THE MUDDY CLEATS...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE DUSTY CLEATS II.

" It's deja vu all over again " - Yogi Berra



Rain soaked HTKP Tourney.

Game #  18 - July 30, 2013 
(makeup game from July 8)

 Hurtin' Units lose 13-12

 Team Record- 9-8-0

Keogh Park - This season really is cruising along, we are at 18 games and counting. On May 16th, game # 3, we played this Dusty Cleat team and came away with a 20-4 win. The win gave the Units a 2-1-0 record at the time and it put us above .500 for only the second time this season. We also played the Dusty Cleats in the HTKP tournament and lost by a score of 8-3 in a rain soaked semi-final game. The Dusty Cleats would go on to the finals, only to lose to the Rusty Rebels.

We were scheduled to play the Dusty Cleats the next night (July 8), but as luck would have it the rain was still hanging around the Tottenham area and at 7:00pm on Monday night there were thunderstorms, heavy rain and windy conditions. These were not conditions we were going to play in and the full slate of games, scheduled for the night, were canceled. This was also the night we had a wing night at the legion.



No Makeup required here.

So that brings us to this point, which is another makeup game. This game is our second makeup game on the season, the first was against the Rusty Rebels, and we have one more in late August  vs. the Gruesome Devils. The Devils makeup is for the missed game last week, when we canceled for lack of players. 
The weather was definitely finer on this night than last. The playing surface was dry, the temperature hovered around 21 degrees and there was no wind at our 9:30pm start time. A perfect night for baseball. After the game, we were in the parking lot having a few sodas and the sky was clear, the stars were amazing in sky, there were even some shooting stars.

We have included a video in the blog for quite some time, I think we're due.

Speaking of stars, at game time we had 7 Hurtin' Unit players suited up and ready to take on the mighty Cleats. Ricky L. was back in the lineup...Hooray! Missing from the Units lineup in this game were: Ricky Bobby, Jamie, Brian, Richard and Vince.

Mikey will still be giving advice and batting tips.

I used the Yogi Berra quote " It's deja vu all over again " at the top of this posting, not because this game is similar to any other game, but because for the second year in a row Mike has gone down with a season ending injury.

As most of the Hurtin' Unit players know, Mike has been injured (knee) since our game against the Rusty Rebels. Since the injury took place the Units have been without Mike's services and recently he tried the injections of goo in to the knees, which seemed to help enough to allow him to play both games this week.

Last week Mike went for a MRI on the injured knee and today was told the results of the MRI. The results were not good; Mike has a torn meniscus in his right knee that will require surgery and will end his baseball season. We have informed the T.O.T executive of the injury and have requested a replacement player. This is almost a carbon copy of last season for Mike.



Dusty Cleats batting coach.

The Units were the visitors in the this game. Darrell was the pitcher in this game. In our first at bat, it was looking like it might be one of those quick games. Speaking of quick games, the game before ours tonight was a final score of 3-1 and played in 49 minutes. A hockey score in a slo-pitch game.

It looked like our game might be the same with our first at bat. In the first inning we were 3 up, 3 out to start. The Cleats got to us early, scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 1st. In the top of the second inning, the Units bats came to life and put up a 6 run inning, stranding the 7th at second base sending 10 batters to the plate.

Ricky returns to the lineup.

The Units shut the door in the bottom of the inning allowing 0 runs. The Units were shut down quickly in the top of the third inning, 4 batters and 3 outs. The pattern continued in the bottom of the third, the Cleats would score 5 runs. The score after 3 innings of play, Cleats 9, Units 6.

I say the pattern continued because every other inning one of the teams had a 0 run inning. The forth inning was the Units turn to score, we would put up 3 runs to tie the game. The Cleats would be shut out in the bottom of the inning. Over the next 2 innings each team would score once and at the end of six innings the score was tied at 10-10. 

In the top of the 7th inning the Units would score 2 runs to break the pattern and take a lead. But a 2 run lead would not be enough to hold on for the victory; the Cleats would score 3 runs in a very intense bottom of the inning. The Units would go on to lose their 6th one run loss of the season.