The Kessler Split

While we managed a "Kessler split" (a win and a tie) last week against
Pubz, the way we accomplished both left us feeling pretty good, and the
Pubz players disgusted. In the first game, as home team we entered the
bottom of the last inning trailing by 4 runs. Our first batter grounded
out to the third baseman. Our second batter, Al Peterson, grounded the
ball between third and shortstop. The third baseman cut the ball off on
a good play, but Al's hustle to first caused an errant throw that pulled
the first baseman off the bag. Dave Buttner laced a double down the
right field line, moving Al to third; Chris Boniface singled to right,
scoring Al and moving Dave to third. John Thompson singled to right,
scoring Dave. Al Boyd then tripled to deep left center, scoring Chris
and John and tying the game. Pubz intentionally walked Patrick Semmens
and Mike Chapman to load the bases with one out and hopefully get a
force out at home. Lee Defibaugh foiled their strategy when he calmly
lifted a fly ball to medium right center, driving in Al Boyd from third
to win the game 12-11.

In the second game, as visitors we found ourselves in pretty dire
straits trailing by 7 runs entering the top of the fifth inning, and
with only 9 minutes left in the game. To make matters worse, Al Boyd had
strained his left hamstring trying to beat out a grounder to shortstop
in the second inning. In the top of the fifth, we scored two runs, both
driven in by Patrick. So we entered the bottom of the fifth with less
than five minutes left and still trailing by five runs. We did
everything in a hurry, rushing onto the field without any warmups. Our
pitcher, Ed Reich, threw nothing but strikes, and set Pubz down in quick
order on two fly balls to left and a fly to right center. We came off
the field with less than a minute remaining in game time, still trailing
by 5 runs.

Andrew Kessler led off the inning with a walk, but then was forced at
second on a grounder by Ed. Mike Mattoon and Al Peterson followed with
singles to left to load the bases. Dave singled again to drive in Ed and
Mike. Chris singled to load the bases again. John worked a walk to drive
in our third run of the inning, keeping the bases loaded. Then Al Boyd,
batting despite his strained hamstring, lofted a sacrifice fly to left
center, scoring Dave, but leaving us still down one run with two outs.
Patrick wasted no time in tying the game with a solid single to left.
Our next batter finally grounded into a force play, third to second.
(For the night we hit 13 grounders to the third baseman, resulting in
two double plays, ten single outs and only the one very important error
in the first game).

So we entered the bottom of the sixth and final inning tied 14-14 and
needing an excellent inning to escape with the tie we had worked so hard
to earn. Once again, Ed threw nothing but strikes and worked a 1-2-3
inning. The first and third batter both grounded back to Ed.

For the night, Dave Buttner, batting leadoff as always, went 8 for 8,
with 5 runs scored and 3 RBI. Chris, batting second, was 6 for 8, with 6
runs scored. John, batting third, was 4 for 6, with 2 walks and 5 RBI.
Patrick also had 5 RBI and Al Boyd had 4. The last 4 batters in our
lineup scored 8 runs between them.