Mateo was the player that we beleive made the most progress during the season. His Batting average rose to .357 at the end of the season and he finished with a triple and boat load of stolen bases. He scored on a squeeze play and played well in the infield and outfield. Others had a better batting average with T-Rex having a .500 and DJ at .375. Walker was the Average leader at .556, Denis was .400 and Ryan was at .435 but when you factor in the defense Mateo was our choice.

David Big Cat Bustamante wins this with the second highest batting average on the team but the highest slugging % .769 on the team. the Big Cat was our best power threat for the Muskrats.

Above are the hats we will get sometime on or before 8/31 They are flex fit mostly in the small medium size but a few bigger. There will be some extras for purchase on a first come first served basis for $20 each. The rest of the uniform consists of Red Sox, Gray Belted pants, Navy blue belt, all of which the player purchases and a loaner Jersey which will be handed out at one of the first few practices. that jersey must be returned at the end of the season in mid October.

Ok guys this is your website. Pictures as well as stats will be posted here. As of Sunday morning 8/21 we have 3 players and 2 coaches. Our players Tony Anguiano, Josh Caldwell and Chase Goodlett. Our Coaches are Doug Penney and Brent Tetlow. More players were selected and notified tonight 8/21 at the Fall ball "no tryout draft". We have Nick Salamy, Sam Splinter, Reece Martinez, Jimmie Robinson, Tanner Joyce, Michael Jorrin, Jordan Driebe(Riv Jordan), Derek Doktor,and Vicente Arroyo. It is a good group and we hope to see everyone and their parents Tuesday by 6pm at Bartholomew as indicated below. We will try to reach each one before Monday night. Watch for scheduleing and other info! There are some articles from last year on this page and game write ups on the Bulletin Board (see left menu) Our First practice was Tuesday August 23 at Bartholomew (see directions/fields on left menu)practice starts at 6pm "if you are early you are on time if you are on time you are late and if you are really late , after 6 you are running". Show up in baseball pants, bring a baseball cap, glove, cleats, if you have a big barrell bat 2 5/8 not 2 3/4, bring it! Batting helmet, if you have one. If you have a nickname tell coach Doug or Coach Brent ( we may use it or maybe not, but you will get a nickname on this team). What do you say about that Coach Brent? "See ya at the yard Meat!"

For Thursday former Franklin High Pitcher and current Beavers regular Season pitching coach may join coach Brent to help the Muskrats at practice. Coach Don, shown above, has coached for the last 5 Seasons.

Jordan Driebe should make his first practice with us at 5pm Tuesday August 30. Coach Brent promised a round of stingers and we will check the weather too to see if we can do some situational drills with runners and catchers in full gear.

Oh No wrong field Coach! At practice Zehnder was mentioned for the field it is Nottoli 5:30 start time and probably our last 5:30 practice because of creeping early sundown. We will try to limit it to 2 hours. Later in the season we may be able to use lights but not yet! We do however have some games on the schedule now. A single game on 9/10, a week from next Saturday starting at 10 am vs MT team coached by Carey Wolf That game is at Jones North. Show up time to get our warm up in is 9am. Show up on time please. If you are going to be later than 15 minutes (45 minutes before first pitch) then Call coach Brent or Coach Doug.No show no call between 15 and 30 minutes late you are running poles after the game. more than 30 minutes late, and no call, you don't start, and you run. 45 minutes late with no call, you are dropped to the end of the order don't start and run extra after the game. Keep us informed no problem we will work you in and no extra running. We also added a practice Tuesday the 13th at 5pm Bartholomew park and a game at Nottoli 9/14 (Wednesday) starting at 6:30 with show up at 5:30 (this one is under the lights!)

Two practices next week Tuesday and Thursday both at 5pm to about 7 or until we lose the light. Tuesday Jones North and Thursday Zehnder. Saturday we are at Jones North vs. Carey Wolf's team. game time is 10 am show up is 9am in full uniform ready to play Go Muskrats!

We finally have our 12 game schedule with games ending with a 1pm game vs the Thunderbirds at Nottoli on October 15th. We will plan a BBQ or pizza party at Nottoli after our game and deal with the turn in of our jerseys. the players keep their hats. Between now and then we have 3 doubleheadders one this weekend on September 17th at Zehnder with games at 10am and 1pm. One October 1st at Jones 10 and 1 also and then one on October 8 at Bartholmew same times. It would be good to get some lunches planned for between games. We need 3 families to combine for the games on the 17th and then 3 different families to do the first and the then 3 more to do lunch on the 8th. The remaining 4 can plan the late lunch on the 15th of October for our end of the season party. We will check with everyone this week to see who can sign up for which dates.

There were not very many hits but they produced runs. Rocky (Tony) had the extra base; hit a two run double in the 4th. Derek (Doc) had 2 hits and scored twice with 3 steals. Reese (The Wild Thing) had a hit and an RBI, it was an infield knock but speed beat it out. Nick also had a hit and an RBI

Jimmie "the Hammer" got the win on the hill after Flash Caldwell pitched pretty well. Jimmie like Josh gave up one earned run in 2 innings pitched. Jimmie struck out one hitter to Flash's 2. Each walked 3 and gave up a hit or two but nothing hit hard. Our defense gave up 4 unearned runs. We have to support our pitchers better!

