
Mercenaries keyed a productive 3rd inning for Orange with a double by George Romo on a deep fly ball to LF and singles by Tom Brownfield and Chris Waddell. Purple got one run back in the bottom of the inning on three singles though their rally was thwarted by another Romo-Brownfield-Carvajal double play and a nice running catch in center field by Peter Atkins.
Spike Davidson pitched a scoreless frame in the 4th by stranding Daniel Carvajal, who led off with a double to left field, by inducing fly outs to left-center field (a terrific diving catch by Matt Levitt to rob Marvin Krabbenhoft of an RBI hit) and right-center field and playing good defense on a comebacker and throwing out the runner at 1B. Ray Pilgrim matched Spike with a scoreless inning of his own. The main damage in the inning came on a hard-hit ground ball by Larry Fiorentino that took a bad hop and hit George Romo on the wrist and then went straight up into George’s chin. Having kept the ball in front of him, George reacted quickly and threw to 2B for a force out.
Matt Levitt lays out to rob Marvin Krabbenhoft in the top of the fourth.
Orange led 10-6 entering the fifth inning. The inning started well for Purple with 3B Tim Coles making a fine play on a hard-hit ground ball to his left and making a strong throw to 1B. Seven of the next 8 batters in the Orange line-up singled with Marvin Krabbenhoft getting the final hit to score the fifth run of the inning. Purple got five singles of their own in the bottom of the inning, but managed to score just two runs as Ray Pilgrim knocked down a ground ball with the bases loaded and two outs and pushed, kicked, and eventually threw the ball to 1B in time to get the final out of the inning.
The teams entered the buffet with Orange leading by 7. The first three batters singled and then Chris Waddell completed a perfect 4-4 game at the plate with a hard-hit single to center field that scored two runs and left runners on 1st and 3rd with no outs. The teams flip-flopped and Ray induced a foul with two strikes to get the first out. Larry Fiorentino had a line-drive single, but was erased on a 5-4 force out. (The Romo-Brownfield combo produced six outs during the game with two double plays and two force outs.) Raul Deleon had a line-drive single to put two runners on base, but Clint Fletcher ended the suspense with an excellent running catch in left field on a drive by Tim Coles.
David notes that on both double plays, George Romo fielded balls hit to his left and then threw to Tom Brownfield at second base, as very accurately shown here:
Final score: Orange 17, Purple 8
Noon, Blue (1-1) at Maroon (1-1):
1 2 3 4 BUFFET FINAL Blue 0 1 0 5 2 8 Maroon 2 5 5 0 X 12 Pitchers: Blue – Tommy Deleon; Maroon – Jeff Stone. Mercenaries: Blue – Ralph Villela; Maroon – David Brown (entered for Don Solberg in the second inning), Tim Coles, Clint Fletcher, Anthony Galindo, and Johnny Lee. Umpires: home – Rick Jensen; bases – Larry Young. Perfect at the plate: Blue – Daniel Baladez (3 for 3) and Ralph Villela (2 for 2 with two doubles); Maroon – David Brown (1 for 1), Ivan Budiselic (3 for 3), Clint Fletdcher (2 for 2), and Jeff Stone (3 for 3).
Maroon built a 12-1 lead through three innings; by the time Blue got its bats untracked, there wasn’t enough time to mount a full comeback, though they did close the gap to just four runs.
Jeff Stone gave up a single to Steve Sandall to start the game, then retired Blue’s next three hitters. He caught Tom Brownfield looking at a called strike three to end the top of the first, using this unorthodox motion to freeze Big Tom:
(All credit to the mullet.)
Maroon took the lead, which it never relinquished, with two runs on four singles in the bottom of the first. Johnny Lee drew a walk to load the bases with two out, but Tommy Deleon got Tim Coles to swing just under a pitch, which he lofted to left field, Steve Sandall making the catch to strand the runners.
Blue got on the board with a run in the top of the second. David Pittard drew a lead-off walk and took second on Daniel Baladez’s single. Tony Garcia turned a 6u., 6-3 double play, Ivan Budiselic on the back end, on Steve Guzman’s grounder to shortstop, David taking third on the play. Tommy Deleon’s single drove in David, cutting Maroon’s lead to one run.
But only briefly, as Maroon exploded for five runs in the home half, on six singles and Jeff Stone’s two-run double, to take firm control of the game. Don Solberg’s infield single drove in Jeff with the fourth run, but, as David Brown wrote me afterward, “Don pulled a muscle in his quad on a ground ball in his second AB. He pulled the muscle early in his run to 1B and refused to stop until he reached the bag just ahead of the throw. Scowlin’ Don is a tough ol’ bird.” Don’s pinch-runner wound up scoring the fifth run of the inning, coming around on two-out singles by Ivan Budiselic and Johnny Lee.
David Brown entered the game for Don in the top of the third, taking over at shortstop while Tony Garcia moved to left field. Jeff Stone blanked Blue in the top of the frame, working around Ralph Villela’s one-out double. Maroon effectively put the game out of reach by scoring five times again in the bottom of the inning, on a lead-off double by Tim Coles and five singles, the last four with two out, David Brown’s hit driving in the fifth run.
