Game of The Week (Week 7)

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The pre-work for this game makes this one that I'm looking forward to seeing.  Both teams are the kind that I like playing on.  The Beer Bros. are sitting in a tie for 8th in our league standings at the .500 mark with a 3-3-1 record.  The Banshees trail by a point and are in a tie for 10th.   These teams sit 3 1/4 and 3 1/2 games back of 1st place respectively.

The clubs seem to mirror each other statistically.  Both in the bottom half of the league in runs scored and in the top half of the league in defense.  For me, that makes both of them worth watching because come September, the gloves tend to outlast the sticks.

The Banshees have a number of players hitting over .700 to lead them into this affair.  Murray Saunders hasn't missed a beat after a year off and is hitting .792 with 11 runs scored.  He's followed by Brian Richards (.781, 14), Captain John Coopman (.750, 11), John Tessier (.731, 3), Paul Koolhaus (.719, 13), Dave McKendrick (.706, 3) and Dave Muirhead (.706, 3).  They would also be joined on this night by returnee Dan Chiasson. 

The Beer Bros. have 3 players sitting on the positive side of .700 and leading that pack is super rookie Peter Holmann who's at .769 with 11 runs scored.  He's joined by All Star Neil Pendlebury (.759, 11) and Captain Paul Piellusch (.741, 14). 

The game started pretty much exactly opposite to what I had expected.  Dave McKendrick doubled to start the game and would score on an RBI single from Jerry Muirhead.  An out later Jerry would score when Chiasson had a ringing single to right.  Chiasson would come around on an RBI ground out by Paul Koolhaus.  A three run start.

The Beer Bros. had Winston Gayle leading off and like McKendrick, he doubled to start the inning.  He seemed destined to stay there after a line out to Saunders at short followed by a Saunders to Tessier groundout.  But he would score on Peter Holmann's RBI single.  Holmann is quickly becoming the worst kept rookie secret as his average continues climb with hard line drive hits.  Brad Smith followed with a single putting runners at first and third and two down.  Needing two out hits Lou Conforti came through with a clutch RBI single and was immediately followed by Dennis Pendlebury who did likewise.  A fly out would end the inning but the Beer Bros. had answered making it 3-3.

The game, after one inning suddenly looked like two teams that had found their sticks.

 

Then came more of what I had expected.  The Banshees loaded the bases in the second, but couldn't manage to push across a run.  The inning started with 2 quick outs and then 3 straight singles.  However, asking for 4 consecutive singles with two out is a little much.  For the Beer Bros. in their half of the inning, they went quickly and quietly with a strikeout, fly out to 1st and a lazy fly ball to center.

Lifted by the quick inning the Banshees went back to work on offense.  Brain Richards led off with a single and would work around to third on singles by Saunders and Koolhaus.  Richards and Saunders would score on an RBI double by Tessier.  An RBI ground out to short by rookie Richard Lester would score Koolhaus with the third run of the inning making the score 6-3 Banshees.

The Beer Bros. would narrow the gap to 6-4 when Neil Pendlebury lead off with a double, advance on a ground out to second and score on a sac fly by Holmann who picked up his second RBI of the night.

The Banshees 4th was fast.  A ground out, McKendrick single and two flyout.

Trailing 6-4, the Beer Bros. needed to go on the attack.  Leading off the inning were two men who where big components to their 3 run 1st inning.  Lou Conforti would lead off with a single and then Dennis Pendlebury would follow Lou's hit with a single of his own.  An out later, Steve Ross would drive an RBI single through the right side of the infield.  Len Wercholoz would then single home Dennis with an RBI of his own to tie the game.  Ross would score the go ahead run on a deep sac fly off of Gayle's bat.  The inning would end on a clean single from Neil Pendlebury that resulted in a run down between second and third.  However, the Beer Bros. had their first lead of the night 7-6 through 4 complete.

The Banshees would send 8 men to the plate in the 5th and would score two runs.  Both came on an 2 run double by Richard Lester who joins a very short list of men to have put a ball over Neil Pendlebury's head. Scoring on the hit were Murray Saunders and Paul Koolhaus, both of who scored their second runs of the night.

 

With the Banshees now up by one (8-7), the Beer Bros. had 3 innings left to do some damage.  However, a combination of cold bats, bad luck and quality defense from the Banshees prevented any more runs for the Bros. on this night.  Over the final 3 innings they were only able to send 11 batters to the plate.

The Banshees offensively were able to push across 4 more runs in the 6ths.  Scoring the insurance runs were McKendrick, Muirhead, Richards and Chiasson.  Chiasson would also pick up an RBI in the inning and Saunders would collect two RBIs.  Tessier got his 4th hit of the game, and an RBI which was his 3rd of the game.

The final was 12-7.

NOTABLES

• Every time I see Lou Conforti he looks more steady pitching.  He pitched well enough to win this one.
• Murray Saunders made some very good plays at short and plays great positionally without the ball.  
• Tough to count because he kept switching positions but I think Chiasson accounted for 5 outs in the outfield.  
• Together the two teams made 26 of 42 outs in the air.  

 

 Players of the Game

For the Banshees:   There were few good choices tonight.  Dave McKendrick was 4/5 with a couple of runs scored.  Murray Saunders was 4/4 with 2 runs, 2 RBI and solid play at short.  But I'm going to go with John Tessier.  John bailed out fielders on numerous occasions on this night.  He made two unassisted outs at first as well.  With the bat, John was 4/4 and led the team with 3 RBI.  Great game JT!

For the Beer Bros.:  This one was pretty easy for me.  Lou Conforti gave up 10 runs over 6 innings pitching and looked solid on the hump.  Offensively he was the only Beer Bros. not to make an out going 3/3 with a run scored and an RBI.  Nice night Lou!


Things to check out:

Check out the Donini Three Stars of the game here ==> STARS
Check out the Dislocated Joints game notes from DTBB & Terry Doucet ==> JOINTS
Check out the Tap Master's game notes from Jason Bowers ==> Tapped Out
Check out the Hurtin' Units BLOG from Jimmer ==> Hannibal Lecter
The League's Official Website ==> League