The Team had a good run with Coach Don and ended up winning the game. It wasn't pretty but we did manage to get some walks, some hits and few steals for a 12-6 win. The fifth inning was started but not finished. Some good defensive plays and some bad ones. We will note that Tanner made some good snags at first and Derek, Josh, Jordan and Chase made some plays in particular. Sam caught all the innings (just 4). A few guys got a base for a bruise (hit by pitch) Vincente, RJ and Michael. We got a bunch of walks and the coaches were proud of everyone's effort.

One good game- one not so good. Perhaps the picture above of the full moon explains a lot? There were some highlights and some "lowlights" First recall we have a Doubleheader Saturday 10 am Zehnder park (9 am show up) for the game vs the Mighty Teens then at 1pm we have a second chance at the Mustangs.
The game started with Rocky Anguiano on the bump. After 5 batters he had given up 2 errors on ground balls to start, 2 weak singles and outfield error and we were down 3-0. Coming to bat in the first Surf Sam and Rocky had singles but we could not get them home. We did manage, in the second inning, a couple of hits by Buzz Goodlett and RJ to score Chase from third after 2 steals?? Who knew? no sign from the coach but Buzz set "I had too much of a lead to go back" The inning looked good still with one out and Tanner"Crud" (from Bad News Bears Tanner Boyle used to say "Crud Coach I just want to play") at third when he got picked off. After that we only got through the order once more! Derek had a hit in the third and Chase stole another 2 bases while Sam had another hit and another steal. We could not manage to push another run across and despite good pitching from Rocky and the "Riv", Jordan, we still allowed a total of 11 runs to our 1.

All our double headers and our final game party are covered. Thanks to all and especially Emily who got the list going. The first doubleheader-9/17 was headed up by the Joyce Family who set up the tent fly and BBQ'd the hot dogs, Nick's folks the Salamy Family had chips and buns and the toppings and the Splinter/Lambert Family, Sam's people did the drinks and fruit.Thanks it was great!
For the doubleheader on 10/1/11 we have the Arroyo family signed for Hot Dogs Buns and condiments also we assume a BBQ with the Jorrin's for Drinks and chips leaving Neel family with fruit and dessert.Games at 10 and 1pm at Jones North.
On 10/8/11 we have a doubleheader at Bartholomew with the Robinson's signed for burgers and buns ( we assume BBQ) the Anguiano family and the Goodletts will split condiments, fruit, drinks, chips and paper plates.
For our final game and party at Nottoli , a 1pm game the coaches are getting Pizza for everyone from our friends at Lampost. The Caldwell group has Drinks and the Doktor family dessert.
The Joyce family showed us that having a table and an Easy-up is nice for serving.

Flash Caldwell with the win and Rocky Anguiano with the Save. Flash limited the Mustangs to one run on one hit and struck out5 while walking 3 and plunking 1. After a very shaky inning from Jimmie with 4 runs on 5 walks and one hit, Rocky came in to close striking out the Mustangs 3 straight on 12 pitches to earn a Save. Nick had an 2 RBI double in the first scoring Josh who got his average going with a hit and Sam had one himself (hit by pitch type). Other hits included Rocky with 2hits and 2 runs raising his average to 13 league leading .800; Tanner "Crud" with hit; DynOmite Jorrin had a hit, a steal and a run scored; the Hammer Robinson had a knock but got caught stealing; and of course Josh as well as Tony as mentioned above. Other notable stuff included runs scored by Surf Sam, Derek, Reece, Michael, Rocky (2) and Josh (3). Good game Muskrats! Practice Tuesday
5pm Bartholomew Tuesday game Wednesday also at Bartholomew 6:30 first pitch 5:30 show up. We are the visiting team to the Teen Wolves, we owe them a beating after blowing the big lead on errors and had to come back to tie!

Jordan gets the start and pitched really well . Riv struck out 3, walked none, gave up one hit and one run in 4 innings. Tony came on for the 3 inning save and 5 errors later we tied the wolves. Hitting stars were Derek, Doc had a inside the park home run but for his hamstring and settled for a triple and Rocky 3 for 3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. Others with hits and RBI were Nick, Hammer Robinson, RJ, Buzz Goodlett and Surf Sam ( hits) and Vicente, Wild Thing Martinez, Nick, Rocky, and Tanner "Crud" Joyce all with RBI. We had the good, the bad and the ugly on defense. The good included the Wild Thing's catch in right to escape the first inning, the jumping touchdown signal after Reece caught it was classic! The bad was failing to get in front of ground balls and bad positioning while holding runners on or tacking pick off throws. The Ugly was the 5 errors and 6 unearned runs while Tony was pitching.

