sbl 2008, week
1
may 18th
Ass Clown Outdoor Arena
THE LASER CATS
21
Sparked by player of the year favorites nate tomko on the offensive side
of the ball and terry shernisky on defense, the laser
cats easily knocked off interconference rivals the kyoto kamikazees to kick of the
2008 shenangahela baseketball season.
After lenny crist put up the ceremonial first shot of the season, a
grand slam that sailed over the garage, mikey morocco
and terry shernisky got down to settling an old score
in the first scrum of the season. Somewhat
surprisingly, moroco emerged victorious and opted for
first at-bats of 2008.
The kamikaze got off to an early lead thanks
to a crist 2-run double with one gone in the top of
the inning, then got a big double play from rookie chris
pacsi to strand tomko on
third in the bottom of the frame and keep the potent cat offense off the
board. It wouldn’t be for long, however,
as the cats would begin clicking in the bottom of the second, getting back to
back homers from tomko and shernisky
en route to a 6-2 lead they would never relinquish. From that point on, tomko
began to rain 2-run homers, and shernisky anchored a
defense that would turn a double play in every inning from the second on.
Tomko finished with a monster 9 for 11, 7
homer, 13 rbi, 3 double play
line. Shernisky
would finish with a quartet of double plays and 4 for 10
marksmanship. Second year player
bob spohn hit on 6 of his 10 attempts from the fourth
spot.
Pacsi’s 7 for 13, 3
homer, 7 rbi, 3 double play
outing was tops for his team, while captain morocco would go 8 for 14 with a
pair of homers and 4 driven in.
THE BANANA DEMOCRACY 5
THE
After the offensive fireworks of the first
contest of the day, the fans of the sbl were treated
to another type of game in the second- a snoozer. While the
national conference favorite queens were able to squeak out a win, captain
The first inning was big for the queens, as
they collected four consecutive 2-out base hits to tally a total of 4 runs in
the stanza. Two more would come in the
bottom of the second, as Frankovich and Christman would take turns driving one and other in.
For kip corbett’s
banana democracy, the offense just couldn’t get on track. They would not score more than one run in an
inning at all the entire game, and collected only three hits from beyond the
double line, a pair of triples from rookie chuck muszik
and an rbi 3-bagger from ben smith.
Frankovich paced
his squad with a 5 for 9, 1 homer, 3 rbi
game with 4 double plays. Christman plated a pair on 4 for 9 shooting.
The banana democracy got a 4 for 8, 2 rbi performance from ben smith and a 3 of 8, 2 rbi
game from muszik.
JUKEBOX HERO 12
THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES 5
As expected, the season started catastrophically for
captain big rando knight and the fleshy funbridges, as they took a beating at the hands of
perennial last-place finishers jukebox hero.
Playing without any of his three predraft acquisitions, rando was
forced to rely on a rookie-laden squad that was certainly outmatched by the
yellow mesh, which was evident by the final score.
Suiting up for jukebox were former captains lenny crist
and dennis lackey, as well as louis
shernisky and rookies billy
deforest and
The game was fairly tight heading into the middle
innings, with each team doubling themselves to a pair of runs before lenny crist
led off the top of the fourth with a grand slam that broke the game open. From there, jukebox continued to add to their
lead, with a shernisky tip in of a crist homerun putting the finishing touches on a dominant
performance.
Crist finished with
a 3 for 10, 2 homer, 7 rbi, 1 psyche out showing,
while dlackey hit on 6 of 9 shots with a homer and 2 ribbies.
Danielle hennon hit
on 7 of 8 shots, all singles, in a losing effort. Opie neff added 5 hits and 4 rbi.
THE OATCAKE HATE MONSTER 20
THE
In one of the more highly anticipated games
of the afternoon, terry hall and the hate monsters got an early jump on fellow
championship hopefuls the queens with a big 6-run victory. Playing without matt mcclelland,
oatcake got a huge boost when shelley goodpastor made her triumphant return to the SBL, and
though it took her a few shots (and one airball) to
get back into rythym, she eventually regained her
hall of fame skills that have earned her numerous batting titles and all-star
appearances over the years.
After falling into an early hole as goodpastor tried to find her stroke and terry hall bricked
every shot he took, things finally began clicking for the OHM in the top of the
fifth when they exploded for 6 runs. They
would then tally 5 more in the 6th, 3 in the 7th, and
build a healthy 19-14 cushion heading into the final innings, where in spite of
playmaker hall sitting on the pine, the defense held off any threat from the
queens.
Katie Kelly hit on 12 of 16 shots with 8 rbi, and seemed pretty happy to
once again be shooting nothing outside the double line. Goodpastor collected
9 hits and 6 rbi, while pat nespor came of the bench for a 5 for 10, 4 ribbie game.
Bryan Frankovich,
who I should note got beaten by a team without a single homerun and only 1
double play, hit 0n 10 of 13 with 4 rbi and 7 double
plays. John Davidson went 7 for 12 with
a trio of ribbies from the 4-hole.
