SBL 2008, WEEK 9
JUNE 20
WORLD B. FREE MEMORIAL PARK
JUKEBOX HERO 6
OATCAKE HATE MONSTERS 7
Needing a win to keep their narrow regular season championship hopes alive, the hate monsters faced a tough bunch of jukebox hero legends including former player of the year Jon Olsavsky, former player of the year finalist Justin “fred” Shaffer, and freakish double play specialist Jon Biddle. But, as they have all season, the tough Oatcake squad persevered, grinding out a tough win to keep the dream alive.
The monsters, sans Katie Kelly, got off to their normal fast start, plating four runs in the bottom of the first to take an early lead. They expanded the lead to 7-0 in the bottom of the second thanks to a Terry Hall 2-run bomb, and that would turn out to be all the runs they would need, which was fortunate because they would collect only four hits the remainder of the contest.
Jukebox would go hitless into the fourth when Gavin St. John and Jon Biddle would each stroke extra base hits to get the first run on the board, then Olsavsky would plate Bidd with a single one batter later. The offense would continue into the next stanza, as Olsavsky would drain his 99th career homer to close the gap to 7-4.
The final runs of the game would come on another Olsavsky homerun, number 100 for his storied career, which was assisted home by Biddle in the seventh. In spit of getting two men on in the 8th, JBH would fail to score again, and in doing so fail to lock up a postseason berth for the first time in 2 seasons.
Matt Mcclelland would nail 7 of 10 for the winners with 3 rbi and a pair of double plays.
Jon Biddle hit on 5 of 7 attempts for the heroes with 2 rbi and an assist. In his first game back in the league after 2 years, Shaffer would go a disappointing 0 for 7. But everyone still loved him.
KYOTO KAMIKAZEES 7
THE LASER CATS 14
Failing to lock up the regular season championship via a hate monster loss in the first game of the week, the 15-1 laser cats went about earning the bye to the finals themselv es in the second contest. And they would do just that, riding the stellar shooting and inside play of Jon Biddle to a victory to complete a 3-0 series sweep of the KK and earn the 8th SBL regular season title.
Biddle would go 7 of 10 with 3 rbi for the Cats, but his strongest performance came from under the hoop, where he personally assisted three of Nate Tomko’s shots, including two in the big 7-run fifth inning that turned a 5-3 contest into a 12-3 blowout. Tomko would finish with 7 of 10 marksmanship with 2 homers and 5 rbi, 3 psyche-outs and a double play.
As usual, the LC would get a hefty dose of offense from player of the year contender Terry Shernisky, who turned in a 5 for 10, 1 homer, 5 rbi performance with 3 double plays. Bob Spohn would drill 4 of 8 from the leadoff hole.
Chris Pacsi returned to the SBL with a 3 for 8, 3 homerun, 5 rbi, 2 double play showing. Mike Moroco dropped through half of his 8 shots.
QUEENS OF THE REST STOP REACHAROUND 15
THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES 12
The Queens got an unexpectedly tough game from the lowely Funbridges, but were ultimately able to overcome the challenge and lock up a first-round playoff bye with the win.
The game was back and forth the whole way, with the lead changing hands 3 times throughout the contest. After 8 full innings of play, the score stood at 12-12, but the firepower of the QRR would be too much in the final inning.
Leading off the top of the 9th, Queen John Davidson would drill a single. Aryn Christman would follow suit, then Bryan Frankovich would break the tie with a double. Following a JD miss, Christman would nail a double of her own to plate two more to give us the final Queen total.
The bottom half of the ninth would start promisingly for the FF as Olsavsky and Hennon would each reach base. However, the Funbridges would fail to get either home as the next three batters missed in succession to end the rally and the game.
Christman went 11 for 15 for the winners with 6 rbi and an assit. Davidson would add 8 hits, while Frankovich would notch 2 homers and 7 ribbies to go along with his trio of double plays.
Hennon had a team high 7 hits for the Funbridges. Opie Neff hit 4 homers and drove in 7, while Olsavsky hit three longballs and brought home 5. Olsavsky also tipped in 3 double plays.
THE BANANA DEMOCRACY
DEFEATS
VOLTRON
BY FORFEIT
BUT….
VOLTRON 5
THE BANANA DEMOCRACY 4
Only young Gavin St. John was in attendance for Voltron in week 9, and as a result the once powerful squad was forced to forfeit their first game of the day to the Democracy. As usual, we commenced with the festivities anyway, allowing St. John to pick up a few friends to help him out.
Joining GSJ were Greg Lackey and Jeanne Mentrek of the Kamikazees, as well as Terry Hall of Oatcake. Though you wouldn’t know he had any help, as St. John drove in all four of his teams runs, all on homers, en route to the 5-4 victory.
The Democracy got all four of their runs in the second inning, as Fred Shaffer and Kip Corbett each drove in a pair. The BD would tally only 4 hits in the other 8 innings of the game.
The two teams combined for 12 dumb things.
OATCAKE HATE MONSTERS 5
THE LASER CATS 20 (7 INNINGS)
The Laser Cats completed the series sweep of their rivals the Hate Monsters with a 15-run beatdown to improve their record to 17-1 on the season, with the last two victories over the league’s second best squad being of the mercy-shortened variety.
