july0107

SBL 2007, WEEK 7
JULY 1
AUSCHWITZ GARDENS

HOT FUZZ                        6
TEAM DOUBLE STUFF 7
team double stuff, playing with ben elliott, dank elly and jon biddle for the first time in three weeks, used a 5-run third inning to wrestle the lead from the suddenly freefalling hot fuzz before holding on over a scoreless final five innings to secure their 6th win of the season.
after getting on the board first via an elly double to plate aryn christman in the first, stuff fell behind 4-1 heading into the bottom of the second thanks in large part to a 2-run longball from the returning mike moroco. double stuff would counter with one more in the home half of the inning on elly's second straight run-scoring double, but their big frame would be the fifth. facing a 4-2 hole, the black and pink would get six consecutive hits and five runs on the harsh aushwitz hoop before a bryan frankovich double play would snuff out the rally.
from there, the double stuff offense went to bed, failing to get a hit for the rest of the contest. it wouldn't matter, however, as jon biddle took over the game from underneath the hoop, tipping in a double play in each of the final seven innings to help hold the potent hott fuzz offense to a mere two runs.
biddle finished with 8 double plays on the nite. elly led the way offensively for double stuff with 3 hits and 3 rbi.
in a losing effort, mike moroco nailed a pair of homers, drove in 4, and led his squad with 5 hits in 8 attempts.

KATHLEEN TURNER OVERDRIVE 6
THE NAPPY HEADED HOS               7
ben smith's no-out, walk off solo shot to lead off the bottom of the tenth sealed the third straight win for the nappy headed hos and halted kathleen turner's win streak at 4, as a grateful hot fuzz team breathed a sigh of relief as they held on to their sbl lead once again.
trailing throughout most of the game after failing to get a runner past second over the first five innings, the hos found themselves in only a 3-0 hole thanks to KTO's inability to capitalize on the poor shooting of the matt mcclelland-less NHH. when the hos finally found their stroke, with two already gone in the sixth, they found it in a big way, hitting four consecutive shots culminating with a ben smith 2-run homer to turn the 3-run defecit into a one-run lead.
from there, the teams would battle back and forth, with seemingly neither team really wanting to win. both had golden oppurtunities over the final three stanzas, particularly kathleen turner, who had runners on second and third in the ninth, then got their leadoff man to second in the tenth, but both times failed to plate a run.
in the end, it was smith with the walk-off shot, and the ho's with the huge conference win to get back into the picture for the all-important bye to the finals that comes with the sbl's regular-season title. jamie moroco's consistent attack paced the NHH, as she collected a game-high 7 hits in 11 attempts with 4 rbi. ray cataline added 4 double plays.
for the losers, terry shernisky hit on 6 of 12 tries with 5 ribbies and 6 double plays.

JUKEBOX HERO    9
PJ & THE LADIES 1
playing a rather weak jukebox squad consisisting of a pair of middle-single shooting females (danielle hennon and cassie pyle), a pair of rookies who had struggled in their first outings (tony mastrian and bob spohn), a player who has played only 4 games in the last 6 seasons (terry wareham) and a finger-wagging smuggler (famie fabian), the ladies had a golden oppurtunity to shake off a 4-game slide and get back into the mix in the sbl's american conference. instead, they opted to scatter six hits over nine innings and score one run while actually letting jukebox outplay them under the boards.
though they were without captain rando knight, who holds a perfect game at auschwitz, the ladies should have played much better at the home court of their hall of famer billy weisberg. but after falling behind 3-0 as the heroes came out of the box swinging, the wheels just seemed to come off of the big red train. even having the man himself- ladies founder pj nespor- in the lineup couldn't help things in this one.
jukebox, meanhwile, played plenty good to win. hennon went an admirable 4 for 7 from the leadoff spot, allowing spohn to collect a game high 3 ribbies from the two hole. hammy and mastrian each collected three hits in 6 attempts.
nespor paced the ladies with 4 hits and the lone rbi.

THE SCREAMIN' SEAGULLS 9
THE SPARKLING WIGGLES    5
riding an sbl-best five game win streak into this one and having dismantled the seagulls at world b. free park only seven days prior, the sparkling wiggles came into this contest oozing confidence and looking to get themselves into the race for the sbl's best record. instead, what they got was a healthy dose of the longball and an pretty good helping of "and that's why we play the games".
the normally consistent wiggle offense, and nate tomko in particular, struggled mightily in this one. the five runs they put up was by far their lowest output of the season, and the explosive reigning player of the year was held to a mere two hits and one rbi.
the seagulls fared much, much better. jon olsavsky had no trouble figuring out the middle homer, which he drilled three times, one of which was a 2-run blast in the sixth to unknot a 3-3 game. terry hall was equally at home from the right homerun line, as he twice knocked one down from that spot, including a huge 3-run shot in the bottom of the eight to extend the lead to 9-4. from there, all the seagulls had to do was hold on, which they had no problem doing as the wiggles would get only two more hits over the final 2 frames.
both olsavsky and hall put up identical 3 for 8, 4 rbi lines. hall tipped in 4 double plays, olsavsky 2. hammy hit on 3 of hit 8 attempts as well.
the losers were led by katie kelly, who hit 5 of 8 shots. tomko's 8 double plays led all players.

