MASTERS TAP ON THE HURTIN' UNITS.

HURTIN' UNITS VS. TAP MASTERS.

Game # 11 - July 4, 2012

(make up game for light night)

Hurtin' Units lose 20-9

Team Record  3-7-1

Keogh Park- In week 10 and 11 we are on the road for a 4 game road trip. We visit the Tap Masters on Wednesday evening and then we take on the #1 team in the league, the Dislocated Joints, on Thursday evening. Next  week we head to the Dogcatcher's home park and then we finish off the trip in Lucky Stiff's park before heading home for a tango with the Grisslies.

Well let's try this game again, the first time we tried to play this game the game was postponed because the lights would not come on. We had played 3 complete innings before the umpire and captains deemed it unsafe to continue the game. The game score at the end of 3 innings was 9-5 for the Hurtin' Units, but the game and score don't really matter, for the game was unofficial and it was rescheduled for the 4th of July...
The Tappers currently sit in 6th place in the standings with a record of 6-5-1 and 13 points. The thing that really gets me, when I look at the standings, is the Tap Masters have one less loss than the Hurtin' Units and are 8 spots higher in the standings and the Brew Jays are in second place and only have two less losses. In years past, I rarely looked at the standings so closely, I don't really know why I have watched this season with such interest. Maybe it's time to forget about the standings and let the chips fall where they may.

Last night the at Coventry (July 3), six teams played and with the results of those game, there are now 5 teams with more losses than the Hurtin' Units. Amongst the teams that lost last night were the Dislocated Joints, losing for only the second time this season. We play the Joints on Thursday evening, they might be in a little bit of a bad mood.

There are still 6 teams, in the standings, in the single digits in points. Our games in hand really make it look like the Unit's team is struggling big time, but really if we were to win the two games in hand we would be well on our way to the middle of the pack... having mentioned the parity on several occasions, this really is a wide out season, no real dominate team and a chance for every team in the playoffs.

 The weather for this late night game was still hot, we had daytime temperatures of about 30 and with the humidity it felt like 38 degrees. There had been a threat of thunderstorms earlier in the day, but by game time they had disappeared and the temperature had dropped to a comfortable 25 degrees.

At game time we had 11 players suited up, Al H. was the only guy missing. We were the visitors in this game.

This game was one of those ones you'd like to forget as quickly as possible; I struggled pitching, our bats struggled right from the start and our defense had a rough time on the field. Add all these things together and it was a recipe for an ugly game with a capital "U". The nice thing is we get right back on the horse tonight and we get a shot at the Dislocated Joints. All teams seem to want to beat the top teams don't they?

I remember last season against the smokin', red hot Dusty Cleats, the Hurtin' Units lost by a single run in our first meeting and we handed the Cleats their first loss of the season in our second meeting. We seem to play our best when facing the tough teams.

This league, with it's blind draft every season, can be frustrating at times, last season the Dusty Cleats only lost 3 games all season (including playoffs) and this season they already sit with 8 losses and in 15th place...It can turn around quickly, in a single year, sometimes in a team's favor and sometimes it can just be UGLY...or even creepy.

Boxscore:          1      2      3     4    5    6     7       Total 


Hurtin' Units       0      1      0     4     1    0    3           9    


Tap Masters       7      5      2     3     3    0    X          20   

I called this game ugly and it was! I struggled to throw strikes, our bats were better off left in the car and the defense had a rough night... I mentioned during the game that maybe we were looking ahead to the Dislocated game, I'm  not sure what happened, but in wasn't pretty. In the first inning of this game we really set the tone, we sent 4 batters to the plate and it was on to the bottom of the inning... The first inning really set the tone for the Tap Masters also, but in the opposite way. The Masters nickeled and dimed us with hits in the first inning, I walked a batter, we only had a single out and then there was a towering homerun by supersub Steve L (Lucky Stiffs) in to the tennis courts... At the end of one inning the score was 7-0 Tappers.

In the second inning, the Units bats sputtered along again sending 5 batters to the plate and scoring a single run...In the bottom of the inning, I struggled to throw strikes and walked 3 batters, all 3 came around to score, the Masters scored another 5 runs. The score was 12-1.

In the third inning, the Units batting woes continued, we sent 4 batters to the plate and we were shut out again. In the bottom of the inning, we started to slow the bats of the Tappers down a little allowing only 2 runs to score... 14-1 Tap Masters... This was certainly a different game from the one we started 8 days ago, where after 3 innings of play back then, it was 9-5 Hurtin' Units... Damn Lights!!!

In the fourth inning, we actually won the inning scoring 4 runs to the Tap Masters 3 runs. The fifth inning saw the Tap Masters score another 3 runs and the Units score a single. In the sixth inning, the Units managed to get the bases loaded, but couldn't bring anyone home. The bottom of the inning saw Dave Kidd come in to pitch and did a great job allowing no runs to score. The score at the end of six innings was 20-6 for the Masters. The Hurtin' Units would continue to fight until the end, scoring 3 more runs in the top of the seventh inning... The final score 20-9 for the Tap Masters.