One Bad Inning Returns to Split City Form ...

5-3 Warning Track Power found itself short players on Thursday night and nearly pulled off a sweep that would have been one enormous slowpitch softball coup. With 9 players, WTP decided to go with 4 outfielders and only 3 infielders. Say What !?!?!???

This strategy did not pay off early as 6-2 One Bad Inning scored 7 in the first 3 innings to take 7-3 lead. However, only 4 baserunners over the final 3 and 2/3 innings sealed OBI's fate in the 11-7 loss.

For some strange reason, hitting a ground ball through the right side of the infield was unacceptable to many OBIers. Maybe we could do better during Game 2...

Game 2 was another close battle with Jayse hitting a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh inning for a 9-8 final. WTP never had the lead in this game and only tied it in the top of the 7th.

JuanR was the most consistent offensive threat on Thursday. He and Matt were both 3-3 in Game 1. Then JuanR went deep X2...

A bottom of the second inning Grand Salami was the first scoring of the game. WTP came back with 3 in the 4th and then both teams scored once more in the next two innings leading to JuanR's 2nd Big Fly pushing the lead to 7-4. Jayse also singled and scored in the bottom of the 5th, driven in by JR's second RBI of the game.

With the scored tied at 8 in the bottom of the 7th, Michael went all Steven on a 3 pitch walk. JuanR followed with a Triple,,, errrr, Double, off the CF fence... Michael, forced to stay at third due to speed issues, etc,,, on the previous hit, scored on Jayse's single and Split City it was again.

This week we play Runnin' Fools on Field 2 at 815/915 ... This is the best field at the park, as the snack bar window is closer than at any other field. Ohhhh yaaaa !!!

One Bad Inning Rolls to Sweep of Skeleton Crew

5-1 One Bad Inning remains tied atop the Season 4 D2 standings with Midlife Crisis after an impressive sweep of 0-6 Skeleton Crew. The full squad of 13 players contributed throughout the evening, and here is how it was done:

-- Gifts from the Crew: Skeleton's were very generous by allowing several balls to be misplayed into extra outs (especially the usually steady LFer). That said, the 3B was solid as he snared a few line drives we have not seen him previously pull in.

-- Offensive Groups continue to work together:
    -- Most notably is the Jacob, Paul, JR combo that seems to have gelled quite well. All 3 individuals are hitting over .625 thus far in Season 4. Jacob has been a spark plug, Paul quite consistent, and JR is driving the ball as if he was in the batting cage (this is a good thing)...
    -- Two Through Five: This week it was Joe, Spillane, Michael, and JuanR. And only two outs between them were in Game 1, and one of those should have been a a Base on Balls taken by Michael. A solid 17-19 for these 4 individuals combined.

-- Lucky 13: Clint made the second game and lead off a lineup that included all 13 roster players. His 2-3 performance keeps him at #2 in the batting average category thus far. Joe has made only 1 out in 4 games thus far this season. These two are combining to be the best 3B platoon I have seen in quite sometime, possibly, ever ... Ok, I am old and my memory isn't what it used to be but these two are 20-23, 'nuff said.


-- He's Baaaack: The Old New Players in Juan Carlos, Nuta, and Jayse light it up:
    -- In his second week back, Juan has not shown brightly on defense and honestly, has not needed to do so. His play has been steadier than it should be after a 10 month layoff. On offense, his swing remains very consistent and he is tied for third at .750 ...
    -- Returning from the injured list, Nuta finally received a challenge late in Game 2 and responded well by going back to the warning track and making an over-the-shoulder catch. With his left hand healed, Chris was still able to float the ball into the grass to the tune of a 4-6 night.
    -- Jayse was gone only a week, but it seemed much longer as we missed his OF coverage and line drive consistency. (whew)

-- Defense starts with Good Pitching: Larry continues to pitch lights out. The OBI "D" gave up only 11 runs in 8 innings this week. And offensively, Larry has found a groove that will serve OBI well as the season moves on.

-- Ending with a Lead Off: Matt continues his consistent play as the OBI Front Man. The Groove goes on again this week as Matt once again proved why he deserves this role. Expect him to lead us onto to good things as the season and year progress.

