OBI Fights Off Split City with 2 Close Wins

9-5 OBI began Season 5 with a 2-win week and finished the regular season schedule the same way. Five Split City appearances in between earned OBI the 3rd seed for the Season 5 Tournament.

In Game 1, OBI built a 15-6 lead through the Top of the 4th inning and held off Murphy's Law 15-12 in a six inning victory. Game 2 went the full 7 innings and OBI proved their metal coming back from a 4-9 deficit late to win their second game of the night by a 12-9 count.

The split sweep for OBI was a first if memory serves and accomplished a few positive results:
-- With the two wins, OBI earns the 3 seed (of 11 teams) in the D2 Season 5 Tourney. This is a big move as we jump 2 spots from a 5th place tie the week before.
-- Murphy's Law absorbs 3rd loss of season and falls to the 2 seed with Shock Therapy winning their 2 games.
-- OBI scored double digits in the second game of a split DH. Unheard of in this century. Prepares us the the tourney as we have a game wait after we play our first game of the tourney ;~)
-- Offense continues to show improvement in consistency as Season 5 has progressed.
-- Defense remains solid despite our constant moving pieces.

Game 1 found OBI hot early and hanging on late. Jakob, Clint, and Juan each singled plating our first run. Paul followed with another and Larry capped the rally with a 2-run Double. After MLaw tied the game, OBI rolled for 5 runs in the top of the second. Consecutive singles by Armando, Matt, John and Jakob started the inning with the last 2 driving in runs. After a Jayse SacFly, Juan was served a cookie and homered scoring the last 2 runs of the inning.

The third inning was a mirror of the first as both team pushed across 3 runs. It was all Armando, Matt, John and Jakob this time. John's triple scored 2 and Jakob singled in the third run. 

The 4th was a 4-run outburst with Jayse's triple and Juan's single being followed up by two Dead Ball outs through the middle (good job Michael and Paul). With 2 down, Larry singled prior to run scoring hits by J.R. (double) and an Armando 2-run single. MLaw pused across two runs in each of the last three at bats to bring the score to 15-12. Winning !!!

Game 2 against We Ain't Dead Yet was typical OBI fare in a split DH. After the impressive home first to tie the score at 4. It was silence,,, errr, crickets in a meeting and going into the bottom of the 5th, a 4-9 deficit. OBI batted around and 7 runs later, Big Mo' was changed and victory was at hand.

The bottom of 1 started with Spillane, Armando, and J.R. singles. John doubled home 2 (though stats sheet was originally missing his double I was able to fix it this time). After singles by Jakob and Clint, Jayse's SacFly turned into a double play to end the inning. While WADY scored 5 runs over the next 3 innings, OBI collected 5 hits.

Waxing biblical about our fifth,,, In the Big Inning (really reaching here I am),,, OBI pushes across 7 runs to take an 11-9 lead. Larry started the BI with a single and lead off hitting Spillane sent a Big Fly out of the park for a 2-run HR (am so happy for him,, and us). Armando, Matt (double), J.R. and John each reached base prior to Jakob's SacFly. Cint and Jayse each doubled pushing across the final run of the inning.

Larry scored an insurance run in the bottom of the 6th on J.R.'s SacFly, our third of the game. I do so love productive outs. Good pitching and solid defense held WADY scoreless in the final three innings for the 12-9 score.

The Season 5 tourney has been pushed back a week due to the timely wet weather. We will have Nuta back and possibly Michael. However, tourney time is hitting on John's off week. Look for another Armando sighting next week!!!

Home Team Come Backs Rule Week 6

7-5 Split City stayed true to form this week falling to E-Machine 8-9 in Game 1 while winning 8-7 in Game 2. Both teams hit timely HRs, made good defensive plays, and had trouble hitting their way out of a wet paper sack (at times)...

Game 1 was jumped started by Jayse and Juan as the latter hit a Big Fly for a 2-0 lead. E-Machine took the lead in the second and consistently built it up until the score was 7-2 after 6 innings. During that time, OBI had collected 8 hits, had a Dead Ball single for an out through the pitchers box annnnd hit into 3 double plays.

Enter, One Big Inning,,, Jakob, Nuta, and Jayse started the inning with singles to load the bases. Then, with one out, Spillane singled home the first 2 runs of the inning and OBI was off to the races. The race was impressive as with 2 outs, Paul rakes an RBI Single, Larry walks, and then both J.R. and Armando come thru with RBI hits. 6 runs in all and an 8-7 lead.

