A Win By A Nose

To be honest, which is never, ever the best policy despite what you might hear elsewhere, Monday’s game against the much-improved Fleisher Art Memorial is the kind of game we have lost in recent seasons.
It goes like this: We kind of loll around, miss some pop-ups, don’t put together innings, let the game stay way close until late and then, well, lose. That could have easily been the case on sun-washed Edgeley 4 against a very good Fleisher team that will certainly be in the postseason when and if this year ever gets that far – which sometimes seems doubtful.
The management team of the Pen & Pencil Club voted to expand from 13 games to 18 games this season and, wow, now we have to actually play them. Nevertheless, the P&P arrives at the one-third mark of the season with a 5-1 record after coming from behind and then holding on to beat the Fighting Sammys of Fleisher by a 9-7 count on Monday.
We trailed 7-5 after Fleisher batted in the top of the third and scored in only one more inning, but our four-spot in the fifth turned out to be enough as FAM went 0-for-the last four innings. That’s not going to happen every time, but fortunately, it happened this time.
We had a good turnout, some of which turned out prior to the later 6:30 p.m. start, which Management clearly should never have mentioned. We had fans, including Ed’s buddy Fred, and Courtney, our exceptional waitstaff executive from the Club, and some CCSL lowlifes who have nothing better to do than drink our beer while simultaneously heckling us. It was festive.

O'Connor: 3-for-3 and two RBIs, great sliding catch. Soop-ah.

The scorebook shows that seven of Fleisher’s first 15 batters scored, and that of their final 16 batters no one scored. That’s quite a shift and pretty unexplainable. Usually, when a team starts hot, it has confidence and keeps going. That’s why things looked dreary for us after FAM took that 7-5 lead in the top of the third (which it still held as we entered the bottom of the fifth).
But some bloops that eluded our gloves early on began to be caught. Kerry O’Connor had a nifty sliding catch of one of those, as did Steve Lynch. Chris Brennan pulled down a semi-high throw to complete an infield out.
Everything else seemed kind of routine as Fleisher brought just 13 to the plate in its final four at-bats. Management would like to take credit for this, but he wasn’t doing anything different from the first three innings. Sometimes, you just get the ball hit to you.
On the offensive side of the slate, O’Connor was key near the bottom of the order with a 3-for-3 night and two RBIs. Same for Keith Craig, who batted in front of Kerry, had two hits and an RBI and also got the batting order turned over for us.
Up at the top of the order, where the big boys are supposed to lurk, Brian Donlen carried the load with a 3-hit game and two RBIs. George Miller had two hits and two RBIs. Russ Krause was a leadoff with two hits and an RBI, and two hits as well for Jon Snyder. Big hit for Ellen Kenney in the fifth to make our winning rally possible.
Overall, a pretty composed win over a good team, and, well, 5-1 isn’t bad.
We play the undefeated Catahoula Orcs on Tuesday. The Orcs won their showdown with the Tap 18-16 and now seek new blood. Let’s surprise them.


Also 3-for-3, including this insurance run RBI in the fifth. (All photos by Chris Yasiejko.)