Beaver Times 2009 Edition 10 - Playoffs

Week 10 of the season brought with it the final week of Clayton's Shaw Park playoffs. The Beavers had the opportunity to win the championship at Shaw for the 2nd consecutive year (out of two). The Beavers came into the playoffs in second place and dispatched of our first round opponent 13-2.

Game 1 of the night, game 2 of the summer playoffs began at 7pm against the Golden Sombreros. The Sombreros had played the Beavers tough this season. The Beavers winning one on a come from behind win and tying the other. It was not going to be a 10-run win again. The Sombreros knew how to keep the Beavers close.

The game got off to a rocky start. Their leadoff hitter reached base and the second hitter rolled a grounder to short. Kid scooped and flipped to Jake at second. Jake made the pivot to turn the double play and the runner went in to second with his hands in the air to throw off the concentration of Jake. Jake's throw was late to 1st. The Beavers recorded one out, but it should have been two. Baserunners in slow pitch softball are not allowed to attempt to interfere with a play. The batter should have been called out due to interference. He was not...and he eventually score after another two hits. I asked the umpire after the inning why he did not call the batter out. "Listen, I don't know all of the little, in particular rules", he said. I was shocked. Isn't that his job? To know the rules! There was no winning this argument, just making a point that he blew a call. It would not be the last. Shocking!

Belle led off the Beaver half of the first with a single. Let's see, that makes 9 straight singles for Belleman. Totally embracing the leadoff position. Rake forced him at second, but scored on Big John's single. Big John would later score on a single by Mobilly. Beavers were up 2-1 after one.

The Beavers built upon their lead in the second. Once again on a parade of singles and walks. When we play on this larger field we are transformed from a power team to a punch & judy team. Might be why we struggle playing on field #6. Takes an awful lot of hits to build a decent number of runs. Rage walked, Jake singled, Sonoma singled, Belle singled (10 in a freakin' row!), Rake singled...after all of that four more runs had scored. The offense was looking good. The bats were hot.

Sombreros answered with some help from our (their) umpire. The middle of their lineup was up and Keith was pitching. The pitch rules for the league are 6' minimum arc from the ground to unlimited height. Keith was throwing lower strikes to keep the ball out of the wheel-house. Each pitch, easily amassing more than 6'. But the umpire kept calling the illegal. This gave two very good hitters another pitch or two, and they made the most of it. When the umpire was done calling "illegal pitches" and the Beavers were done "bitching" the Sombreros had scored four runs of their own. It was 6-5 Beavers after two and a half innings.

The Beavers singles hitters went to town again. Mobilly, Rage and Jake all singled and after a sacrifice fly by Keith it was another 2 runs for the home team. Unfortunately the "bitching" or the hot air was wearing down the Beavers because over the 4th and 5th innings we sent a total of 7 batters to the plate. The only one to reach...Belle. This time, it was a walk, not a single. The streak was snapped. 10 straight hits, all singles. Impressive Belle!

In the top of the 6th the Sombreros eeked across another run to cut the lead to one run. The Beavers were running on fumes. Of the past 9 hitters, only Belle's walk was not an out. Dupper started the 6th with a hit, Rake singled for the 3rd time in the game. Jake grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Dupper. The Beavers had a little bit of insurance.

To the top of the 7th went the game. Time running down. The season's clock running down on one of the two teams. The next game's opponent was sitting in the stands watching, waiting to know who they were going to play. The team sitting there was the team the Beavers destroyed back in week 1 of the season. Team USA. They had put together a great game just before the Beavers took the field to oust the #1 team, Sportsma's Park. The #4 seed was in the finals. Who would they play? The Beavers, who were holding onto a lead, or the Sombreros, coming from behind?

The Sombreros came out hitting and had a plan. The leadoff hitter reached and the second hitter lined one into right field. Big John was patrolling out there and he started off after the ball. It seemed like there was no way he was going to catch it. Somehow, someway he opened his mitt down by his left knee and the ball fell right into it. A potentially game saving catch. The momentum left the Sombreros and jumped to the Beavers. The Sombreros were deflated and didn't score. Beavers win 9-7. On to the finals.

Beaver of the game again is a tough call. Rage went 2-2. Belle 2-2 with a walk as well. But due to the importance of the catch in right. Big John takes home the award.

The finals started about 5 minutes following the first game. The Beavers decided against rolling over the lineup like they usually do since this game was for it all. Needed to get the top of the order as many ABs as possible. Another shakeup was moving Sabo up to the two-hole and Rake down to the 9-hole.

Team USA came out ready to play on this night. They ran up 6 quick runs on the Beavers in the first inning. Highlighted by a 3-base error by Belle in LC. It was a single that skipped under his glove allowing the hitter to circle the bases. Team USA either had a different roster for the finals, or they all took some Tom Emansky hitting classes over the summer. They kept dropping hits in front of the outfield and their team speed could stretch most singles into doubles. If you have been following the Beavers, you know that our outfield is good at allowing extra bases by throwing to the wrong base at times at well. It was not a good combination for this game. Team USA ran at will.

The Beavers began chomping into the 6 run deficit with 2 of their own in the first. Highlighted by a double (yes, it has been a long time since I typed that word describing a Beaver hit) by Kid. Team USA came back strong again in the 2nd with two more runs. This time aided by the umpire who refused to hustle from behind home plate to make an accurate call at 2nd base. Beavers were down 8-2.

Team USA tacked on another run in the 3rd before the Beavers started doing their damage.

Keith (sorry, P.T.) started off the inning with a single. Jimmy-D then also singled (his first hit in 5 games) and Belle reached on a E. Sabo hit a sac fly before Kid, Big John, Dupper and Mobilly all did some damage. Beavers had scored 6 runs and were right back into the game. Only down one run.

Well, that was short lived. Back came Team USA, more singles stretched into doubles. More balls thrown into the infield by our outfield - directed to the wrong base, allowing more runners to advance. It was long, it was ugly. It was capped by another missed call. Seven more runs!

Rake singled in the bottom of the 4th and was chased around by Sonoma and plated by a P.T. sac fly. One lone run. Not enough to keep pace. The Beavers were losing their steam again.

At this point Team USA also began to come back to earth. One run in the 5th and one in the 7th. They had scored 18 runs in total. They were doing all they could to win the 14 Clayton Parks & Recreation T-Shirts. The Beavers did not score again until the bottom of the 7th.

With a record-sized crowd on hand for this season, including 3 generations from Belle's family and a non-playing Tanner it was time to pull off a little Beaver-magic. Sonoma started off the 7th with a single, Jimmy-D replaced him on the base paths with a force out. There were two quick outs, but don't say "die" yet. Belle walked, Sabo singled in Jimmy-D, Kid singled in Belle, Big John singled in Sabo. Dupper then stepped in. A grounder to the left side...fielded and Kid was forced at 3rd. Three runs in, not enough though. Beavers lost 18-12 to Team USA. Two single innings did us in. 6 in the first and 7 in the fourth could not be overcome. Beavers had to settle for 2nd place in what was once called a "church league". Congrats to Team USA for coming alive at the right time. Congrats to several teams for improving quite a bit over the past year. This league is competitive now (some of the team) and is fun to play in.

Beaver of the game goes to Kid who went 3-4 with 3 RBI. Hopefully his hot bat will carry over to fall ball.

The fall season will be played in Fenton. League will be a Wed night league again with games expected to start the first week of Sept.