JUKEBOX HERO                      0
THE NAPPY HEADED HOS 11
one game after catching pj & the ladies in a similair funk, jukebox found poor shooting to be contageous as this time it would be they that couldn't sniff the rim, gathering only 4 hits in 8 innings of work and allowing the ho's to sprint to their fourth win in a row.
the nappy headed hos, after getting a big scrum win from ray cataline, would have no trouble riding the wave from ben smith's walk-off homer a few games prior. three runs would cross the plate in each of the first two innings, more than enough to hold off the yellow mesh.
jamie moroco continued to play well at the garden, hitting 6 of her 14 shots for 4 rbi. cataline also would drive in 4, and smith would lead his squad with 7 hits. smith and cataline would evenly divide 6 double plays.
jukebox consisted of the wiggles jeremy battyani, john davidson from pj&l, double stuff's jon biddle and ben elliott, and kip corbett of kathleen turner overdrive. corbett would be the only team member to hit safely more than once.

HOT FUZZ              19
PJ & THE LADIES 8
hot fuzz found out the perfect remedy for stopping a monumental fall in record- a game against pj & the ladies.
having come into their game on a three game downswing and having lost 4 of their last five, hot fuzz desperately needed a win to keep themselves in first place in the league. enter the ladies, silver platter in hand.
though they played significantly better than they did against jukebox earlier in the afternoon, and even after they tied the game at 7 entering the fifth inning, the ladies never really threatened to win this one. they stranded ten runners, while the fuzz left only 4 on base, and were simply dominated under the glass, giving up a pair of assists to mike moroco and getting out doubleplayed 8-4.
hot fuzz got another big game from mikey moroco, who went 9 for 15 with 2 homers, including a 7th inning grand slam, 8 rbi and 2 double plays. bryan frankovich rebounded from a subpar first outing with an 8 for 15, 6 rbi, 6 double play line. even pat nespor found his stroke in this one, hitting a pair of homers and plating 5 runs.
the ladies got 6 hits from cassie pyle, and 5 runs batted in from billy weisberg. john davidson added a 5 for 9, 1 rbi outing.
hot fuzz now stands at 10-4. the ladies fell to 4-10.

KATHLEEN TURNER OVERDRIVE 9
THE SPARKLING WIGGLES 19
when two explosive offenses combine for only 11 total runs in their first games of the day, it stands to reason that at least one of those offenses will come alive their second time out. unfortunately for kathleen turner overdrive, who could have taken the lead in the standings with a win, it wasn't them.
though KTO did come out hot, getting 5 hits and 4 runs in the top of the first thanks to a pair of run-scoring three-baggers from terry shernisky, they quickly faded. even without nate tomko, who sat for much of the early part of the contest, the wiggles slowly chipped away at the lead, and trailed only 7-5 when he finally entered the contest again in the fifth. from there, the bats of pat lackey and katie kelly sprug to life, as each would miss only 1 more shot from that point on en route to outscoring KTO 14-2 over the last 5 innings. tomko's defense helped keep the lime green muscle shirts in check, as he would tip in a 4 double plays from that point on.
kelly wowed the crowd with a 10 for 12, 5 rbi, 1 assist, 1 double play game. plackey added 9 hits in 12 attempts with a gigantic 3-run homer and 9 ribbies, as well as a big double play in the ninth to all but seal the victory. tomko came off the bench for a 4 for 8 contest with a pair of homers and 4 rbi. danielle hennon hit on 6 of 12 shots.
shernisky paced the losers with a 5 for 10, 1 homer, 5 rbi, 4 double play outing. greg lackey hit safely on 5 of 10.
with the win, the wiggles climbed to 8-6 on the campsign, one game behind KTO who sit at 9-5.

THE SCREAMIN' SEAGULLS 11
TEAM DOUBLE STUFF 7
with jon olsavsky now on board, the screamin' seagulls are suddenly a force to be reckoned with in the shenangahela baseketball league. after battling jukebox hero for the cellar only a few weeks back, the seagulls now sit a 6-8, in seconnd place in the sbl's american conference and only 2 games behind the wiggles for a bye through the first round of the playoffs.
for their second game of the day, the seagulls once again put away a team that, on paper, was superior. with the wiggles earlier, they capitalized on some shoddy shooting, but this time it was some questionable play from double stuff that allowed the seagulls to eek out the win. i mean, lee nespor got an assist on a team with jon biddle playing defense... seriously.
at any rate, the seagulls plated seven runs in the top of the second, highlighted by back to back assists by terry hall and nespor, to take a 7-0 lead they would never relinquish. from there, a bunch of dumb things by double stuff paired with four straight innings of double plays from hall and olsavsky spelled disaster for double stuff, who went from beating the best team in the league to dropping one to a sub-.500 squad all in a matter of hours.
olsavsky hit safely 6 of 11 times with a homer, 2 rbi and a double play. lee nespor also went 6 of 11, plating 5.
aryn christman hit on 6 of 9 shots for a trio of runs batted in in a losing effort. jamie fabian came off the bench for a 2 for 5, 2 rbi game. with the loss, double stuff falls to 6-8 on the season.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: mike moroco, hot fuzz (14 for 23, 4 hr, 12 rbi, 2 ast, 4 double plays, 1 grand slam)
TEAM OF THE WEEK: the screamin' seagulls (yea, i'm sure you had them beating both the wiggles and a biddle/dank/whitey double stuff)
GAME OF THE WEEK: will give it to the mostly snoozer hos/kto just because of ben smith's walk-off. by default.

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