Speak of the Devil, the Devil Appears.

Game # 16 - July 25th, 2023

Hurtin' Units vs. The Tap Masters

Hurtin' Units lose 17-3

Team Record- 2-13-1

COVENTRY PARK - The weather for this game was comfortable, the temperature was in the mid-20s, and there was a strong breeze rustling the leaves on the trees at C #1 at 8:15 game. There was a sky full of clouds and earlier in the day there was a threat of thunderstorms. The games on Monday were cancelled due to rain and standing water on the fields. We were the visitors in this game. The scorekeeper was Terri R.

At game time, the Units had 10 guys ready to take on the Little Timmy's Tappers for the second time this season. The Units were missing Roman and Nick for this game. Roman was nursing a sore knee and coached us in this game ( Roman coached 3^rd base and he reminded me of the MAGTAG repairman, he didn't see a lot of work), Nick was away for the week. Wayne, Les, and Ingo were all back in the lineup for this game.

Unfortunately, in the early innings, Les would camp under a fly ball and the ball would hit him just above the eye, his glasses would cause a 3/4-inch gash on his eyelid. It was an awful sound as it him. Les would come out of the game. The cut was bleeding, but he got that stopped, his vision was good, but he probably will need a few stitches (or glue), and I would bet today he has a nice shiner. Last update, he went to hospital on Wednesday morning. I will check on him this morning. Roman would only catch for us on this night.

So here we find ourselves 16 games into the season and we still sit in last place. This is an unfamiliar position for the Hurtin' Units, we have never, in the history of this team, ever finished in last place. Over the years, we have become complacent in finishing in the upper half of the standings and as most of you know, we won the league in 2021 and the championship in 2022, sitting at the bottom, is definitely unfamiliar territory. Roman jokingly said to me I sold my soul to the devil for the championship last season and this year is my payback. “ I don't remember signing any contract or playing a fiddle”. I don't believe this is true, but some crazy things are happening this season.

We have played pretty well this season, but we seem to be a little snake-bitten when it comes to closing out games or innings for that matter. I can't tell you how many times we have had 2 outs and the other team would score multiple runs before the 3^rd out. If you look at our final scores, we are competing in a lot of games. Coming into this game, we have a 12-game winless streak, 9 of those games' losses were within 5 runs, and 3 losses were within 2 runs. That really is SNAKEBITTEN!! We could have used just a little bobble, seeing-eye single, missed catch or extra-base hit, and we might have won a game or two more.

We are the only team without a homerun (over the fence or in the park)... the only team. We can only hope that we get everybody playing and hitting at the same time and we get on a roll going down the final stretch. I don't like this 1 game a week either, which we have through July, I think it throws off a team's rhythm.

I think we have played well enough to win more games than we have. We have a confidence issue right now, our heads are down and we need to become a better-hitting team. Roman has been working with us on batting and other game-related stuff, we don't see the results yet, but I personally think if we keep working at it, I believe the results will come. Thanks, Romes.

In our first matchup with the Tap Masters ( May 30^th), we lost 14-13.

I'm not going to talk much about this game, we had a good night on the diamond defensively, and our bats were hitting decently, although we hit into 4 double plays, and mostly to the gloves of Tappers. Over we need to be positive, work hard, hit hard and play hard to get this season turned around.

Of all the games this season, this game hit me with the biggest reality check. We need to play better to compete in this league this season.