Blue’s bats came to life in the top of the fourth, the visitors scoring five runs on six singles, Jim Foelker’s sacrifice fly to Anthony Galindo in left-center, and Ralph Villela’s second double in as many at bats, which drove in Alvin Gauna with the fifth run. Tommy Deleon then shut out Maroon in the home half, retiring three hitters in a row after giving up a lead-off single to Ivan Budiselic that completed Ivan’s 3-for-3 day at the plate.
Blue trailed by six and had the top of its lineup up to start the buffet. Steve Sandall, Tom Bellavia, and George Brindley opened the inning with singles, loading the bases. Steve tagged and scored on Tom Brownfield’s sacrifice fly to Clint Fletcher in right field. Dave Pittard lined a ball to right-center but was robbed of a hit by Ken Brown, who I’m going to say got a terrific jump on a sinking line drive to his left, racing in to make the catch, the runner having to scramble back to third and first to avoid being doubled up. Daniel Baladez’s single completed a 3-for-3 day and drove in Tom, but the game ended with Tommy Deleon hitting into a 4-6 force, Scott Wright to David Brown. Final score: Maroon 12, Blue 8
Session 4 standings:
| Session 4 | Games | Runs | Runs | Runs dif- | W/L | |||
| Wins | Losses | Win %: | behind: | for: | allowed: | ferential: | streak: | |
| Orange | 2 | 0 | 1.000 | 0 | 33 | 20 | 13 | W2 |
| Purple | 2 | 1 | .667 | 0.5 | 32 | 30 | 2 | L1 |
| Maroon | 2 | 1 | .667 | 0.5 | 28 | 26 | 2 | W1 |
| Red | 1 | 1 | .500 | 1 | 22 | 20 | 2 | W1 |
| Green | 1 | 2 | .333 | 1.5 | 29 | 33 | -4 | W1 |
| Blue | 1 | 2 | .333 | 1.5 | 33 | 39 | -6 | L1 |
| Gray | 0 | 2 | .000 | 2 | 18 | 27 | -9 | L3 |
| Home | Visitor | Walk-off | Extra-inning | Flip-flop | 1-run games | |||
| W-L: | W-L: | wins | W-L: | W-L: | W-L: | |||
| Purple | 1-1 | 1-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-1 | 0-0 | ||
| Orange | 0-0 | 2-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Red | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Blue | 0-1 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Maroon | 2-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | ||
| Gray | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | ||
| Green | 0-1 | 1-1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1-0 |
2025 total victories (read across) and losses (read down):
| Blue | Gray | Green | Maroon | Orange | Purple | Red | TOTAL | |
| Blue | X | 2 | 6 | 2 | 3.5 | 3 | 5 | 21.5 |
| Gray | 4 | X | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 18 |
| Green | 3 | 5 | X | 3.5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 19.5 |
| Maroon | 4 | 4 | 5.5 | X | 4 | 4 | 3 | 24.5 |
| Orange | 4.5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 4 | 4 | 22.5 |
| Purple | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | X | 6 | 22 |
| Red | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 2 | X | 16 |
| TOTAL: | 20.5 | 22 | 21.5 | 17.5 | 17.5 | 19 | 26 | 144 |
Green and Maroon tied their game of August 7; Orange and Blue tied their game of August 28; these are counted as half a win and half a loss for each team.
2025 season home run leaders:
David Brown – 5
Tim Coles – 5
Bobby Miller – 5
Ralph Villela – 5
George Brindley – 4
Mike Garrison – 4
Tommy Gillis – 4
Larry Fiorentino – 3
Anthony Galindo – 3
Jack Spellman – 3
Tim Bruton – 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
Scott Wright – 2
Jim Aaron – 1
Peter Atkins – 1
Tom Bellavia – 1
Ken Brown – 1
Gary Coyle – 1
Donald Drummer – 1
Tony Garcia – 1
Buddy Gaswint – 1
Mike Malay – 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
Schedule for Monday September 15:
10:00 a.m.: Maroon (2-1) at Orange (2-0), Purple umpiring
11:00 a.m.: Purple (2-1) at Green (1-2), Maroon umpiring
Noon: Gray (0-2) at Red (1-1), Green umpiring
Blue has the bye, with priority for its players out of the bucket.
Preview: This is the final set of games being played at 10a/11a/noon. The 10:00 contest should be a good one, between the teams that finished 1-2 in Session Three and are in the same position three dates into Session Four. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a battle that goes into extra innings and/or is decided in the final at bat. Orange’s two-game streak is the longest currently active winning streak. Purple (lost on 9/11, but +2 run differential for the session so far) plays Green (won on 9/11, but a -4 run differential for the session) in a game pitting evenly matched opponents at 11:00. Gray looks to notch its first win of the session at noon versus a Red team that’s still integrating its newest players into the lineup. Will I remember which direction to run the bases when I return to play? Only one thing is certain: Time will tell.
Keggy’s Korner:
Angelica’s and Tyler’s wedding was wonderful. Here’s the happy couple:
(The bats keep everyone honest.)
And here’s your moment of zen, sunlight through the trees at Wells State Park in Sturbridge, Massachusetts:
I’ll be back for Monday’s games. Many thanks to Dave Berra, David Brown, and Terry Watts for their scoresheets and recaps this week, without which the Picayune couldn’t have happened.