SBL 2008, WEEK 8

JULY 13

THE K-Y COURT AT ASSBANG FIELDHOUSE

 

 

THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES              14

THE OATCAKE HATE MONSTERS  22

  Even with perennial all-star Matt Mcclelland falling early to a leg injury, the oatcake hate monsters were able to rebound from a tough loss to end last week with a big win against the fleshy funbridges to kick off week eight.  Lucky for the offensive juggernaut, they had plenty of help to plug right back in, namely Katie Kelly, and continue their slaughter of the FF.  Good thing they didn’t trade Shelley.

  Shelley Goodpastor proved to everyone in attendance she still had it from outside, drilling a pair of homers en route to an 11 for 17, 8 rbi game to pace oatcake.  Terry Hall hit on 8 of 17, drove in 9, and tipped in an assist and a trio of double plays.

  The funbridges got an unlikely grand slam homer from Tara Shawley, who came off the bench with a 6 for 6, 7 rbi performance.  Rando Knight added 5 hits, a homer, 4 rbi and a double play.

 

THE KYOTO KAMIKAZEES  30

THE QUEENS OF THE RSR    15 (7 INN)

  Aided by newcomer PJ O’Conner, the Kyoto Kamikazees pulled off the first major upset of the week, scoring a huge win over national conference power the Queens in dynamic 15-run fashion.

  O’Conner, playing in his first SBL game ever, proved a big difference.  His 8 for 16, 1 homer, 11 rbi game notwithstanding, his most major contribution came in his repeated stuffing of Bryan Frankovich underneath, keeping the double-play specialist to a season-low 2.

  The real story for the offensive side of the new-look KK was Mike Moroco, who posted a ridiculous 15 for 16, 6 homer, 16 rbi, 2 double play, 2 psyche-out line, and perhaps vault himself into the player of the year talks with a single performance.

  The contest was all close early, but the KK were able to break things open with a ten-run fourth, then close the door on the Queens with nine runs in the top of the seventh.

  Stud Frankovich hit 6 of 11 shots with 2 homers and a pair of double plays before being unceremoniously benched in favor of Aryn Christman by Queen fuhrer Frankovich.  He was the best offensive player of the game.  Good call.

 

JUKEBOX HERO  3

VOLTRON              9

  Even without captain Billy Weisberg or reigning rookie of the year Gavin St. John, Voltron still had plenty of gas in the tank to outrun the jukebox heroes.

  Voltron got pretty much all of their offense in the first two innings, scoring three in the first then four in the second to take a 7-0 lead which would prove more than sufficient.  A Jared Clayton 2-run homer would add some insurance runs late, but the Heroes were never able to get any consistent offense going and failed to threaten at all.

  Clayton finished with a 3 for 7 game which included 2 homers and 4 rbi.  Derek Lockovich added 4 hits and 2 rbi, while Jamie Fabian returned from his 3-week hiatus to go 2 for 6 with an assist.   Mike Frankovich was the top man on defense, tipping in a game-high 4 double plays.

  Billy Deforest ht 4 of 6 for JBH.  Matt Mcclelland hit half of 6 shots with a pair of ribbies and a quartet of double plays.  Also suiting up for the yellow mesh were Tara Shawley, Kip Corbett, and Lee Nespor.

 

THE KYOTO KAMIKAZEES               14

THE OATCAKE HATE MONSTERS  15

  Katie Kelly stroked a left triple that plated Shelley Goodpastor in the final play of the seven-run Oatcake ninth inning to give the American Conference #2’s a huge win to keep any hope of a regular season championship alive.

  Oatcake, trailing  by 6 heading into the bottom of the final stanza, somehow managed to hit 4 triples in ten shots.  I’m reading this out of the scorebook right now.  Whoever was keeping book marked that Shelley, Katie and Mac went back to back to back from the triple line, then three batters later Katie knocked down the fourth triple of the inning to score the winning run.  I’ll show you in the book next week if you don’t believe me.  Here’s hoping this was just a scoring error, because if this game ended the way it did because the shot chart person (you know who you are) wasn’t paying attention, that would be a travesty to the Kamikazees, who could have matched their entire season win total in an hour.

  Anyway, it’s too late now.  Mike, you can file your protest with Kip.

Kelly went 8 for 12 with 6 ribbies to pace the winners.  Mac added 8 hits and 5 rbi, while Goodpastor hit on 7 of 11 shots.  And I’ve got to get this one in there:  Terry Hall, 0 for 11.

  Mike continued to torch the net at Assbang Fieldhouse, putting home 10 of 15 with 3 homers and 9 rbi.

  In the game, Moroco also notched his 19th psyche-out of the year to break the single-season record.

 

THE BANANA DEMOCRACY  3

THE LASER CATS                    18 (7 INNINGS)

  Nate Tomko’s 3-run right homer with two down in the bottom of the seventh put the finishing touches on the Cats’ 15 win in a row and ended another one-sided loss for the Democracy, who have fallen from contenders to cellar dwellers in only a few weeks time.

