Empty Pitchers

Oct 26th,'08 - 5 innings:
Empty Pitchers 14, Churchills 4

With the amount of dirt Jason collected between pitches, he found 4 precious rocks and a gas pipeline. Ted made the catch of the season in LC with a running shoelace scoop. The catch of the season lasted just one inning. Andrew made the same catch while slipping on a slimy patch of reclamated water.

Jason, Amy's husband and pitcher for Courtney's and Keith's Friday night team, made his Empty Pitcher debut in grand fashion. When Scott came down with non-hangover-like symptoms, Jamie called the backup pitcher on the playoff roster who offered to come even if he wouldn't pitch. Scott showed and coached but the softball gods denied him the power to play.

Jason pitched out of numerous 3-1 counts, made several nice defensive plays and adequately filled Scott's spot at the top of the lineup with 4 hits and 3 runs. But it wasn't Jason, Andrew and Ted carrying the team. Melissa perfectly worked both C and 3B for an absent Sarah and recovering Ryan. Courtney ripped shots over the IF in all her at-bats and caught the only ball hit to LF. Jessica nearly turned a double play at 2B while she, Ruthie and Jami all easily swatted shots over the infield.

Churchills led 2-1 after two innings and EP was staring at two outs in the 3rd when the rally started. Five batters scored and the next inning EP added 6 more. Churchills couldn't answer until Jamie took over at SS, but their two runs weren't enough. Jason's pitching and Andrew's catch stunted their rally and before EP could score their third run in the bottom of the 5th the game was called due to time.

The team goal of holding the opponent under 9 runs was achieved. Aside from a couple bad throws to 1B, Churchills had little charitable momentum to build on. Meanwhile, our bats were too hot to handle when balls were placed on the ground after a record 8 pop-ups in the first three innings. Even though his second popup dropped safely in a vacant RC (Churchills played with only 9), Keith noticed Jamie was dropping his back shoulder - a primary cause of popups.

Most batters didn't take the first pitch but it was hard to do when so many first pitches were good-looking strikes. Our baserunning errors continued only at 3B when we'd attempt to score with zero or one outs rather than letting the upcoming batter knock in an extra RBI. A number of basecoaches/runners have made that easy, adrenaline-induced error. We'll have it fixed by next week!

Notables: EP's winning % increases with the number of dogs in the dugout; Churchill's OF made two great throws to home plate for outs, while their pitcher delivered low, consistent strikes; Churchills officially joins the list of EP's "fun, smilin' friendlies" after two games even though our favorite catcher missed the game; Jason pitched his best innings (the 3rd and 4th) when Ryan was catching, not a pretty female.

Gone/Subs: Sarah (none); Scott (Jason)

Complete Season Five recaps