We are 1-1-1 against the Mighty Teen Wolves. We made 4 first inning errors and allowed 4 unearned runs in that frame. Another error led to an unearned run in the 2nd. We played good defense after that. The pitching by Flash, Riv and Rocky was outstanding. Buzz Goodlett was very good on defense and had our only extra base hit, a double. He is pictured hitting above. In the photo album on the left is another pic of Buzz showing his left shoulder flying open and his head and eyes pulling off the ball. Check out the good form above, resulting in a solid single last weekend vs the Wolves and the other pic a "K". Other hits were Rocky and Doc. RJw had a walk, steal and run scored. Dynamite Jorrin had a walk and a steal as well. Riv and Rocky had RBI. Derek had a deep right field to home throw that drew some wow's and prevented a run. Over all too many strike outs, 12 with 8 K's looking! We didn't quit though so that is the good news. See you all Tuesday at Bartholomew 5pm for practice.

Hey, this was fun, This game showed what a team with spirit, teamwork and a respect for their teammates can do especially vs a team which doesnot have those things going for it. Jordan "old man River" "Riv" for short Driebe pitched the unheard of "complete game" 4 hitter, unheard of because there is a 4 inning in one game limit and most games go at least 5 if not 7 innings. But he did an outstanding job and as everyone else present on the team did he scored a run in the 21 run uprising we had against the Mustangs. The picture is the "sweet swing" of Surf Sam Splinter, who has raised his average by close to 100 points in one game going 2 for 2 with a nice double. Sam played shortstop but the game was so short, innings wise that is he did not get to catch for our second pitcher, who would have been Chase. Did I mention that they all scored?

Antonio "Rocky" Anguiano, so tough we had to call him Rocky. He hits everything, see the low pitch above that when to right field for a 2 RBI single. Rocky went 3 for 3 Wednesday with 2 runs scored. It was a short game innings wise but a long one time wise and Rocky caught the whole game from Riv. they worked well together, allowing 2 earned runs. That brings us to the power hitting Derek "Doc" Doktor, who had an inside the Park Homerun that he Legged into a 2 RBI triple by slipping at third and getting tagged out on a close play that might have been called safe if we were not already up by 10 runs. Doc had a 3 for 3 night with 5 RBI and scored in the first, By the way did I mention that everybody there for the Muskrats scored at least once.

What about the Hammer, Jimmie Robinson. A great game for Jimmie. Shown above with an aggressive lead off third on which he scored. Hammer was hit by a pitch twice stealing a base and scoring in the 11 run first inning. Then in the third (3rd plate appearance, HBP in 2nd) Jimmie had an RBI double to score Rocky. Rocky was catching and said he appreciated Jimmie backing up 2nd on throws to get runners stealing. Jimmie saved at least one run by doing that on Wednesday night. Buzz, Chase Goodlett, had a good night defensively and at the plate. After 2 walks in the first 2 innings Chase came up in the 3rd with runners on base and blasted a 2 run hit over the outfielders heads scoring 2 runs. It was a "Long single" It is not like Buzz wasn't trying to go fast, maybe it was just that he ran too long in one place. He did score from first and with one of his 2 steals. His other steal was in the first inning; on third and taking an aggressive lead he got picked off, then it was the "3 stooges do baseball". Buzz managed to stay in the run-down long enough to force about 5 throws and then scored. Coach Brent could not keep track of the pickle (1-5-2-7-1-2 or something so the scorebook reads "pickle")Did I mention everybody scored?

Above is Vicente' who we struggled to get a nickname for until now. He is # 8 so we are thinking "pieces of eight", Pirate stuff, Arrgh, but he is so serious we settled on "Jolly Roger" or Jolly for short. "Wait, We have a pirate on our team" (Dodgeball, the movie). So Jolly Roger Arroyo had a good game walking all three plate appearances and would have scored all three times, except on Surf Sam's easy double he hesitated going to third and was thrown out in your standard 8-7-5 put out ( I don't think that Center to left to 3rd has ever been seen before.)
Reece "The Wildthing" Martinez scored 2 runs on 2 walks and a hit by pitch as well as stealing a base or two, nice job Wild Thing! Michael "Dyn0mite" Jorrin also scored 2 runs. He made good contact on the ball but could not get it over the 2nd baseman. He stole 2 bases (we had the hourglass on you Michael,you made good time!)
Tanner was a nickname struggle for us because that is already a great baseball name "Tanner Boyle" from Bad News Bears you know "you quiting Tanner?" "Crud no Coach, I just want to play ball" So we settled on "Bad News" For Tanner it wasn't bad news on Wednesday night! He had a single in the big third inning and an "RBI Hit by Pitch" in the big first inning, after which he stole a base and scored. Did I mention everybody scored a run?

We just don't know how to describe the above pickture of Nick and RJ. Nick was first to adjust his uniform "blouse" this way so he gets the Nickname, Lady Gaga or "Gaga" for short. Nick "Lady gaga" Salamy had a great game, not only for his walk and 2 runs scored, two steals and reaching on an error but because he was a good team player this game. He had an RBI and picked up his team mates. good job Gaga!
RJ is our only nick name challenge left. We will think of something. RJ got a base for a bruise(hit by pitch) a walk and scored 2 runs on the evening. RJ had 2 Steals. Did I mention everybody scored at least one run?

