Friends and Family Plan

Father of the Year (left).

The Pen & Pencil Club completed its most successful regular season since Ron Goldwyn was a rookie with a split on the field and a clean sweep in the standings.
We lost 8-2 to undefeated Catahoula and then beat the Zoo 11-9 in a stunning comeback, but elsewhere in the CCSL there was a crazy upset that landed us solidly in second place for the season and earned us a first-round playoff bye next week.
The P&P will open the playoffs in the semi-final round on Tuesday at Dairy 4 against either the South Philly Tap Room, Bishop’s Collar or Fleisher Art Memorial. The

R.McElhatton, D. McElhatton

opponent is dependent on Monday’s opening round. We play the highest remaining seed and Catahoula plays the lowest remaining seed. Those are single-elimination games, so all we have to do is win one to get to the best-of-three championship round and then unleash our biggest surprise of all once we get there.
That’s next week’s story, however. This week’s story became very interesting when the National Constitution Center upset the Tap Room by a 12-9 score on Monday. The Constitution Center won only two games otherwise this season, by one run over Franklin Institute and four runs over Green Tambourine, while also losing games along the way by 25 runs, 19, 18, 17, 16, 15 (to the Tap), and 15.
You can’t break the NCC spirit, however, and the Historical Document Building rose up and smote the Lower City Draught Emporium somehow. We’re not complaining.

Internship paying off.

Exhausted by that loss and facing a possible four-game schedule in the week, the Tap forfeited its last game of the season – to Catahoula – and we slid safely into second. OK, whatever.
On the field for us this week, we had some vacation, pre-CANA, work and injury issues that left us a little short on the roster, particularly on the double-X chromosome side of the lineup again.
Monday against Catahoula, we brought in three wonderful substitutes, including Rose McElhatton, Kylie Ford and Bree, a friend of George’s who wasn’t related to anyone as far as we could tell.
Well, the women didn’t win it for us – although Mangement’s kid had two of our very few hits – but we got on the field with a full lineup and played a solid defensive game in the 8-2 loss. We just didn’t hit at all.
Two hits each for Dan Rubin (RBI), Jon Snyder and K. Ford (RBI). The top five hitters in the lineup were 3-for-15 and we began the game with two straight 1-2-3 innings, which should have been a tipoff.
Anyway, we regrouped on Tuesday at sun-washed Dairy 2 for our important matchup with the Zoo. If we were going to hold off the Tap Room and keep the second seed, we needed this game badly.
Mark Nevins needed help to make the game because he was on fatherhood duties with young Jackson. So, he did what any Father of the Year would do. He entrusted his first-born son to Ryan and Nick when he was in the field, bringing a pizza to the game in payment for this wonderful child care.
Anyway, this greatly helped our play in the field, and you can see great examples of it here and also here.
It was a great game. We went out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first, but then scored just one more run in our next four at-bats. Zoo, meanwhile, climbed slowly back and held a 5-4 lead after five innings.

"Yes, that's daddy at third. But always remember, Uncle Nick is
faster and a better hitter and a lot better overall than daddy."

We started with the number five hitter in the sixth inning, so given the way we had been (not) hitting, it didn’t look that good for our final two at-bats. But our first five batters got hits in the inning and we were able to score three runs and turn over the lineup to be set up much better for the deciding seventh.
The Zoo came back and scored four in its half of the inning to lead 9-7, but our top of the lineup responded and we got hits from six of the first eight hitters to score four times and take the 11-9 lead. Yaz faced just four batters in the bottom of the seventh to close the door and end the regular season on a great note.
A four-for-four day for Snyder, and three hits each for Steve Lynch, Rubin (3 RBIs) and Kerry O’Connor. Two hits each for George Miller, Nevins, Keith Craig, Chris Yasiejko (2 RBIs) and the Management (2 RBIs).
In deference to the heat and the necessity to stay hydrated, we also drank five cases of beer in the two days (the bill is coming, Chris) and Lynch lost his glasses in the outfield in both games. And found them!
On to the playoffs and further glory. I don’t see what can go wrong.