However, E-Machine up to the task and after a Called 3rd Strike on their first batter of the inning, a Big Fly tied the game. With that, the machine relaxed and collected 3 more hits plating the winning run.

Game 2 was E-machines turn to jump out early. After their 2 runs to win Game 1 in the bottom of the seventh, they had 6 hits and scored 4 in the top of the first of Game 2. The score was still 0-4 in the bottom of the 2nd when Clint opened with a Triple, and Paul followed with a Double. The fun about stopped there as we hit into 3 consecutive fielders choices. Good Baserunning by Paul advanced him on both the first two as he scored on Armandos FC,,, errr Productive Out.

E-Machine attempted to get going in the top of the 3rd but with 2 on and 1 out, Jayse makes the play of the night with a diving catch and easy Double Play at second as the baserunner had sprinted home.

After 2 more FCs in the 4th inning by OBI, E-Machine pushed their lead to 5 at 7-2 with a 3-run HR. OBI was up to the task with our own One Big Inning and pushed across 5 of our own to tie the game at 7.

Nuta and Larry singled, followed by Armando's walk loaded the bases. Then, with one out (again, just sayin) Jakob singled in a run and Matt WALKED in another run (two thumbs up). Jayse followed up with a two-run Double and Juan hit a Sac Fly for run #5. The game was destined for extra innings as time allowed and E-Machine had 2 hits in 6-8 innings, while OBI had two hits, a walk, and two more FCs giving us 7 for the game.

With the score tied going to the bottom of the 8th, we were delighted to see the ball travel 300'+ off Juan's bat for the second time that night. This providing Split City with the needful winning margin of 1.

SPECIAL NOTE: Chris Nuta put up with an unnecessary tirade from myself this past Thursday. Please do know that he and I have spoken and I have apologized for my behavior.

Split City Rocks Shock Therapy Late in Game 2...

6-4 Split City stopped a bad habit of winning Game 1 and rolling over in Game 2 this past week. However, Split City just went oppo and lost a close Game 1 by a 12-15 count and then came from behind in the home half of the 6th inning batting out the clock and scoring 3 runs in a 13-11 come from behind Victory.

OBI batted around in the 1st inning of both games scoring 7 in the top of the first of Game 1 and 6 to take a 6-4 lead after the fist in Game 2. The offense in game 1 went almost silent as second-place 7-3 Shock Therapy pulled to within one after 4 innings by a count of 9-8.

After we scored one in the top of the fifth, S.T. pushed across 7 too many and finished us off after a 2 spot in the top of the 6th for the 12-15 final tally.

Offensively, we had fun with the John leading the way in a 4-4 effort. Spillane and Joshnow each had three hits as Joshnow led the team with 4 RBIs again. He has fit in very nicely in the important bottom of the order role over the past few weeks.

Larry, Paul, and Clint each had a productive out with their Sac Flies. And other than a Joshnow double, the only other extra base hit was fillin Brent's Big Fly (should Michael stay on the sidelines???).

We were out homered in the contest 4-1. Good News, 2 of those HRs were Dead Ball Outs (whew).

Game 2 was another fun offensive performance. After scoring the 6 in the bottom of the first and taking a couple innings off from running (or jogging) the bases,,, OBI scored 4 runs to tie the game at 10 in the bottom of the fourth inning. 

Larry, Joshnow, John, and Brent each singled and after a Juan rocket for an out through the pitchers box, Nuta and Clint each singled in a run with the latter tying the game. The final at bat was all about the right hops as Brent tripled, Juan singled him home, then with 2 down Clint Tripled in another run and Jakob followed with the final dagger,,, another single that scored the final run,,, time was up.

Defensively, the night was mostly about Clint,,, and when he caught the ball, he knew what to do with it. Which included an unassisted Double Play as the mobile third baseman tagged two runners out in the vicinity of second base. Hey Clint, give peace a chance...

Split City Times 3

5-3 Split City has consistently battled hard week in and week out to the point where we are also a model of consistency within each week. Winning a close game 1 and losing an exciting game 2 has almost become the new mantra. 

This week, we helped 2-6 No Glove No Love to their second victory of the season in just this fashion. Game 1 was a lower scoring affair 10-8 and we held off the love with the tying run on second and lead run on 1st (whew)...  In fact, the score was 8-2 in the top of the 5th when Love's fill in SS hit a one-hopper off the yellow border of the CF fence for a Grand Salami, bam, 8-6...

