OBI Swept as 9 Consecutive Scoreless At Bats Whisk By

Blogger Michael Lee was as quiet in his posting last week as OBI's bats were. This week, I would have to already have stopped typing this blog entry to match our hitting.

OBI scored in the first and third innings of Game 1. Ten Innings Later,,, OBI scored in the sixth and seventh innings of game 2. In between,,, 9 innings at bat,,, Zero Runs,, and on only 8 hits ...

Yes,,, we played 14 total innings,,, scored 11 runs (including 7 over the final two innings of Game 2),,, had 25 total hits,,, and, well, onto the highlights let's go ...

Highlights of the Week: KC was missing due to a family event,,, Ryan and Steve were injured... None of these folks made an out,,, and had 3 less hits total than three players that actually played both games ...

Needless to say, the OBI Season 1 Championship hangover continues... The team batting average and even on base pct. is less than .500 ,,, in fact, 7 of the 12 regulars have a batting average of .500 or below ...

Ok, enough cheerful news ... Let's hope that we get players back from injury soon and then we shall regain the swagger ... Here are the stats thru Week 3 ... Very scary, hope you like horror films,,, otherwise, I would not look ...

Quote of the Week: After a quick inning on offense (soft pop up to left, bloop liner to second, and a 6-3 ground out),,,, "Look at the positive side, at least we stayed out of a double play." ...

Good Competition Will Make OBI Better ...

One Bad Inning battled hard and with KC's huge double to the RF corner late in game 1, were able to come back and held on for a 10-10 tie. Split DHs have not been a friend to OBI over the past year and was no exception as game 2 was an ass whooping to the tune of 8-22 ...

Game 1 saw OBI put up 4 runs in the first highlighted by fill-in Brent's HR,,, but Emergency Services raked across 8 in the first two At Bats and held an 8-4 lead after 2. KC cam thru with a Big Fly in the third inning as OBI pulled within 1 after three innings.

Both offenses were pretty quiet over the middle innings setting the stage for KC's two-run Double in the top of the 7th inning. KC drove in 5 runs on 3 hits in the game.

The defense was solid, giving up only 2 runs over the last 5 innings and None after the 4th...

Game 2 was all about Murphy's Law,,, oh, and Chris Spillane ... Murphy's Law as a team scored 22 runs in their 5 innings at the plate... Spillane drove in 6 runs in his 3 at bats. This includes a Grand Slam in the bottom of the 5th with 2 outs ...

Well, enough said about last week... Let's lace'em up for  another go with early games this Thursday...

One Bad Inning Impresses with One Good Inning

Season 1 D2 Champs OBI were welcomed to play against D1 level teams as Season 2 opened against The Heights and Sickness. OBI's offense was left on the field Championship Thursday a week ago and we only produced 14 runs in the first 13 innings at bat.

One Good Inning came at a most optimal time,,, with OBI trailing 6-13 heading to the top of the 6th inning versus Sickness in game 2, the Big Inning happened in a major way as 18 players stepped into the batters box. Jayse led off the inning by lining out to LC field, and then Matt flied out to LC following Larry's single. It was on after that...

14 consecutive batters reached base, scoring 13 runs in the process for a 19-13 lead. Sickness got two quick outs in the bottom of the seventh inning and after scoring 2 runs,,, it was over and the comeback was complete ...

Best comeback I recall since OBI scored 17 in the top of the seventh to erase a 6-22 and held on to win 23-22 back early in 2012 ... So far back, I don't even have the scorebook... Nicely done, gents!

Game One's 8-20 loss to the Heights was forgotten, however, no one will forget the epic manner in which Jayse took the HR lead in Week 1 of Season 2 ... A standard double down the left field line into the corner was stretched into an inside the parker. All I could think was "Can't teach speed" ...

Excellent efforts were found up and down the lineup,, more so in Game 2 than 1,,, but who is counting...