  The Cats oddly did most of their scoring in the early stages of this game, busting form the gate with a 6-run first then a 5-run second to put the game out of reach early.  From there, it was only a matter of time, though a couple of BD solo homers did extend the game an extra inning or so.

  Tomko once again fueled the LC, hitting 8 of 10 shots with 4 homers, 10 rbi and a pair of double plays.  Both Bob Spohn and Terry Shernisky tallied 5 hits, with the former plating 4.  Sherry tipped in 4 double plays.

  Kip Corbett and Ben Smith posted identical 2 for 5, one homerun, 1 rbi, 1 double play lines for the Banana Democracy.

 

THE QUEENS OF THE RSR  33

THE LASER CATS                  28

  The Queens of the Rest Stop Reacharound became the first team in 2008 to defeat the mighty Laser Cats, holding onto a lead they built in the middle innings to snap the Cat’s 15 game win streak.

  The Queens returned the favor to the Cats, who beat them 35-30 in week two at this very venue.  The 30 runs scored by the Queens in that game was tied for the most ever in a loss (PJ&L beat Hot Fuzz 31-30, again at Assbang, last season), and the 28 scored by the Cats in this one is tied for second most in a loss in SBL annals (the Sparkling Wiggles scored 28 in a 13-run loss to KTO last year).

  The contest was everything it had been built up to be, as the teams traded the lead back and forth early before the Queens exploded to the tune of 10 runs in the top of the fifth.  They came right back with 5 in the sixth to expand their lead to 22-9.  From there, the Cats bats caught fire, as they would knock in 14 runs of their own in the seventh and eighth, and when the dust settled the gray and pink had cut the lead to 27- 23.

  The Queens weren’t going to let themselves be caught, however, as they would single and double their way to six more in the visitor half of the ninth to rebuild a 10-run cushion.  Facing a hole in the bottom of the ninth for only the second time all year, the Cats went to work, drilling 6 straight shots to score 5 of their own.  A Billy Deforest shot missed its mark to slow the offense down, then a few batters later Nate Tomko missed a 3-run middle homerun attempt that was put back in by Stud Frankovich for a double play, and just like that the undefeated season was no more.

  Aryn Christman went 16 of 21 from the leadoff spot for the QRR, nailing a homer and driving in 10.  Stud added a 14 for 21, 10 rbi, 4 double play performance.  Bryan Frankovich drove in 13 and tipped in 4 double plays.  (How do you beat the Cats?  Tip in their misses!)

  In a losing effort, Terry Shernisky hit 11 of 13 shots with 6 rbi and 5 double plays.  Bob Spohn and Tomko each connected 9 times, with Tomko stroking 3 homers and driving in 11.

 

THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES  4

VOLTRON                                 19 (8 innings)

  The big V continued to excel without their captain, rattling off their second win of the week, this time in 15-run, mercy-shortened fashion.

  Jamie Fabian posted a near-perfect game for Voltron, hitting on 7 of 8 attempts with a double play and 3 rbi.  Jared Clayton added a 5 for 9, 1 homer, 7 rbi, 2 double play performance, and Val Taylor continued her solid late-season batting with a 6 for 8, 6 rbi game.

  The Funbridges actually held a 4-0 lead heading into the bottom of the second in this one, then missed 16 of their last nineteen shots to close out the game.  Danielle Hennon collected the only three hits in innings three through eight, all singles, and finished with a 6 for 7 game.  Rando Knight drove in 2 and tipped in a trio of double plays.

 

THE BANANA DEMOCRACY  9

JUKEBOX HERO                      10

  The Banana Democracy finally escaped the brutal middle part of their schedule and now has a fairly easy final few weeks, but the first of the shoulda-been-cake games turned out pretty shitty for the blue and gold, as they dropped a one-run heartbreaker to the Heroes for the second conecutive week.

  The game was back and forth the entire way, with neither team ever getting up by more than two at any point.  The Heroes would take the lead for the final time in the bottom of the eight when a Clayton three-bagger drove in two.  From there, the JBH defense would stand tall, with Clayton double playing Brandon Gillshire in the top of the ninth to seal the deal.

  Clayton went 3 for 5 for Jukebox with a homer, five rbi and five double plays.  Danielle Hennon added 4 hits, and Jeanne Mentrek, 3.  Also suiting up for the Heroes were Mike Moroco, Val Taylor, Derek Lockovich and Opie Neff.

  Ben Smith continued his all-star push with a 7 for 12, 5 ribbie, 1 assist show.  Gillshire added 4 hits, 2 rbi and 2 double plays.

 

 

 

Player of the Week:  Mike Moroco

Game of the Week:  Cats Lose!  Cats Lose!

Team of the Week:  Oatcake

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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