THE BANANA DEMOCRACY 7
VOLTRON 12
The banana democracy continued to stuggle offensively in their second outing of the day, and voltron took advantage, using big early innings to build a
lead the democracy wouldn’t be able to overcome.
Billy Weisberg’s voltron
team looked good right out of the gate, scoring four times in the first thanks
in large part to gavin st.
john’s 3-run base clearer, then got 5 in the second as Weisberg himself nailed
a pair of rbi triples. Voltron would add
another in the third, then go hitless over the next
four innings before a
In what could be viewed as a good sign for
the democracy, they actually did get a rally going in this contest, getting 5
of their 7 total runs in the fourth, all without the aid of a homerun. However, the bad news is that was about all
the offense the blue and gold would see all day, and another pretty solid
defensive showing would be rendered meaningless.
2007 rookie of the year winner st. john looked to keep it going in ’08, kicking off his
season with a 6 for 9, 2 homer, 7 rbi, 4 double play
showing to lead the victors. Derek lockovich would nail 6 of 9 shots with a trio of ribbies.
Chuck muszik
continued to be the lone bright spot for the losers, hitting 5 of 8 with 2 rbi and 2 double plays.
THE LASER CATS 14
THE FLESHY FUNBRIDGES 9 (10 innings)
While he didn’t emerge with the win, rando knight has to be happy with his scrappy young teams performance in this one, taking one of the elite teams
in the league into extra innings before succumbing to superior firepower.
With nate tomko struggling at the plate, terry shernisky
more than picked up the slack, going 10 for 11 with 5 solo homers and 8 rbi to pretty much single handidly
keep his team in the contest until his other three teammates pulled their heads
from their asses in the extra frame.
After the game got knotted at 9 in the bottom
of the 9th on big rando knights
2-out solo homer, the laser cats awoke from their slumber and got to work. Shernisky led off
he inning with a double, and was driven home by tim martin one batter later. Bob spohn then
followed suit, putting him in perfect position to tip in tomko’s
homer on the very next shot, giving the cats a 9-13 lead. Shernisky would add
a solo homer to give us the final run of the game, and martin would tip in a
big double play on a Danielle hennon miss to lead off
the tenth and all but seal the win for the laser cats (2-0).
Knight went 5 of 9 with 2 rbi for the losers, and opie
neff nailed a pair of homers, drove in 6 and tipped
in a trio of double plays.
Tomko finished the game with 5 hits and 4 rbi, as well as a pair of
psyche-outs for the winners.
VOLTRON 13
THE
Trailing to virtually the entire game, voltron caught fire at just the right time, hitting seven
consecutive shots in the top of the ninth inning en route to 5-runs to knot the
game and force extra innings. From there,
it was all voltron, as they would tally 3 more in the
top of the tenth then hold the kamikazees
hitless in their last at-bats to pull off the improbable come from behind win.
From the outset of the contest, it looked to
be all kamikazees.
Chris Pacsi’s 2-run homer would kick the
scoring off in the first, then he and mike moroco would
each hit longballs over the next few innings to build
a seemingly insurmountable 9-1 lead heading into the 5th, and Kyoto seemed
to put it on cruise control thinking they had the game wrapped up. And rightfully so given the way voltron was playing, having collected only two total shots
up to that point.
But slowly, voltron
would get themselves back into the game, cutting the
lead to 10-4 in the seventh on a st. john solo jack to
set up the huge ninth, and eventually 10th.
Derek lockovich
continued his solid early season, hitting on 7 of 13 shots from the leadoff
hole, plating 4 runs and tipping in a monster assists in the 9th to
keep the rally going.
Mike moroco drilled
half of his 14 shots with 3 batted in and a psyche out. Pacsi hit a pair of
homers and drove in 4, tipping in 4 double plays on the defensive side of the
ball.
JUKEBOX HERO 2
THE OATCAKE HATE MONSTERS 17 (6 innings)
Following two straight extra inning games,
the SBL got it’s first mercy-rule shortened contest of
the young season, as the oatcake hate monsters and their prolific offense
capitalized on a rookie filled jukebox team.
Jukebox was coming off a win in its first outing of the day, but couldn’t
make it two because, alas, oatcake is not the fleshy funbridges.
Suiting up in yellow mesh for this one were Derek
lockovich, aryn christman, and a trio of rookies in opie
neff, tara shawley, and tori jofery, who was seeing her first-ever sbl
action. Welcome to the league.
The superhot, supergood leadoff duo of Katie Kelly and shelley goodpastor
once again provided all the offense the monsters would need, going 8 of 11 and
7 of 11, respectively while all of jukebox would tally only 5 hits.
Pat nespor, in his
first start of the year, went 6 of 10 with 6 rbi and a homer.
Goodpastor drove in 8 runs, Kelly, 3.
Christman went 2
for 4 with an rbi for
jukebox hero.