| THE BIG DANCE preliminary round 14 SEED) TEAM DONKEY PUNCH (2004) -) PJ & THE LADIES (2001) LINEUPS: D. PUNCH PJ&L 1) j. moroco 1) j. lepak 2) p. lackey 2) p. nespor 3) k. rodemoyer 3) r. knight 4) j. clayton B- e. farrell |
| DONKEY PUNCH 7 PJ & THE LADIES 8 big rando knight's homer in the bottom of the ninth plated 3 runs, including the game-winner, and sent a powerful donkey punch team wondering what had gone wrong. boasting a more powerful lineup but lacking the all-for-one, one-for-all mentality that the ladies have made famous, punch was able to build an early lead and hold it throughout much of the game. however, once dissention began to rip the team apart from the inside, the anarchists were able to capitalize in a big way, shredding the d.p. defense for 5 runs in the final inning. after the trifecta of knight, nespor and lepak made short work of donkey punch in the scrum and locked up home field advantage, the visitors got a solo homer from captain jared clayton in the bottom of the first to take a quick 1-love lead. a rodemoyer double play helped put the ladies down 1-2 in the bottom of the inning, and everything seemed to be going in the favor of donkey punch. clayton and co. were able to build on their lead over the next 4 innings as jamie moroco got red hot from the double line, thrice getting on base and being driven in by lackey a pair of times and once by rodemoyer. clayton's was a men among boys in the field, tipping in double plays in each of the next 4 innings. in addition to his stellar defense, clayton drove in another run in the top of the sixth on a 2-out solo homerun. during the donkey punch run, each member of the ladies was sent to the penality box for varying reasons, including the introduction of a bowl of beef stew to the head of of referee jon biddle by lepak and a depantsing of lackey by knight and nespor. to the dismay of everyone in the area, the ladies somehowmanaged to keep themselves in the contest despite playing the middle innings short-handed. once again at full strength, the ladies came to bat in the 6th facing a 5-0 defecit and quickly got to work on erasing it. a leadoff triple from pj nespor was followed by back-to-back doubles from knight and lepak. nespor's double attempt was tapped back in by rodemoyer to momentarily stifle the rally, but knight hit a base-clearing triple to cap the scoring in the 6th and bring the count to 5-3. in the seventh, donkey punch loaded the bases with 2 outs, but rodemoyer's homer attempt was off to the left, and clayton's acrobatic assist attempt rimmed out and the ladies escaped uscathed. pj & co. were unable to capitalize, being retired in 3 straight in the bottom of the inning. the offenses came back to life in the 8th as clayton led off with a triple and was driven in by an jamie morocol double one batter later. lackey doubled in moroco, and donkey punch appeared to be in the early stages of a rally with no outs. however, jared opted to remove kurt rodemoyer from the lineup in exchange for elysa farrell. rodemoyer, questioning clayton's removing a defender for an offensive player while his team had a lead, had some heated words for his captain. clayton countered, referring to k-unit as a "stainbrook", an accusation that sent kurt into a rage. as the two were restrained by the crowd and referee biddle, moroco had seen enough and left the arena. by the time order had been restored, clayton found himself down both his leadoff hitter and best defender and clinging to a 7-3 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th, and to make matters worse, it appeared he'd be spending the rest of the contest sitting in the penalty box. with their biggest threat eliminated, the ladies got to work. lepak led off with a middle single, and nespor and knight followed suit from each of the sides. lepak's grannyshot airball was well off the mark from the triple line, but nespor once again found his range from the right side, knocking down his third run-scoring hit of the game, a 2-bagger. knight's homer attempt was put back by lackey, but the damage had been done as the ladies had closed the gap to 7-5. with rodemoyer, clayton and moroco to have batted in the ninth, the ladies never left the offensive side as each were put down without ever taking a shot. in the ninth, lackey recorded his second double play in as many innings following back to back singles by lepak and nespor setting up the heroics of big rando knight, who hit the 3rd walkoff blast in his storied career. knight finished with 6 rbi and a pair of double plays. nespor went 7 of 12 with 3 d.p.'s. for donkey punch, lackey tipped in 2 double plays and hit safely 6 times. moroco and clayton each tallied 5 hits, with the latter nailing 2 homers and tipping in 5. BACK |