Beaver Times 2010 - Edition IX

As the summer regular season comes to a close, the Beavers were able to avoid lightening storms this week and get in two games against the #5 team in the league, Cousin Hugo's.

With two guys out of the lineup, the bench was thin and we were missing our leadoff hitter. Time to juggle the lineup again.

Sabo tried to break the leadoff curse and started the game with a single. Gee, moved up to the #2 hole, did the same. Dupper lifted his first fly ball to the outfield for his 3rd SAC fly of the year. Tanner, BIg John and Santo all singled as well and the Beavers were up 3-0 in the first frame. In the second inning the Beavers witnessed something they had not seen all year, Sabo struck out. He claims he "has never struck out in softball". We will have to look back over the past couple of seasons to see if that is true for his Beavers career at least.

In the 3rd inning the Beavers loaded the bases again and scored only one run on a fielder's choice by Santo. The Beavs were getting plenty of chances, but just not connecting on the RBI hits needed to blow this game open. In the 4th the bottom of the lineup came up big with 2 straight singles and a walk to load the bases yet again. Sabo then singled in Belle, Gee his a SAC fly to score PT. Kid singled to load the bases for Dupper. What transpired was amazing.

Dupper hit a fly ball to left center. It was recorded as a SAC fly again (2nd of game, 4th of season to lead the team). Sabo kept running from 2nd and scored on a fielding error. Kid kept running from 1st and scored after the fielding error and subsequent throwing error. A 3-run SAC fly. The official scorers looked for ways to credit Dup with all 3 RBI for this unique feat, but alas it was just a SAC fly and a few errors. Beavers were now up 9-0.

Just like most Beaver games of late, the offense seems to go into hibernation at some point. Luckily there was a nine-run cushion this time. The Beavers did lead off the 5th with bases loaded again. With Big John on 3rd, Santo on 2nd and Rake on 1st Belle hit a grounder to 3rd. The 3rd baseman threw home to force out Big John. The catcher alertly recognized that Santo was not running, at all, to 3rd and threw back to 3rd for another force out and a double play. That pretty much killed the inning rally.

All this time Cousin Hugos was managing no runs and very few base runners. In the 6th they struck for their lone run. Beavers held onto the victory for a 9-1 win and improved their record to 9-4-2. Still biding for 2nd place overall in the standings.

Beaver of the Game goes to Kid for his 2-3 line and great baserunning to score the 3rd run on the SAC fly by Dupper.
Several Beavers had 2 hits including Sabo, Gee, Tanner, Big John, Santo.

In the second game the Beavers just rolled the lineup which has been a heated bench debate for a few weeks now. Not known to help the sagging offense, it was time to put it to the test again.

Belle and PT started off the bottom of the 1st with singles, all was looking good for a few runs...then two straight outs and Belle called out at 3rd. Inning shut down, no runs, damn 2nd game curse!

Cousin Hugos chased in 2 runs in their half of the 2nd inning and the Beavers answered with 2 hits to open the inning, then 1-2-3 after that. Again, not able to manufacture runs with runners on.

In the 3rd inning, the bats did come alive. Santo doubled and Rake singled him to 3rd. Belle doubled both of them in and PT singled in Belle. Now they were hitting when it counts! Jimmy-D continued his improved hitting and singled. Sabo walked for the 11th time this year Gee hit into a fielder's choice with PT called out at the plate. Kid then tripled in 2 runs. It was a 5-run outburst. It was the 2nd time in the last 9 games that the Beavers had scored five or more runs in the same inning. The other time was the 1st game of the DH. Things might be looking up.

PT's strong pitching and relatively good defense kept Cousin Hugo's off the board for the remainder of the game. Beavers were able to add an insurance run in the 5th inning on a string of 4 straight singles. Beavers win again 6-2. Pushing their season record to 10-4-2.

This record is good enough for 4th place in the standings and a date next week with Sportsman's Park. The Beavers are 1-1 against Sportsman's Park this year. Allowing only 8 runs total to them Winning 8-4 and Losing 4-1. It should be a good match up next week at 8pm on Field #2. Beavers should be able to take this game, we'll see if the offense can step up and take control. For the season the Beavers are averaging 10.5 runs a game. This number is greatly inflated by some early poundings over the FDPD and The Bucks. The Beavs scored 40 runs over 2 games against the FDPD and another 40 runs in 2 games over the Bucks. So, for the other 14 games the Beavers are averaging 6.3 runs a game. There needs to be HUGE improvements.

Beaver of the Game goes to PT for his 3-3 perfecto and his pitching where he allowed 2 runs in the game.
Other lines worth mentioning:
Belle 2-4, 2RBI, 2B - raising his avg to .314
Jimmy-D 2-3 - raising his avg to .349
Gee Lightening 2-3, 1run
Rake 2-3, 1run

Stats are posted to the team site. There are 3 guys hitting sub .400. I think this has a great deal to do with why the Beavers are scoring 6.3 runs a game against formidable opponents.

Fallball starts in 2 weeks in Fenton. Game times TBA.