This was a different game than the first. The Wolves jumped in front and were threatening to run away and hide. Then our third inning happened. Derek started it off with a smash hit to short, the kid at short never had a chance to field it and it, we learned later, resulted in Sanduval breaking his nose. Not Derek's fault he just hit it hard and had a base hit. Derek stole to third and Jimmie walked then Lady Gaga, Nick, had a sac fly for the RBI. Chase walked and RJ had an RBI single, Tanner was Bad News, for the Wolves that is, with another RBI single. Jordan, Michael and Vicente walked, then Reece the Wild Thing Martinez stepped to the plate. Coach Donny and Coach Doug made some adjustments in his stance and how held the bat. Result= 2RBI single! A big moment for Reece there! Tony then had a sacrifice for an RBI; 2 outs. Surf Sam walked and Derek singled again. The Inning ended on a good play in the outfield to catch a fly by Nick. Buzz Goodlett scored on the rare Catcher's interference (not rare enough to prevent Chase from getting 2 in the space of a couple of hours!) Also in this game Dyn0mite Jorrin scored on yet another hit by Rocky Anguiano.
The pitching was Tony for 4 innings for the win, Tanner with a "hold" and Derek with a one out save, STRUCK HIM OUT! or in giants talk Got Heem!
Our first base coach for most of this game was Flash Caldwell, Josh is on the mend from his face plant last week and we will have him back for the next games.
Coach Doug's kangaroo court book was overflowing. Reece took off to steal second got there, started walking back, a little hesitation then kept going to first, some yelling he went back to second then started back to first again before settling on the bag at 2nd, in other words he stole 2nd three times on one attempt. Chase has also perfected screaming like a little girl at just the wrong moments in the game. We have to talk to that boy!

Jordan "Riv" Driebe had another great outing striking out 7 and allowing only 2 hits and one walk. He gets his second win of the week! Chase "Buzz" Goodlett came in next and pitched ok; 2 K and one earned run but 3 walks. Rocky Anguiano got the last 3 outs no earnies, walks or hits with 1K. Good pitching but the story was the offense. Surf Sam Splinter started the game off with a hit and scored. Surfer Dude also had a hit by pitch and stole home in the 1st game. Derek "Doc" Doktor was next and had a hit of his own, he had another one in the second, scoring both times and also walked and stole home in the 5th. Jimmie the Hammer didn't get his hit until the 3rd and finished with an RBI and a run scored. Nick "Lady Gaga" Salamy was our cleanup hitter for the 1st game. He had a great day 2 for 2 with 2 runs and 2 RBI but he was caught stealing, well sort of we figured he was safe, maybe a mercy call becuase of the score at the time. He also made a diving catch at third while Chase was pitching and you can bet that Lady Gaga let Buzz know about that too. Buzz Goodlett didn't spend a lot of time at the plate. A rare Catcher's Interference gave him first base with no charged time at bat. His walk was not a time at bat either and his only at bat was a foul pop to first base, bummer dude! RJ in the 5 hole was a factor in this game with 2 hits and 2 RBI. Tanner "Bad News" Joyce walked stole a base but did not score. Jordan had a rough day at the plate but as mentioned above he was the winning pitcher. How about Dyn0mite, Michael Jorrin with a big hit in the second to set up the big inning (6 runs) He also walked and had a sacrifice to move runners. The Wolves wouldn't let Jolly Roger, Vincente' Arroyo, play walking him 3 times and that resulted in a couple of steals and a run scored. The Wild thing got a walk and a run but the second game was Reece's time. Tony arrived late and got 2 plate chances. He doubled and scored in the 3rd and walked in the 4th. A good easy 11-3 win for the boys. good job guys.

We have gone over the Jimmie 3 run homer above but it bears mentining again. The Hammer smashed a shot to the wall in left in the first inning of the first game with 2 runners on and ended up with a stand-up inside the park Homerun at Bartholomew in the first inning of the first game. The Mustangs tied the score in the bottom of the inning on errors. But good pitching by Jordan "Riv" Driebe let us pull away. We kept scoring on 2 hits by Josh, three by Derek, another RBI knock by Jimmie, 2 by Lady Gaga (Nick), an RBI single by Riv, RJ with 2 hits and Tanner as well as Tony had hits. Sam Scored 2 runs. Josh closed out the game on the Bump. Everyone contributed in this game. After the first inning our defense settled down allowing only the one more run. In the middle innings we shut down the running game but for the last inning we let the boys steal a few bases as well as hit and run. Check the averages on Teams and Rosters on the left menu. Our own Jolly Roger has a great onbase % .682 and the team OPS is outstanding 1.047, that is on base% and slugging average. The team is starting to come together around our leaders, Tony, Jimmie,Derek, Sam, Josh and Jordan. There are outstanding contributions from Nick, Michael, Tanner, Chase and RJ. And the effort put forth by Reece (defense, key hits and 7 RBI) and Vicente (getting on base, .682 and scoring,7 runs) has been inspiring.