Game 2 was a barn burner and 15-16 loss. With the score going back and forth then tied at 11 going in the fifth and final inning, Split City seemed to put the game away with a 4 spot in the top half. However, the Love was with the home team this game as NGNL was able to score five with one out and take the win back...

Due to the 6:15 start time and injury (Matt's knee/heel and Michael's other hamstring this time),, a few adjustments were made to facilitate a steady defense,,, annnd the batting order was a little out of sync. The hitting was consistent throughout the lineup with Jakob and Juan each 3-3 while Jayse, Nuta and Spillane each collected 2 hits. Juan, Spillane, and Clint bat in that order and each had 2 RBIs. John, Jakob, and Jingleheimer Schmidt,,, sorry, sorry,,, my fingers just got a little crazy,,, i meant Spillane each doubled.

On Defense, the play of the night was turned in by Jayse with his full layout dive and catch of a line drive to CF. Overall, very good defense was turned in by our squad especially considering several folks were empowered to play positions other than the norm. Thanks...

NGNL was very giving in Game 1 and we returned the favor in Game 2. Physical mistakes are bound to happen and what is more important than making allll the plays is how you respond once these "mistakes" occur. And am proud to say that OBI is the type of team that knows how to take a punch, get up off the canvas and never give up.

NGNL took the hammer and ran with it building leads of 5-1 and 9-2 after two innings. A 5 spot pulled OBI back into the game and well, I have already written about what happened after the 11-11 tie after the 4th. Let's see how we respond to that against Shock Therapy this week...

JR led the way from the number 2 hole in this game by going 4-4 (and 5-5 for the night). Spillane, Clint and Nuta each had 3 hits while we got 2 each from Paul, Matt, Jayse, Juan, and Larry. Your RBI leaders for the game were Clint 4, JR 3 and Jayse with 2...

Spillane and JR each had 2 extra base hits. A double and triple for Spillane and JR,,, 2 doubles.

Matt will miss this week due to sickness,,, and Michael is still a week away from returning to the field. But I see good things ahead in the final 3 weeks of the regular season as we begin to show our true stripes as our tie for 4th place right now finds us pitted against the top 4 teams in the division over this time frame... Gooooo OBI,,, or at least Split City,,, LOL....

Split City Shows for a 2nd Week in a Row...

4-2 Split City (aka OBI (aka One Bad Inning)) battled 3-3 Midlife Crisis in our weekly doubleheader this past Thursday. Game 1 was a close affair ending on a snared line drive by Michael at 2B giving OBI the win 9-8... Game 2 was a much quieter engagement between Split City and MC as we were easily taken down 6-13.

Game 1 got busy in the top of the second inning with Paul walking and Larry, JR, and sub Gary each singling. Matt doubled in the final run of the inning after Michael's Sac Fly.  Spillane got the third inning going with a single and then it was the Paul and Larry show as each singled with the second hit plating Spillane for the innings sole run.

Down 4-5 going to the top of the fourth inning, OBI sent 9 men to the plate. After Gary singled, Michael walked and Jayse singled to load the bases. What followed was a game changer, and most folks would have simply popped out to LF, but Juan's pop fly was High enough, and Deep enough, and Carried beyond the confines of field 4 for a Grand Slam. After the game changing,,,errrr epic blast, Spillane hit a seed to CF that netted him a Triple. He then scored as next sub Armando blasted a Sac Fly to CF.

With the score now 9-5, OBI went into hibernation mode on offense. Fortunately, the defense gave up only 3 runs over the final 3 MC at bats and the victory was ours...

Game 2 was quiet offensively and no longer a ball game after the MC's top of the third 9 runs that pushed the lead to 12-1. After Split City scored 4 in the bottom of the frame to bring it to 5-12, once again, the offense went to sleep. This time it was for 3 2/3 innings. Ouchitty...

The third inning highlights were singles by Larry, JR (ok, this was a double), Gary, and Michael (some of these names are repeated as they actually did produce in both games, holy foul ball Batman!)... Juan and Spillane later singled with each driving in a run.  Then, in the 7th, (more copy/paste here LOL) Gary singled and scored on Michael's double. 

Split City (aka OBI (aka One Bad Inning)) continues to experience a renaissance with scoring runs, yet sometimes we hit like we think it is still D1 teams we are battling... Continue to strive for consistency at the plate and in the field,,, fun and magic is just around the corner ;~)