| sbl 2004, week 5 sunday, june 27 world b. free memorial park JUKEBOX HERO 7 THE SHORT BUS ALL STARS 8 short bus, on a horrible skid which invloved dropping all 3 one week prior and 5 of their last 6 looked to tight the ship against a young and untested jukebox hero squad comprised of double bluffs paul radkowski and ben smith, jeremy battyani of hoosier daddy, and pj & the ladies own brendan radcliffe. the veteran-laden all-stars dropped 4 on the heroes in the bottom of the first highlighted by a bill weisberg assist on a missed teddy ballgame single. jukebox was able to claw back and tie the game at 4 after 3 thanks to the stellar hitting of radkowski, but the all-stars answered right back with one run to take the lead back, then a three-run 5th to go up by 4. the rookie heroes wouldn't go away, and ben smith hit a solo homer in the top of the 6th to restart the offense. two more runs came in the top of the 8th, and after a radkowski double play held short bus scoreless in the home half of the stanza, the heroes found themselves down by one heading into the ninth. lee nespor, after playing two innings for jukebox earlier in the game, stepped up with a gigantic psyche-out on radcliffe which weisberg double played to stifle any early rallies. a battyani miss one shot later sealed the game for short bus. ted gilliland led his team offensively with a 4 for 8, 3 rbi line. weisberg added a trifecta of double plays while driving in 2, and chris mclaughlin tipped in 2 d.p.'s. for jukebox, radkowski finished with a 7 for 8, 3 rbi day while smith drove in 4. XDEATHX/WSAC 7 THE SERBIAN JEW DOUBLE BLUFFS 14 after winning thier 9th consecutive scrum of the year to claim home team rights, the bluffs quickly found themselves in a hole. the normally quiet offense of xdeathx came alive early as paul corbett hit two triples in the first, scoring and driving in a run for a quick 2-0 lead. meanwhile, the normally explosive double bluff team found itself unable to find their game and failed to score in each of the first two innings. four consecutive extra-base hits by rookie of the year candidates dank elly and billy picciotto, captain jon biddle and corbett extended the lead to 5-0 into the bottom of 3, when the purple-clad bluffs finally woke up. doubles by matt mcclelland, ben smith and shelly goodpastor chiseled away at the lead, and the x found it's lead at 2 after 3. after failing to score in the 4th, a theme which would continue into the 5th, 6th and 7th, x looked to it's tremendous defense to keep the lead. the bluffs gave them little chance over the next few innings, making 15 shots while missing only 6, none of which went for double plays. by the time mcclelland and smith had hit back to back homers with 2 gone in the 6th inning, the bluffs had come from 5 down to a 14-5 lead. picciotto hit a solo homers with no outs in the 8th and 9th, but that was the last of the scoring and the bluffs found themselves with another huge win over xdeathx, who had dropped 4 in a row to fall below .500. smith collected 6 rbi on 5 of 9 shotting to pace the bluffs. mcclelland also hit 5 of 9, driving in 4. for the losers, jon biddle was held to a single double play while corbett collected 3. corbett and billy picciotto each nailed 5 hits and drove in 2. HOOSIER DADDY 16 TEAM DONKEY PUNCH 23 playing without co-captain bryan frankovich, hoosier daddy came out swinging, crossing the plate 4 times in the top of the first, then holding donkey punch scoreless in the bottom of the inning thanks to dennis lackey's psyche-out/double play combo. a lackey solo shot in the 2nd followed by a 5 run 3rd in which mikey moroco banged a two-run job gave the litte guys an 8-2 lead over jared clayton's squad. then, for some reason, they forgot to box people out. with both moroco and lackey attempting psyche-outs on every hitter, poor jeremy battyani found himself alone down low battling with jared clayton and kurt rodemoyer, both of whom are approximately twice his size. the results: 4 donkey punch assists over the next three innings, allowing an 8-2 hoosier daddy lead to become a 23-14 defecit. where the hell is tark? his teams poor decision making nonwithstanding, lackey turned in an sbl record-setting performance with 6 psyche-outs. both he and moroco hit 9 of 15 shots. lackey drove in 8, moroco 5. rodemoyer finoshed with 12 hits in 16 at-bats with 8 rbi and an assist. clayton drove in 7 and had 3 each in the double play and assist columns. jamie moroco garnered 9 hits and 8 runs batted in. TEAM DONKEY PUNCH 13 XDEATHX/WSAC 14 (10 INNINGS) after giving up one in the top of the first, xdeathx came back with 2 in the bottom for the early lead. but alas, as they've done so many times before, their bats gave out on them resulting in a long scoreless drought during which donkey punch took a 6-2 lead. this game was unlike any previous, however, as xdeathx was able to get themselves back into a game from a handful of runs behind. when billy picciotto entered in the 5th inning, his team quickly closed the gap to 6-4 with his two-ruin triple. a jon biddle double play highlighted a 2-up, 2-down donkey punch 6th that got them right back to the plate. corbett drilled a 2-run homer moments after picciotto's run-scoring single in the 6thh and regained the lead by a 7-6 count. wsac poured it on in the 7th, crossing then plate 4 times and seemingly putting the game out of reach. even the great d of x couldn't prevent donkey punch from scoring when they had to, and clayton nailed a two-run jack in the top of the 8th to close the gap to 12-9. then, in the top of the ninth, d.p.'s bats once gain came alive and 4 straght hits had tied the game before the rally fizzled out. in the bottom of the ninth, a leadoff single by dank elly put x in a good position to win the game, but picciotto was off in an unneeded homer attempt, stifling any chance of them ending it in regulation. into extra innings they went, with donkey punch continuing to score, crossing twice to take a 13-11 lead which would presumably be enough against the low-scoring charges of jon biddle. this time, however, this was not the case. perhaps xdeathx needed this win a little to bad, not wanting to fall two games below .500. a billy picciotto homer drove in dank to tie the game with no outs, and then jon biddle (of all people) hit a huge double. clayton tipped in a double play to set up some late-game heroics, and then rookie phenom dank stepped up and rattled in a double to drive in the winning run. picciotto ended the game with 5 rbi on 6 of 7 shooting. jon biddle tipped in 4 double plays. for donkey punch (7-3), kurt rodemoyer went 10 for 15 with 6 runs batted in. clayton drove in 5 with an assist and 7 double plays. PJ & THE LADIES 0 THE SERBIAN JEW DOUBLE BLUFFS 12 with talks of nate tomko going to the ladies hanging over world b. free memorial park, the two hottest clubs in the sbl clashed as the 8-1 double bluffs, riding a seven game streak took on pj & the ladies, winners of 3 in a row. tomko proved his allegiance early and often, torching the ladies as he's done so many times in the past to the tune of 2 homers and 6 runs batted in on 4 of 6 marksmanship with an assist and a pair of double plays in 5 innings of work. when tomko left, the game already stood at 10-0. this was not a one-man show, however, and the bluffs also got 5 of 6 shooting from shelly goodpastor and matt mcclelland, the latter driving in 3 with 2 double plays. in a game that was close until the second shot, the ladies got 2 hits and 3 double plays from rando knight. no more needs to be said of this shellacking. CONTINUE |