In the second win of the day for Jordan, Old Man River, Driebe. The game started well for Jordan with a 1-2-3 inning on like 7 pitches. The last out being a good catch by Reece, The Wild Thing, in right of Wes' line drive. That was not the last we would hear of the Wild Thing in this game as he had a solid 2 RBI single in the 2nd inning. Jordan pitched 2 more innings allowing 1 unearned run. He ended the day with the 2 wins, 6 innings pitched and a clutch RBI single to Join the hit parade. Rocky had 2 more hits and there were other hits from Michael, Tanner (2), Jimmie with 3 and 3 more RBI to give him 7 for the day with 6 hits and a walk (have a day Jimmie!). Derek, RJ, Nick, Sam and Josh also had hits. Chase contributed an inning on the hill as did Josh to add to his 2 scoreless innings in game one. Derek pitched really well as has been his style lately but Tanner was next to pitch when the game was called. Derek Struck out the side in the last inning and did not allow a run. Vicente "Jolly Roger" walked twice and scored. The second game was at no point even close and we shut down the running game. We probably lost some our offensive focus in the last innings but the defense was better in the second game.

Jimmie's hard hit ball bounces up against the fence as the outfielders for the Mustangs chase it down.

Jimmie the Hammer crosses the plate with his homerun and no throw to the plate from the Mustang defense.

Jimmie is pounded by his happy team mates, maybe Michael is buried in there somewhere. It was good he was getting ready to bat with his helmet on.

In the picture above Jimmie takes his stance. He was having some trouble with a thumb he hurt batting the week before so Coach Brent loaned him his custom made thumb guard (Barney Nugent, Giants Trainer creation). In the first inning of the first game on October 8 Jimmie hit the ball way over the left fielder's head at Bartholomew. Then he started running. The pictures below show the progression of the ball and Jimmie as he rounded the bases with this 3 RBI "Dinger"

Jimmie is half way to third while 380 feet away the Mustangs are just picking up the ball at the left centerfield fence.

There is one happy ball player about to get greeted by his whole team. a big 3 run homer.

Jimmie Robinson running hard to get the Muskrats first homerun of the season. Outstanding effort Hammer!

Surf Sam was a good example, one of our team leaders and a catcher(so it is ok for his catcher coaches to make fun of him), Sam was "rung up" for wearing his shin guards backwards, that would be with the clips on the inside, in the 9th game. Both Brent and Doug saw this in the dugout. Also for being a catcher in on every play and trotting off the field with only 2 outs. The rest of the fines will not go on the website as what goes on in the "clubhouse" stays within the team.

After much research we did confirm, thanks Tami, that our Flash gets this comeback win on the hill. Josh Caldwell had a good outing and was the vulture on the hill. In baseball tradition, if the starter goes out of the game with not enough innings to qualify or a relief pitcher gets the win in a close game he is known as the vulture, circling the field waiting to pounce on the game at the right time to get an easy meal or easy win. Josh came in to a game that was tied in the top of the 4th and struck out the side. Then events described below made him a winner for his one inning on the bump. Flash contributed in other ways walking and scoring on a steal of home in the first as well as getting an RBI single in the 3rd to plate Riv and a single in the sixth before the game was called due to time. Tony and Derek had big parts in this game as well. Starting with Rocky's contributions as team Captain, as a pitcher (a "hold") and a catcher as well as at the plate. Rocky had a 2 RBI Double in the third inning which fueled the game tying rally. There was a small downside to Rocky's night. Two Caught stealings. Maybe some bad decisions on the basepaths. But Tony's contributions to this win can not be underestimated. We think of him as our third coach on the team. Riv didn't have his best game on the hill but then again he only gave up 2 earned runs; but wait 2 of the errors were a dropped pop-up by Jordan and a balk. Still, the team feels good when the Riv is on the hill. Riv struck out 2 batters in this game to give him 25 strike outs in 24 innings pitched a 4-0 record as well.
Derek may have been the ultimate hero in this game. Not only did he contribute a hit in his only oficial at bat (walked in his first plate appearance, but he came in during the top of the sixth to pitch with 2 outs and the bases loaded. By throwing 2 pitches to the speedy lead off hitter for the Wolves he got him to hit a looping liner towards third base then dove off the mound in a full lay out and made a "Sports Center catch" sliding on his chest and earning the Save on the hill. That inning started with Tanner "Bad News" Joyce making his second appearance of the year. Tanner struck out the first batter he faced, walked the next guy who stole all the way to third before Tanner gave the third guy the "bad News" by striking him out. Two walks later with the bases loaded it was time to call on the closer and that was Doc Derek Doktor. But look at Tanner being the set up guy and getting 2 K's with his stuff. The guys I have not mentioned figure in our game winning 4th inning rally making a "vulture" out of Josh

So the littlest guy on the field may have had one of the biggest influences on this game. Along with his slightly taller friend: Surf,RJ, Our Lady Gaga and the Hammer, they combined to score 3 of the runs that were the margin of victory here. Late in the ball game, bottom of the 4th inning, Jimmie openned the inning with a "opo Taco" shot down the line in right field. That was a stand up triple with some room to speculate that it could have turned into the second homerun in a week's time for Hammer Robinson. With no one out we stopped him at third. Up steps Surf Sam Splinter and promply he singles to right center and makes it to second on an error. He steals third on a heart stopper for Coach.(close play)Then Lady Gaga hits a gounder to third for an RBI that scores Surf. One out and RJ who has been on fire lately at the plate gets his second hit of the evening, steals second and goes to third on a pass ball. Dyn0mite steps to the plate works the count full and hits one to the right side scoring RJ. Great team work capped off by the little guy above, look low, Michael Jorrin.
There were all sorts of contributions from every one on the team. Jolly Roger Vicente Arroyo had 2 walks a steal and a run scored. the Wild Thing didn't hit but did work counts and got to balls in the outfield where his play has improved all year. Riv, Jordan Driebe walked twice and scored as well as starting the game on the bump and continuing to pitch well. Buzz Goodlett had some put outs at 1st and 3rd and no errors.

