Mayhem lucks out

True Foes vs Mayhem 5/13/09

Well, we didn’t win, and it didn’t feel good to lose. Never does. The final score of 9-5 doesn’t really reflect how well we played. And was it just me, or did the ump totally favor them on some key calls? First of all, Softball Dave totally tagged that guy out at third. It was undeniable. And also, when Ryan hit a single and then they overthrew to first, he should have gotten an extra base for that, no? But the ump says because the ball hit the fence when they overthrew, somehow that nullifies the “extra base” rule. What? And just overall, the quantity of strikes that Mayhem’s pitcher got was ridiculous. I mean, yeah, ok, he threw pretty well at times. But just because a pitch is fast and delivered with a grunt doesn’t mean it’s good. Plenty of them were super wild, over the batter’s head or skidding into the dirt. And not all the strikes were really strikes. That’s all I’m sayin.

But enough excuses: we played well, but we also made some errors, and if we could’ve cut back on the latter then Mayhem definitely would’ve had a run for their money.

The game was off to a fantastic start! Possibly my favorite first inning ever. The True Foes took the field first, and then we Shut. Them. Down. Oh, yeah. The soles of Mayhem sneakers never even tasted second base. The best was when they had a runner taking a big lead off first, and Jason caught a zinger that looked like it could’ve burned his ear right off. Then he tossed it to Ryan for a sweet double play. Then when we were up to bat, Shortstop Brian started us off by cranking out a homerun. Nice!

There were plenty of other innings where we shut them down 1-2-3 and they didn’t score at all. Unfortunately, our own collective batting performance was not an example of our best work. Bravely we all faced Irwin the Grunter (who, to his credit, seems to have lost about half of his belly since last season) and gave it our best shot. If only their outfield had been as error-prone as their infield we would have had more runs for sure.

Props to Tyson for taking one of those fast wild pitches in the foot and shaking it off. David Phillips didn’t let a busted hamstring stop him from playing: he and Ryan Hullings simply swapped left field for first base and proved that they’re both great in either position. Glenn Baken was back with us this week in his usual center field, catching anything that Mayhem was stupid enough to hit towards him. Abbey and Tyson saw some action over in right field and rover, and Abbey had a great hit, too. Michael was all over second base, and there was quite an exciting play with a runner caught between second and third—and he was out!

Mayhem must have sensed that we were on the verge of kicking their asses, because they kept on stalling for time. In between every batter their pitcher would turn around and have some mini-conference with the infield, and between every inning they’d saunter around like we had all the time in the world instead of a rapidly darkening sky and light rain. Well, you know what, Mayhem? I hope you savor the flavor because it’ll be a different story the next time we face off.

Our next game is Tuesday, May 26 against El D. They’ve already got watery bowels just thinking about how badly they’re going to lose to us, so as Jason said, “Stay frosty!”

GTF