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| ustbaseball21
February 5, 2009
6:22:41 PM
Entry #: 3048438
| A terrific write up of the most shocking game of the year, when the Bombers upset the team's best team. No team that does this to Tonka needs ANY additional players.
Friday, July 11
Bombers Stun MIllers In Thrilling Upset
For one shining moment, the Westside Bombers were a team of destiny. As Bob Costas is fond of saying, if you could tell who would win each game on paper, there would be no reason to play. And that was the story on July 10, 2008 as the lightly regarded Westside nine took the field. After an easy five inning win by Minnetonka earlier in the season, one could understand why the 30-4 Millers would assume the 2-15 Bombers were an easy mark. That attitude turned out to be a mistake.
Led by the return to the mound of Jake Divish coming off a severe ankle injury, and stunningly effective relief pitching by Chris Liebhart and Andy Fuchs, the Bomber hurlers stymied the mighty, but aging, Miller offensive attack. With a 3-1-3 inning distribution strategy of Liebhart, with his submarine fastball, sandwiched between the unhittable breaking stuff of Divish and Fuchs, Minnetonka was limited to only three runs on six hits. The Westsider’s staff commanded the strike zone with authority, issuing one free pass while striking out seven. Although the night was warm, the fans behind home plate were kept cool by the powerful, but futile, cuts of the Minnetonka lumber.
Despite the fact that Veterans Field clearly was showing its age, with serious maintenance needed to retain respectability (and an outfield fence) for the ballpark, the Bombers roamed the expanse of artificial turf as though they owned it. Outfielders Divish, Jim Althoff, Brian Szmergalski and Liebhart made hauling in the Miller blasts look easy, as warning track power became a developing theme. Blake Carlson was a vacuum cleaner at third, at one point holding a hot grounder he had fielded down the line for a three-count, just so he could throw out the frustrated runner by half a step. Surya Agrawal turned playing first base into an acrobatic performance. His variety of stretches and jumps left the crowd wondering when he would perform a back flip before catching the ball. Fuchs and Althoff ranged far and wide at shortstop, including a Jeter-like leaping throw to second by Althoff to start a double play on a ball hit deep in the hole. Second baseman Jason Thompson stood his ground at the bag, taking a spike to his thigh in the process of making a laser throw to first to complete the twin killing. Andy Cohen was rock solid behind the plate. After throwing out the first two Millers who attempted to steal, Minnetonka could be heard uttering “forgetaboutit,” and ceded the base paths.
The Bombers’ five runs came mostly with station-to-station hitting and execution. The one exception to this progressive onslaught was a third inning home run by Smergalski, hitting high on the scoreboard in right field and, due to a motivational pre-game bet, costing Coach fifty dollars and proving that Smergs truly can and will do anything for a buck. Althoff, although hitless in the contest, netted a bizarre achievement that, in retrospect, was in the making over the last several games as his daring on the base paths increased. With two outs in the second inning, Jim managed to steal four bases in one at bat. He reached first on a dropped third strike that the Minnetonka catcher couldn’t recover before he crossed the bag safely. After easy steals of second and third, Althoff could not be denied. As the frustrated Miller pitcher went into an ill-advised full wind-up, the speedster broke for home, sliding under the tag on a chest high curveball.
Andy Cohen also had himself a night with the lumber, delivering three hits for the Bombers, including a two-out double with men on second and third to tie the game in the sixth inning. The stroke of the night, however, went to Agrawal who, with a man on second and one down in the bottom of the seventh, decided to change his luck by stepping to the plate left-handed for the first time in his Bomber career. One foul ball later, he delivered a line-drive single to center, scoring Fuchs with the winning run.
While the stunned Millers retreated to their dugout, the announcing booth was mercifully silent and the reporter for the Minnetonka newspaper didn’t have the nerve to ask for a few quotes. The Bombers kept their celebration respectful, but celebrate they did, with a victory lap around Veterans Field. As Yogi Berra said: “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.”
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