Riv above "Vultured" back the win he lost to Flash earlier in the week. Riv pitched 2 innings of shut out baseball to lower his final ERa to 2.77 and make the record 5-0. This Cy Youngest winner also had a hit and an RBI. Flash Caldwell was the victim of the Vulture but pitched well enough allowing no hits in 2 innings and one uneared run on his own error on a ground ball by the first batter of the game. Flash had 2 hits in three at bats one RBI and scored twice including once on a steal of home in the bottom of the first to help take the lead for good 4-1. Rocky picked off a runner at first from his catching position and we eventually ran him down using almost every defensive player on the field. Surf Sam, Jordan and Derek also started pick offs that were a sucess. Tony contributed to the first inning Rally with a single then Doc Doktor hit him home with another single while Jimmie the Hammer Robinson had a double to drive Derek in. Jimmie scored on a passed ball with some heads up base running. The next inning on offense we picked it up again with a walk by Tanner and a steal then Chase singled. Jordan then got his hit driving Tanner in followed by a 1-3 sac by Derek to drive in Chase. We were not done yet as in the 3rd RJ singled then Nick "Lady Gaga" Salamy blasted a triple to score RJ. After Michael was hit by a pitch Nick was thrown out stealing home. We still were not done yet. Chase "Buzz" Goodlett had his second hit, a ringing double, and stole 3rd. Flash Caldwell followed with a double to score Chase and then Tony walked. After Jimmie also walked for the second time (1st was intentional base on balls) Surf Sam hit a solid RBI single to cap the scoring. The Wild Thing had a hit late in the game but we were not able to score Reece. The pitching did the rest with Derek earning the save set up by team errors and a bit of wildness by Tanner. Doc gets his 3rd save of the season and excluding his first outing his ERA is under 2.00. Good job. A summary of the post season awards and updated stats follows with in the next few days with more photos posted as well.

Tony was our "Rock" all the way through the season. He Caught, played Short Stop, Center, Pitched and even 3rd base. He also was our batting leader finishing with a .731 average and 1.666 OPS to lead the team in those categories as well as RBI with 15 and Hits with 19. But he also contributed to the "teamwork" mentioned above. He was always urging his teammates onward. Always a positive leader. Most Valuable Muskrat!

Hey Muskrats!
Pick up game on Saturday 10/22 1 pm at Jones. Play with all ages 13-15 just for fun. $3 per player we will have 10 to 11 on a team maybe 1 game on South and another on Jones North. If you want to play email coach Doug jcpenney6@comcast.net AND Coach Joe Matlen joemat3@comcast.net Let coach Joe know where you played this past season, like pitch, catch and outfield for example. Warm up at noon but email soon first come first on the team til the spots are filled. we have about 14 so far max 22 for one game 44 for 2 games, so sign up asap.

Here are the 11 players present for the Thursday practice. Jake Edwards was out sick. We had a 4 team intra-squad scrimmage. It was a fun time.

The left menu under photo albums has a new entry: Muskrats 2012-1 with several pictures from Thursday's practice. More to come tomorrow!

See below and on the left menu for schedule information. We have only the first 3 weeks of the schedule with three weeks pending the addition of a 4th team. Our newest team mate, Sy Hesselberg, blended right in to practice and pitched a little also did a little corner infield.

Show up time for the game Saturday at Jones South is 9:15am. So far only Leland has indicated that he will miss the game. Anyone else contact the coaches asap. See ya at the yard meat!

Muskrats get ready. After wednesday's game we play a "Double dip" on Saturday. 4 pm and 7pm at BSP (Bartholomew Sports Park). There will be a Snackbar and we are trying to get the scoreboard. We are also looking for a singer for the National Anthem. Any singers in the Muskrat Family? the Snackbar needs workers too. Community service time available. contact Coach Doug for details or call Larry Stone to sign up (916) 759-5822. The Snack Bar will operate From lunch-time to the middle of our second game that starts at 7pm. Before our game there are 2 14-15 games so plenty of opportunity to visit the snack bar, work in the snack bar, and oh yes play some good baseball. We have the Longhorns at 4pm and we are visitors to the Trojans at 7pm.

