HURTIN' UNITS LICK THE RED DOGS...

HURTIN' UNITS vs. RED DOGS...

Game #16 - July 21, 2010

Hurtin' Units win 7-4

Team Record 14-1-1

Keogh Park- The sky was clear and the sun shone into the eyes of most of the players facing to the west. The weather forecast had been calling for thunderstorms again today, but again they didn't come, I'm not complaining, but whenever you play a sport outdoors, the weather forecast is something you watch more closely...


For the second night in a row, we had to call for a sub, it is after all holiday season. We were fortunate to pick up Ed McDowell as a sub. Our thanks go out to Ed for filling in...Missing in this game for the Units were Uncle Tom Perry, Chris Nyers, and Don Curran...

Unlike the game on Tuesday evening, this game was a low scoring affair at least by T.O.T standards. We were the visitors tonight. In the first inning neither team scored, the second inning saw the Units score a single run and held the Red Dogs to nothing. The Units scored 2 more runs in the third, 2 more in the forth and 2 more in the sixth. The Units defense held the Red Dogs of the score sheet for the first five innings and 6 of the 7 innings. The Red Dogs did manage to score 4 runs in the sixth inning, but for the most part we managed to keep them in check for most of the night.


If you recall, the Red Dogs were the team that knocked the Hurtin' Units out of the Help the Kids Play tournament, in the semi finals, by a single run and a score of 17-16 Dogs. The Red Dogs are not lacking in the explosive offense department with the likes of Mike Candy, Matt Forester, Glen Gray or Mike Roche to name a few...With these players they can quickly run up the score board and for the Hurtin' Units to shutout these offensive weapons in 6 of the 7 innings played, speaks volumes to the Units defense.

Boxscore:

                         1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th  7th    Total

Hurtin' Units.   0       1      2       2       0       2      0          7

Red Dogs         0       0      0       0       0       4      0          4      


There were probably more highlights (defensively anyway) in this game then the game on Tuesday night against the Grisslies, at least more then I can remember. There were 4 plays that stood out for me in this game....Al Hayward tagged a ball over the head of Glen Gray into left field for a standup double.... Robin made an outstanding, over the shoulder, in no mans land, catch for a fantastic out.... Matt Forester hit a towering fly ball to Ed Mcdowell, which Ed couldn't quite catch, the ball was relayed to myself and I turned with a throw to home plate to Al Hayward to catch Bill Cloutier running home, for the out. There was also a play in LF/LCF where Jens and Jimmy Mac could not decide who wanted the ball and it skipped between them.....opppsss.

There is one more thing I would like to mention before I put this addition of the blog to rest. Sometimes if we have something good it tends to get overlooked or taken for granted. I would like to tip my cap to our teammate Jerry Wallace. Jerry has been a model of stability for our team this season (except when he doesn't show up for the games). He is (in my opinion) one of the premier pitchers in our league. Game after game, he battles hard against the other team's top hitters, some nights he struggles, on occasion he'll pull himself out. Jerry's defense is very solid, catching line drives and ground balls up the middle, he can bat the ball to all fields, but it's Jerry's acumen of baseball that impresses me the most. You will always see Jerry backing up other players on the field, he is constantly adjusting the other player's positions on the field based on his experience, he is the first to go coach on the bases, and he continously encourages others to play better.

In 2008 I played with Jerry on the Lucky Stiffs championship team, he was always encouraging me to play, bat and field better and I think I'm a better player today because of him... Thanks Jerry! Most of us know Jerry probably won't read this blog... we all know Jerry is not online all that often, probably because the Commodore 64 takes 12 hours to boot up and 11 hours to shut down, that only gives him an hour each day to login, dial up and use the function keys to the internet....LOL.

On Wednesday evening, our defense was in the zone, we stopped a pretty good hitting team for the first 5 innings, not allowing a run and I was really hoping we could pull off a shut out. I have never seen a shut out in this league, it has probably happened, but I think a shut out in a softball league like this, is equivilent to a no hitter in the major leagues. I was hoping we could pull it off, but unfortunately it was not to be. We did get another win and we have been playing some good ball, I look forward to the stretch run of the season...UNITS UNBELIEVABLE!!