Beaver Times 2010 - Edition XII

With a summer championship added to the trophy room of the Beavers it was off to Fenton for some summer/fall softball. Last week the Beavers had to forfeit two games at Fenton while they made their play for the Clayton Summer Championship. While there is an outside chance that Fenton will allow the games to be made up at the end of the season, we have to live with the fact that the Beavers are most likely 0-2 going into the season.

The Beavers were up against the Long Shots for the first games since finishing 2nd in last year's fall season.

There was a last-minute raid on the active roster as Sabo called at 5pm to say that his sitter was not available and he could not make the games. Then Belle called about 30 minutes later to say that he would be running late due to a sick kid. With Tanner already out due to night court, the Beavers were down to 10 men on roster. The biggest hit was to the IF defense. Sabo has become a cornerstone to the D anchoring 3B, some shuffling was needed.

Santo has recently taken some shots off his body at 3B and admitted that he was a little "gun shy" and would rather play OF. Kid, though side-stepping many a grounder at Clayton said he was ready to play the IF in Fenton. After playing an inning on the IF, it was clear that the Fenton IF was worse than Clayton was. None-the-less, Kid took 3B, Dupper at Short and Rake at 2B. As it turned out, the left side of the IF was fine, it was Rake at 2B that was the gaping wound for this game.

Beavers started off with some early hits. Rake led off with a single and Santo did the same. Kid reached on a E that allowed Rake to score. Mobilly then singled in both Santo and Kid. It was quickly 3-0 Beavers.

PT was able to hang a scoreless frame in the first, but in the 2nd the first of Rake's errors led to a run. Beavers led 3-1 after 2.

The 3rd inning started with the top of the order again. This time Rake and Santo both got out, then came the damage. Kid singled, Mobilly singled and Dupper singled in Kid. Deuce then reached on an E to score Mobilly. 5-1 Beavers. That was just the beginning though. In the 4th, after another scoreless frame by PT, Gee and PT singled to start the inning. Rake singled as well to load the bases. Santo moved everyone up one base with a single and Mobilly singled in 2 more. Dupper followed that with a single of his own before Deuce found the gap in right center and used his speed to round the bases for an inside-the-park homerun. Beavers were up 12-1.

The Long Shots were able to add one run in the 4th and 2 more in the 5th after another E by Rake at 2B. It was a rough day for Rake, where he never could completely commit to a one-hopper or slow roller. It was 12-4 going into the 6th. Beavers kept adding to their lead in the top of the 6th. Santo led off with a single and Kid doubled him to third. With Mobilly at bat, Gee acting as the 3B coach, told Santo to "not score on a single". He was, of course, joking as he saw Dupper on deck and wanted to pad Dup's SAC stats. Mobilly lifted a deep fly to left and Santo was not running home. However, Kid expected him to easily score so he was bearing down on third...still occupied by Santo.

The entire dugout was screaming at Santo to tag and score for the SAC fly and Santo finally took off for home. The shortstop was surprised to see that he had a chance at the lead run threw to the plate where Santo narrowly snuck his foot onto home before being tagged. Dupper followed that mayhem with a single to score Kid. Beavers were up to 14 runs.

Long Shots were only able to chase in one more run, and the Beavers started their "first game" of the Fenton season with a 14-5 win.

Beaver of the game goes to Mobilly for this impressive hitting line: 3-3, 2runs, 5RBI, 1SAC

The tide quickly turned in the 2nd game. As the visitors the Long Shots jumped out to a 6 run lead. They consistently hit the ball up the middle for singles and their cleanup hitter drove one over the fence. Beavers responded with a couple of their own on a single-double-single by Santo-Kid-Mobilly. The Long Shots kept their hitting revival in the 2nd inning with 3 more runs. This time aided quite a bit by shotty defense by Belle and Rake.

Beavers kept chipping away one by one over the middle innings. Kid doubled in Deuce in the 3rd, Rake reached via an error in the 4th to score Dupper and Kid driving in Jimmy-D with a single in the 5th. Going into the 6th it was 11-5 Long Shots. Beavers had a chance to put up some important runs as Dupper led off by reaching on a E. Big John later found his swing and launched a HR. Belle followed that with a single, but was stranded. It was now 11-7.

Unfortunately that was how the game would end. Beavers could not come back from the hitting and E's early in the game and ended up with the split for the week.

Beavers play again next week at 6:30 & 7:30 against last year foes, the Nationals. Games to be played on field #2 this week (the first time for the Beavers).