There were many good stories in this game and just look at the batting averages on the left menu under "Teams/Rosters". Jared "Slash" Mayer was a story going 3 for 3 and 6 for 7 in that last 3 games. His batting average is now .588 Slash has played 11 out of 12 games He has the highest average of anyone who has played 8 or more games. Of the Guys who have played all 12 games Bronco Blake Lujan has the high average of .440 and OPS of 1.120 (on base % and slugging combined) Bronco also has become our "Horse" on the hill with a 2.62 ERA over 16 innings pitched (team High) and a record of 2 wins, 1 loss, a hold and a save. Leland Panda Express Buraga has pitched 12 innings and has 0.58 ERA and an .800 Batting average over 7 games while Xavier "X-man" Claudio has a .750 average for 6 games. All our averages and our on-base %'s are very high. Sometimes, like Saturday vs the Trojans, it doesn't translate well to our win %. We were 6-5-1 in our 12 games and Trojans were 7-4-1. Still it is not about the wins/losses/ties/batting averages/ERA or OPS it is about the game and having fun with it. We did that! Wednesday night we clobbered the Longhorns after a slow start. Blake gave up an uncharacteristic 5 runs, 3 earned and we were down 4-0 after 1 1/2 innings. But in the bottom of the second Sy got walked then Slash got a hit and Josh got one too, a pitch right on the forearm. Sabo came through with a hit of the more conventional kind into right center. Blurr, Dusty and Bullseye walked and up stepped X-Man and singled in 2 runners. Ricky got an RBI ground out and Stretch had a single. Then Bronco and Panda Express got hits. Panda got caught stealing 10-4 good guys. We mounted another rally in the 3rd inning with a Slash single and Josh struck out but reached on a dropped third (what speed!) then Sabo and Blurr walked and Dusty singled then with one out Xman singled. scoring Blurr.14-5 by then. our final rally actually should have ended the game but we let the 'Horns bat. Panda tripled then Sy singled for an RBI while Slash doubled for a rbi. Josh got a hit and for a change so did Sabo, right in the hip at the plate so 2 runs in and Blurr gets an RBI ground out to cap our scoring at 17. The Horns scored meaningless 2 runs off of Sy Hesselberg and Joseph "Stretch" McCarley (both real good efforts on the hill)for a 17-7 final pasting. Sy "Babe" Hesselberg scored 2 runs and had 2 RBI, Josh "Montana" Hames was about the same as was Dusty Trejo and Jacob "Sabo" Espinosa. Everyone on the club had a hit, and RBI or a run scored in this game. Post season honors announced next week ( no trophies just recognition for a few outstanding Muskrats). One final Kangroo Kourt case for the end of the year. As we are about to shake hands Coach says let's give 'em a cheer and Ricky says "yeah good game Trojans" "in the Book, Ricky" but we will let it go- no fine!

Great fun coming up for our incoming 13 year-olds for Fall Ball. The Beavers/Rivercats farm team(The Muskrats) plays again this fall with practice starting late august and League games starting after Labor Day and ending before 10/20/13.  15 games mostly doubleheaders on Saturdays and few midweek night games (under the lights) at Bartholomew or Nottoli.  We can protect 6 incoming players and already have 2 legacy players.  Mondo Anguaino (Rocky's brother) and Ryan Kimberling (Lurch Kimberling's brother).  We will get some more for this team.  We plan to have fun and make the adjustment to the big field. 

We will have 13 or so new players entering the league as "13 year-old" Muskrats Fall ball players including 2 legacy players listed below.  Coaches doug Penney, Brent Tetlow and Tanner "Slick" Morrison will introduce these players to the "big" field and Elk Grove Babe Ruth Baseball.  We wil have fun, learn baseball, increase their baseball I Q and help them develop better baseball skills. 

 

Our players will be meeting at the Roundtable Pizza Tuesday August 27 6:30 pm for distrobution of jerseys and information. they are Mondo Anguiano; Josiah Cisneros; Kyle Hecox; Issac Hernandez; Jordan Hughes; William Jacobson; Ryan Kimberling; Jared Mawdsley; Ian MacDonald; Patrick Port; Evan Roth; and Cameron Sills.  The Coaching staff  Doug Penney; Brent Tetlow and Student assistant Coach Tanner "Slick" Morrison

We are looking for one or two more coaches from the parents on this team. 

Ready for some baseball?? "Let's do this thing!"  Meet and Greet set for tonight as this is written. Every player will be represented.   Practice Thursday Jones North 5pm. Some players have last games of prep league then but no problem.  Suggest you wear the uniforms and any hat you want for practice Saturday.  Jones South 9am.  Let's play and let's have fun out there!

Saturday we show up for the double header at 9am sharp and we should have all 12 of our players.  This will be fun and we expect to have a good effort from everyone!  We will be looking for someone to do snacks between games for this one; and then a couple of families per doubleheader as well for our future double dips plus one for Kangroo Kourt on Saturday 10/12/13 after our 10 am game at Zehnder. Let's play ball and have fun out there! 

    

 

  

May have lost both games but we sure did win the Picnic!  Thank you parents.   

 

We learned some Facts like  how spider got his name because no human could do this without breaking both arms.

The team kept the spirit up, just look at those guys on the fence! 

Josiah pitched very well.

