P&P, On A Roll, Hot!

A big win on Hoagiefest! night for the Pen & Pencil Club softball team, which improved its record to 8-2 with a resounding 19-13 win over the Bishop’s Collar.
This was a game with huge playoff seeding implications for those of you who think there are huge playoff seeding implications in the Center City Softball League. We are aiming, with some luck and good play, for one of the top two seeds in the regular season, which would give us a first-round bye. Failing that, a third seed would mean we avoid the Catahoula Orcs in the second round and have a decent shot at making the World Series. There is a lot of beer to be drunk before then, however, but another win over BC, which had caught fire recently, won’t hurt the cause.

We led this game 12-2 after two innings and 18-4 after four innings and coasted to the finish, but there is something to be said for getting a big lead on Dairy 2 before the sun begins to sear the corneas of everyone who comes to bat. We managed that and then played solid defense and limited the Collar’s attempts to get back in the game.
Plenty of kudos to go around in this one, and a reminder that big innings are a good thing. We scored 18 of our 19 runs in just three innings, getting six apiece in the first, second and fourth innings. BC plugged away, but never scored more than three in an inning.
For the game, we were 27-for-45 at the plate and the Collar was 26-for-47. That doesn’t sound like a big difference, because it isn’t. They had seven at-bats and we needed only six, so that accounts for some of it. Their hits were more spread out, fortunately.

We played some great defense and forced them to leave 10 runners on base, including eight in scoring position. That clutch play was the difference. We took advantage of our opportunities and had some long innings.
In the scorebook, Russ Krause and George Miller were 4-for-4, three hits for Steve Lynch, Mark Nevins and Jon Snyder, and two hits for Brian Donlen, Dan Rubin, Liz Gabor and the Management.
We turned the lineup over, played a solid game and it was almost a routine win over a very dangerous opponent. It was a very good way to start the second half of our schedule and that’s not even counting the hoagies.
We get back at it on Tuesday against the Constitution Center, once again on the arid strip of Dairy 2 and let’s keep it going.