BTW,,, OBI hit at an incredulous clip this week at .761 as we were 51 of 67. With all the Sac Flies (7 of them), our OBP dipped down to .697 as we were only 53 of 76,,, key word ONLY ... Well done, and keep up the consistent offensive and defensive work !!!


With League Fees paid, and almost all the $$ turned in by the team,,, post-game discussion centered around putting the extra $$ towards new Jerseys. Also discussed was an OBI Stimulus Package that would have dropped a few dollars into each players hands, however, that was voted down. New Jerseys decisions will be made soon,,, voting on the final jersey options may even happen this week ...

After the impressive outing, our stats are trending in a positive direction. Here are the stats through Week 3,,,

Week 2 Stats Available !!!

Split City Sweeps the Jones'es

On a night when Juan Carlos returned,,, 3-1 One Bad Inning scored late in Game 1 and often in Game 2 to sweep Jones'es by scores of 10-7 and 19-9. Juan played a good second base and was strong at the plate to help the cause ...

Clint returned after two weeks of vacation himself with an impressive evening at the plate and with the leather. Larry was in a fairly foul mood and took it out repeatedly on the Jones'es. I recall too many times when the opposing offensive players were overmatched and struck or fouled out.

Offensively, OBI scored only 3 runs through the first 4 innings of game 1. A 7-run 5th inning aided greatly in the 10-7 win. A fine defensive play by Michael put the final dagger into the Jones'es last inning comeback effort (whew) ...

Game 2 was very offensive after the first inning. Down for the second game in a row by the count of 2-0 after 1,,, OBI scored 6, 5, and another 6 spot,,, taking a 17-4 lead into the fifth and final inning. Jones'es put up 5 of their own in the top half to unrunrule themselves. This was only a temporary fix as Dylan and Matt go back-to-back with Triples that score two for the final score of 19-9.

Next week, we get both Nuta back from injury and Jayse back from Cali ... And less probable,,, Joe back from a severe tear of the hammy. And your welcome, No Pics to be posted on that nasty lil issue.

Since Michael has just returned from vacation, stats will be posted within the next few days. I was lazy and totally enjoyed my time. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming...

Split City Pours It On ...

Okay, actually, it was the Heavens that poured it on ... OBI fought hard in a 2 inning clash with Midlife Crisis, only to have Mother Nature clean the slate with a Haboob (oxymoron,,, clean with Haboob) and then a nasty little downpour.

These two games are now rescheduled for the last week of the regular season... Thus, adding to our lineup this week will be the return from Vacationing Clint, return from Injury Nuta, and our long lost Second Baseman Juan Cena ... And we will have each for 7 of the 8 weeks of this Season 4 ...

Jayse is out of town this week and will miss our game. Thus, if Joe returns (or sends a replacement) we will be at 12 (yay !!!) ...

This week we will try Not to get rained out on Field 4 for 815 & 915 games against the Jones'es ...
 

New OBI, Same Old Split City ...

1-1 One Bad Inning lived up to our Q2/2014 reputation with a Split City effort this past Thursday. A 6-5 victory against McGlovin was earned in the final at bat, while Game 2s loss to Runnin' Fools by a 10-12 score was all about late Split City offense almost seizing the day...

With our 17 runs against, OBI proved that we are still a capable defensive team. Our 16 runs scored took 14 innings. Offensive production was not a forte on this game night. OBI scored 4 of 6 Game 1 runs in the 4th inning and then followed up by scoring 7 of 10 Game 2 runs in the final 2 innings. We produced 5 runs in the other 11 innings... Things will get better...

Certainly, Steve, DC, KC, and Clint were missed. However, Joe, Jacob, and Fill In Dean filled the shoes pretty well. Joe was spectacular at third and is currently our leading hitter. Jacob was late, as usual, but performed well at the plate and in the field. And Dean filled in well for vacationing Clint. No one turns more infield opportunities into extra base hits than Dean I tell ya...

Let's continue to build on our Game 2 late inning eruption as we head to Week 2.

Chris Nuta rejoins after a brief stint on the DL and some work down in the rookie league (ok, I am assuming he has been working his hand a bit anyways) ...

We have Midlife Crisis at 8:15 & 9:15 on field 3 this week ... Sounds fun, let's take it to them ...