UNIT'S BIG GUNS WERE SMOKIN' IN DODGE...

HURTIN' UNITS VS. THE DODGE CITY ROUNDERS...AGAIN.

Stephen King's The Gunslinger.

Game # 7- June 2, 2012

Hurtin' Units win 19-10

Team Record- 2-4-1

Dodge City - Our weekly schedule puts us in Dodge City for a one game road trip to take on the Rounders in a back to back series. Last Thursday night we faced these same Rounders and came away with our first win of the season winning by a score of 16-6. We now head into Dodge City where these Rounders are in their comfort zone; sleepin' in their own beds, relaxin' on their front porches, eatin' grits and just becomin' ornery. This will be a different team come Monday night, same players, but a team with the support of their home town crowd gettin' all up in the faces of da Hurtin' Units...

Last Thursday evening we (the Units) got off to a good start putting up a bunch of early inning runs, something that had been lacking in most of our other games. In almost every other game we have played so far, we have had to battle back in the later innings to keep the games close. In our game against the Rounders, the Hurtin' Units defense really stepped up and shut down the bats of the Rounders. Sure, they got some hits, I gave up some walks, but in most of the tight situations we bared down and stopped the Rounders from having the big inning...I was really surprised when I heard the final, 16-6, we only allowed 6 runs to pretty good offensive team. 

The Gunslinger by David Naman

Since draft day, I have thought we have a solid batting team, and when we had our first practise I realized that I was correct in my assessment, over the last couple of games I've seen our batting climb to a new level, the level I really thought we were capable of...We have become the a new group of Gunslingers... In our last two games  (Dodge City and Brew Jays) we have scored 37 runs, an average of just over 18 runs per game, compared to an average of 10 runs per game over our first 4 games... Our hitting confidence is increasing game by game and our defense is getting more and more comfortable playing together, I also continue to practise pitching and improving in game situations, we're headed in the right direction... 

This second game of a back to back against the Dodge City Rounders will be a true test of what I was just talking about with our hitting and defense...The Rounders are still in second place in the standings with a record of 5-2-0. Dodge City will not back down easily in this game, we will have to be quick on the draw to get out of Dodge with our second win of the season...

Showdown Day:

The weather over the past weekend was not good, it rained off and on all weekend, there were overcast skies and cool temperatures. On game day (Monday June 4th) the overcast skies still lingered and there was a threat of rain, but at game time (7:00pm) the ground was still dry and we would get our game in, a full 7 innings. Overcast skies for a 7:00pm game are actually a welcome site, it saves the right fielder and first and second basemen from looking directly into the sun...  

We had 11 players saddled up and to take on the Dodge City Rounders, Mike was at the game, but he had played a doubleheader on Sunday night and his knee was bothering him again and it was probably for the best to take the night off... 

We started the game off a little bit slow only scoring a single run in the first two innings while the Rounders scored one in the first and two in the second. In the third, our bats came to life and we scored 7 runs capped off with a 3 run homerun by Tumble, our defense held off the Rounders and at the end of 3 innings the score was 8-3 Units.

Dodge City would stop us in the fourth and score a single run, in the fifth both teams scored a single run, in the sixth the Units defense would again shut down the Rounders and the offense hit for another 5 runs, at the end of six innings, Units 14- Rounders 5.

In the top of the seventh (open) inning the Hurtin' Units would score another 5 runs, but the Rounders would not roll over and die, they would fight until the bitter end, scoring 5 runs before the Units final finished them off...  

I would be willing to wager that the Dodge City Rounders are happy to see our trail dust in the distance, as we ride in to the sunset, back toward Tottenham. We played another solid game. Our hitting was working great again and the defense with stellar. In our two games against the Rounders we scored 35 runs, an average of just under 18 runs per game and our defense allowed 16 runs against (5 in the final inning of  the 2nd game), an average of only 8 runs per game. When you can hold your opponents to only 8 runs a game, in the Oldtimers league, you put yourself in good position to win a majority of your games. 

Our game against the Dodgers on Monday was designated the Game of the Week on Doug Dwyer's blog, to view what Doug had to say about the game go to    http://www.tottenhamoldtimers.blogspot.ca/2012/06/game-of-week-week-6.html .

Boxscore:        1    2    3     4     5     6      7       Total 

Dodge City      1    2     0     1    1     0     5         10     

Hurtin' Units    1    0    7     0    1     5     5          19     

QUICK SHOTS:

There were a handful note worthy things that happened in this game, I thought they should be recapped in a bullet form...

• Clayton (a great old west name) when playing second, made a great diving catch going to his left, got up made a strong throw to second base to get the lead runner.

• Al Hayward caught a smokin' line drive down to first base, hit by Beechy, the bees were buzzing in his hand, for a little while, after this shot...

Photo by Samantha Delgreco

• Cam and Jamie both made excellent catches in the outfield, Jamie was captured in a photograph by our friend Sam D.

• Duelling Gords- Both Gords were hitting the ball really well, Gord Robin... hit some long shots, one in to the lawn bowling courts, but they were just foul, the homerun ball is getting closer...These Gords were really steady on defense also.

• Rob (Tumble) R. hit a three run homerun in to the tennis courts, the first homerun for the 2012 Hurtin' Units...That ball is probably worth a lot on ebay now...

•  Jamie was told what his stats were just before his first at bat, he went 2 for 4 on the night with 2 foul out strike outs, hence the nickname JUGS... Jamie's wife receives equal payment from him, what ever he spends in jugs of beer, she receives in cash. Jamie doesn't want to know his statistics, it costs too much...

Photo by Samantha Delgreco

• Pitch Watch- we had a nice little run going until the seventh inning, we had only given up 5 runs until the seventh, where we gave up an additional 5 runs... I had a couple of walks in this game, I walked Beechy again in this game, I don't walk him on purpose, but I do try to pitch him up and inside, missing the board more than hitting it...

• Mike was missing again in this game- I can sense the frustration from not playing, maybe we could play him the minimum number of innings and he can bat the entire game... Just a thought.

• Cam retrieved a base hit to center field, a Rounder runner had stopped at second, a runner was going home, Cam threw a ball that looked like it was going to home plate, the runner at second thought it was going home and started for third, I cut the ball off at pitcher, I threw back to second base (Clayton, I think) tagged the runner for the out...

• A similar play happened when I was at second, the second baseman faked a throw to home, I broke for third, and was tagged out trying to get back to second base, missing the bag completely by 4 inches... Gord (SS) called it the Karma play.





Photo by Samantha Delgreco

• I also struck out a Dodge City batter, delicious beer for Dodge City team, compliments of Jimmer.

• Chris Nyers was the umpire of record for this game... Chris is a Hurtin' Units alumni, although he didn't seem to help with the number of outs per inning in this game, kept us guessing all night long... Good game Chris.

LAB -JIMMER