Terry Shernisky’s 2-run jack in the home half of the seventh capped a 5-run inning for the Cats and gave his squad the last few runs they would need to halt the game. The homer capped Sherry’s 8 for 11, 2 homer, 7 rbi, 2 double play performance.
It was all Cats early and often, as they bucked their trend of staring slow with 9 runs over the first two innings. From there, it was only a matter of time as the smothering defense of Terry Sherry and Biddle would put back every miss for a double play.
Biddle finished with a 5 for 8, 5 rbi, 4 double play, 1 psyche out line. Bob Spohn would also drive in 5, while Billy Deforest continued his push for ROTY with a 6 for 10, 3 rbi game.
Shelley Goodpastor dropped in 6 of 10 to pace the losers.
THE BANANA DEMOCRACY 11
THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES 9
The Banana Democracy dropped the Fleshy Funbridges to their seventh straight loss with a hard-fought 2-run win without star Ben Smith. The win keeps the BD’s hope of a playoff fourth seed alive, and the loss prevents the Funbridges from inching closer to the final playoff spot.
The Funbridges, with captain Rando Knight back in the saddle, struck first in the home half of inning one, with Knight himself unloading the bases with a 3-run homer. The Democracy would storm right back in the next half-inning, with John Offutt, Fred Shaffer and Kip Corbett going back to back to back from the double stripe to make it 3-2.
The Funbridges would use the next few innings to rebuild their lead, taking a 5-2 cushion into the 6th, when the Banana offense would spark to life. In spite of of Jon Olsavsky double play to start the inning, the BD would rattle off 6 consecutive hits, one of which was assisted by Fred Shaffer, to put five runs on the table and give team Kippy it’s first lead of the game. From there, the game would pretty much remain at a standstill until the ninth, when the Democracy would plate three more to take a comfortable 11-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth.
As they did before, the Funbridges would go about cutting into a lead in the last half of the ninth. This time, though, they actually managed to score, as Olsavsky and Opie Neff would drain homers to make the final score a little tighter before finally succumbing.
Danielle Hennon collected 7 hits for the losing FF. Neff drilled half of 10 shots with 4 rbi and s pair of double plays.
For the Democracy, 2-0 on the afternoon, John Offutt hit in 7 of 12 at-bats with a homerun and 5 rbi. Kip Corbett added 5 hits, 4 rbi and a trio of double plays.
QUEENS OF THE REST STOP REACHAROUND 8
JUKEBOX HERO 24 (7 INNINGS)
Terry Shernisky tipped in fellow Laser Cat Billy Deforest’s triple grand slam attempt in the bottom of the seventh to instantly turn a tight 12-8 game into a 24-8 final score and lock up Jukebox Heroes first playoff berth since the 2005 campaign.
With Bryan Frankovich in the penalty box for refusing to stop banking in shots (we all know he had plenty of warning), the Cats immediately took the lead in the 6th. A Deforest homer would make it 12, then after a scoreless Queen seventh, Rando Knight would stroke a Jukebox double, only to be plated by a Shernisky double one batter later. With Sherry inside against an overmatched Aryn Christman/John Davidson duo, Deforest opted for the triple grand slam stripe roughly 500 yards away. The ball caromed off the rim and into the waiting fingers of Shernisky, who collected, then tipped in the 12-runner to end the contest as B.Frank wept from the penalty box.
Deforest finshed with 4 for 6 marksmanship with 2 homers and 15 rbi to lead the Heroes. Matt Mcclelland added 3 hits, while Shernisky hit 4 of 6 with 4 double plays and one gigantic assist. Also suiting up for JBH were Rando Knight, Fred Shaffer and Brittany Zoccole.
For the Queens, Davidson and Christman posted identical 6 for 11, 2 rbi lines.
KYOTO KAMIKAZEES 11
VOLTRON 6
Though Voltron was once again only able to produce Gavin St. John for a game, the SBL once again let the defending rookie of the year pick up some pals. But seeing as Voltron lost anyway, we’ll just let this one stand in the record books.
Mike Moroco led off the game with a grand salami to give his squad a lead they would never relinquish, and would post a team best line of 6 for 10 with 6 rbi as well as a pair of psyche-outs and a double play. Aiding the KK win were PJ O’Conner with a 3 homer, 5 rbi performance that included 5 double plays.
Voltron consisted of GSJ, Bryan Frankovich (who once again spent most of the game in the penalty box), Kip Corbett, Bob Spohn, and John Davidson. Once again, Gavin was pretty much the only one to do anything, hitting 3 homers and driving in 4.
The win knotted up the Kamikazees with a Funbirdges at 4-14 and tied for the final playoff spot heading into the final week. The loss drops the once 4-0 Voltron to 9-9 and dangerously close to losing their once firm grip on the 4th seed in the playoffs. The return of Billy Weisberg next week should help.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: JON BIDDLE, LASER CATS
TEAM OF THE WEEK: JUKEBOX HERO
GAME OF THE WEEK: DEMOCRACY-FUNBRIDGES