Game of The Week (Week 13)

INTRO

Well, this is a bit of a weird week for the schedule.  We have no 7:00 game on Wednesday as per normal at the end of a month; this due to the Captain's meeting.  Plus we've lost 2 games this week due to lack of players.  Good advance work between the Gruesome Devils, Dodge City Rounders and Banshees allowed for these games to be rescheduled.  And then we had a rain out of the second game of Monday night.  So this has become the lightest week of the year with only 7 games.

However, in that mix is was our game of the week featuring the Dusty Cleats and the Brew Jays.

This is a situation where it is really to be flippant about this game.  Its worst versus first.  The Brew Jays sit with a 12-4 record having won 11 in a row.  They have won blow outs, come from behind games and one run nail biters.  They are a formidable offensive club.  They have only one player hitting under .661.  The Jays are led by Rod Duggan's .764 and he's followed by four other +700 hitters.  Lynn Foerster (.750),  Roger Gaudet (.745), Rob Hayward (.714) and Dave Polny (.710).  They are 1st in the league in points and run differential, 2nd in runs scored and 7th in defense and won the Help The Kids Play tournament.

Contrast that with the Dusty Cleats.  They have a 3-15 record, having dropped 8 in a row.   They are 15th in points, 15th in offense, 15th in run differential and 11th in defense.  They have 3 +.700 hitters starting with the unworldly Scott Barton at .927 and followed by Mark Doyle (.736) and Kevin Boston (.704).

Sounds like a white wash to me.

However, the Dusty Cleats were finalists in the Help The Kids tournament and if you bother to look at the schedule you'll see that one of the 3 Cleats wins this year was against the Brew Jays.  They defeated them 14-11 back on May 17th.  The Dusty Cleats were a pre-season favourite of mine.  I like their pitching, I like the whole of their defense but I didn't anticipate the hitting being where it is.  However, I maintain that its the easiest of the three things to fix.  I still think there's more than enough time for that to happen (witness the HTKP tournament) and teams better watch out it the bats come around.

On to the game!

The visiting Cleats opened the game with a lead off double from Tim Sullivan (3/4, 2).  It was aggressive base running that got him to second as the double was hardly routine.  Captain and Pitcher (that's what CP stands for) CP followed (3/3) with a double of his own to score Sullivan.  But 3 quick outs on a fly ball to left and ground outs to the pitcher and 3rd base would end the inning with only the single run across.

The vaunted Brew Jay offense wasn't up long in the first.   Two quick outs were followed by a Roger Gaudet (3/4, 2) single and then a fly ball ended things. 

The second inning was similar for both clubs.  The Cleats got Fraser Barrett (1/3) to second and Wayne Caldwell (1/3) to 1st, but couldn't find the clutch hit to punch across another run.  The Brew Jays got a lead off single from Rob Hayward (4/4, 2) but he was forced at second by Dave Fleming (3/4, 1).  Dave would be forced by Dave Polny (4/4, 2) and the inning ended on a line out to the pitcher.

The Dusty Cleats would score their second run in the 3rd when Sullivan again led off with a hit, this time a single.  CP again followed with another single.  After a fly out put runners at 1st and 3rd a Cliff Joseph (0/3) sac fly would score the run. 

The Brew Jays finally got on the board in the 3rd inning and they would score in each remaining inning.  It started with a Bill Clouthier (4/4, 1) single followed by another single from Jerry Muirhead (3/3, 2).  Lynn Foerster's (3/4, 2) single would load the bases with the heart of the order coming up.  Bo Niederhuber (3/4, 2) would hit a two run single to put the Brew Jays in flight.  Rob Hayward would single in the last run of the inning making the score Brew Jays 3, Dusty Cleats 2 after 3 innings.

The Dusty Cleats went 3 up 3 down in the fourth.  The brew Jays would push across another run in here half would Polny's lead off single would come around to score on single by Bill Clouthier.

4-2 Jays after 4.  Still very much a competitive and sound defensive game.  The Cleats 5th started with some promise when Stephane Simard (2/3) led off with a single.  After a fly out, CP would have his 3rd base hit of the night and Mark Doyle (1/3) would follow with a fielders choice that forced Steph at third.  Another ground ball to the pitcher would end the inning.

The Brew Jays then blew the doors off of the game.  The first seven batters of the inning, Niederhuber, Gaudet, Duggan, Hayward, Fleming (3/4, 1), Polny and Del Greco (2/4, 1) would all reach and score.  The last 3 scoring on a Bill Clouthier triple to right field.

The wind was clearly out of the Dusty Cleats sails at that point and they went 3 up and 3 down in both the 6th and 7th.  The Jays scored another 5 in the 6th inning to finish this one off with a 16-2 score.

NOTES;

• The Brew Jays had 28 men reach base safely in the 6 innings that they batted in this game.
• The Dusty Cleats had only 13 men reach over 7 innings.  
• The Cleats were without Scott Barton and Kevin Boston in this one.  

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:

Dusty Cleats:  For this one, I'm picking Tim Sullivan.  Tim was 3/4 and scored both of the Cleats runs.
Brew Jays: Rob Hayward and Dave Polny were both 4/4 with 2 runs scored, but I'm going with Bill Clouthier for this one.  Bill was on fire pitching and giving up only two runs in this league is a pretty big deal.  Plus going 4/4 with a run scored and 3 RBIs isn't too shabby either!
    
 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