DC and Larry were both 3-3 in game 1 ...
Steve continues to refuse service to courtesy strikes (though Michael did as well in the Big Inning) ...
JR and Steve were both 4-4 in game 2 ...
Did I mention that Jayse has OBI's only HR this season, I mean, leads OBI in the category de la Big Flys ...

Good start to Season 2 OBI ... The schedule is now up for the first 4 weeks of the season and we play Emergency Services and Murphy's Law in a split double header at 7:15 & 9:15 on Field 1 this Thursday night...

One Bad Inning Captures First League Tournament Championship in 2014 Season 1

Coming into the tourney at 11-3 earned OBI the #1 Seed and the only first round bye in the seven team D2 Men's Division. OBI battled hard against two tough teams to claim our first league title since 2012 and definitely our first league tournament championship since they were instituted beginning Season 1 2013.

OBI defeated #5 seed Warning Track Power 18-6 in the semi-final matchup. WTP jumped out in front by 5 runs in the top of the first inning but were unable to sustain the offense and scored only one more run in their final 5 at bats. OBI answered back with 4 in the first and followed up with 3, 1, 6, and 4 run innings to tally our 18.

The offense was jump started by the first 3 hitters (Steve, Clint, and Michael) who were a combined 12 for 12 ... This theme continued throughout the lineup and did wonders to douse the 5 run outburst by WTP early on.

The Championship Game featured #1 vs #2 as Diamondback Pools won their 7:15 and 9:15 games to join OBI for a shot at the title. DBack Pools scored 2 in the first and OBI answered back in a big way with 7 runs of their own. The big hit of the inning put OBI ahead to stay as DC jacked a 3-run bomb to centerfield.

DBack Pools scored 3 to pull back within two runs in the second,,, only to pitch to DC again in the bottom of the inning resulting in a second 3-run Big Fly... KC promptly lined the next pitch over the left centerfield wall for an out... Both swings were impressive.
 
Both defenses tightened up through the middle innings and the score remained close into the bottom of the 5th inning, 11-7 OBI. KC, Spillane, Larry, and Nuta strung together enough well placed hits to round out the OBI scoring and secured a 14-7 lead going into the last inning (as time had expired).

DBack Pools hammered away and scored 4 runs to make it close,,, however, OBI won 14-11 and the real key to victory and the season long theme continued,,, Defense ... The effort was evident throughout the evening (and the season for that matter). 

Diving plays in the outfield, fly balls run down, excellent communication, infielders making plays to get at least one out, turning two at opportune times,,, and then, there was the pitching. Larry has continued to ramp up his game and has become even better at getting ahead of hitters on tough strikes and then throwing even tougher pitches to hit with 2 strikes...

A solid perfomance on the evening and season all around by everyone on the squad. Congrats on this season championship and btw,,, I have some League Championship TShirts for folks who were not able to stick around Thursday night (or in Jayse's case, was sent to Bambino's even though they closed in 20 minutes) ...

Following are stats, a few team notes and the team pic and post game celebration ...

-- 7 of the 12 roster players (Larry, DC, KC, Spillane, Steve, Matt, JR) played all 16 games. Only 1 Fill-In was needed.
-- Team AVG and On Base Pct were .642 and .654, respectively. Compare that to the 2013 numbers of .558 and .557 ... Nicely done OBIers...
-- 6 of 12 players (DC, KC, Spillane, Steve, Matt, JR) hit Big Flies. Nuta also had an inside the parker.
-- DC hit 15 HRs in 16 games, 'nuff said...
-- JR had 20 RBIs on only 19 hits. Only DC had a better ratio.
-- Spillane lead Doubles category for first time in a while,,, however, lost his precious Triples title to Steve.
-- Jayse's new bat brought life back to his swing in the second half of the season while his defense solidified our outfield.
-- And Ryan almost overtook Steve for most Base on Balls during the second half of the season and his On Base Pct was .600 over that stretch.
-- Steve, Clint, and Michael possibly make up the most Senior set of first 3 hitters in any Men's League at Victory Lane ... ummm, ya, not sure where I was going with this one... onto stats then?