No one got a hit in the first game but Will got one in the second game, Crash Hernandez had a hit and scored 2 runs, Josiah had 2 hits in the second game on Ian's bases loaded walk. Evan had two RBI on a single but was thrown out trying to take second. Spider and Hawk also walked and scored while Hydrant Sills had an RBI walk.  Happy Port, Red Mawdsley, Jordan, Mongo Anguiano and Josiah also drew walks. There are more pictures click photo albums on the left menu and select the album labeled "Muskrats 13 fall 1". 

Coming up soon Coach's Corner about pitching and the shoulder turn this week sponsored by Tums! New sound is especially selected for the Coach's Corner!

Nuke La Loosch in Bull Durham said to the reporter quoting Crash Davis, "You win some, you lose some and some are rained out"  That describes the last 3 games of the Muskrats Fall Season.  We won a week ago on Tuesday night vs the Red Bandits, Saturday we lost, but played better vs the Galt team and then we were rained out of the second half of the double dip down in Galt!  It started with Ian "Houdini" MacDonald on the hill getting out of a bases loaded Jam after some advise from Coach Doug.

 

Note the glove out in front and the "T /L"  position which leveled the shoulders like Coach Donny told him on Thursday.  Coach Doug tells him with the bases loaded, this is the guy you want to get-and he did, Pop up right back to Ian, earning the Houdini nickname!

Jordan "Riv" Hughes pitched next and gave up 2 uneaned runs striking out 1.

Josiah "Grizz" Cisneros pitched well once he got back to the T position reaching back and finishing, no short arming in this picture.

Grizz Struck out 2 and allowed one run, one walk. and one hit.

Will Jacobson, Lone Pine for this tall kid growing into those legs, (LP) for short, came in for 2 innings 3 strike outs, a hit by pitch and no earned runs.  We had a couple of errors in his last inning and that lead to 4 runs, all unearned.  I think he likes pitching; see below

Then the Hydrant was our last pitcher of the game and it turned out of the day!  He pitched great!2 ground balls and a pop up to Will at first.

 

Other stuff which will be commented on is below but all the pictures are in left menu album "13 Muskrats at Galt"

Cole "the Coleman" Johnson got on base in the first game like many of the team on a walk.

Crash came as close to a hit as any with a couple of "loud foul balls"

a Dirty happy limps to the dugout after being caught stealing third with 2 outs. We like the effort but the old coach says never make the 3rd out of the inning  at third base!

 

A pair of nice catches here. "their startin' to come together, Pepper, Startin' to come together"

Nice play Red to Mongo and Spider appears to be in a good spot to watch the game here.  Shouldn't you be backing up some base or something Ryan?

 

Apparently Mongo got the foot back on the base for the out.

 

Hey guys, I think I am getting wet! Coach Brent describes this one as "the team performs an exorcism on Happy"

Yup dirt is starting to take on a little shine and we are rained out for the second game!

 

 

It was  pretty weird to lose both games but feel we had learned somethings and accomplished some good stuff. So up coming teams, as Dirty Harry said "Un uh, I know what your thinkin'..." 

I thought we had the first game vs the Red Bandits but in the end they stole it, wait no that is not right,  we gave it to them.  Some very good early high lights.  L.P. Jacobson arrived late but in the third inning he scored out first run on a walk and base hits by Houdini, who pitched 2 good innings, Crash and Tank Roth.  then we got the Red-Hawk-Casino combo going.  Red Mawdsley followed a Hawk Hecox single with a booming, RBI double

 

 

 

Then the guy we have now nicknamed Casino (Cole Johnson) singles in Red

 

Riv scored one run and made some great plays. 

 

 

Houdini, Tank, Roth and Crash Hernandez all had hits and key RBI

Tank Roth had some nice tags on the bases in good position to make the plays.

  we had a coach in the line up too.  good shot of the Hydrant here (Cameron Sills)

In the end, leading by 2 runs we had some bobbles and couple of poor choices on throws that cost us the game.  but still we hung in for the second game and the team got offensive, to the other team, or I mean at the plate, er batting that is with 12 hits against Kilbrides 14-15 Klan. 

 

In that second game we did come up one run short but gave the older team a real scare.  We made great defensive plays and pitched well.  We started with the Hydrant on the hill and Cameron responded with a pop up, ground ball and then after a hit he picked off the runner at first .  Good start gents.  In the bottom of the inning with Spider getting a one out hit but was caught stealing.  Then we got the Red/Hawk combo going again with back to back hits. But Casino Johnson's hit didn't quite have the distance. He got thrown out catcher to first base. They broke through with a couple of runs but our defense limited the damage with a couple of caught stealings, including home plate.

 

 

Other plays included great catches by Hawk and Red, a couple of nice plays by Mongo, LP,  Riv, tank and Crash.

 

We were down a few runs going to the bottom of the 6th and we scored early and often; Hawk and Red got together again with Hawk's second hit of the game and then Red Mawdsley walked as did Casino, Happy (RBI), LP then got a hit for an RBI as did Riv, then Crash Hernandez walked for another RBI, Tank Roth walks for an RBI and then Cameron gets an RBI ground out to end our scoring one run short of the tie!

There are some great pictures in the Album marked "3 Muskrats  3rd double dip"  notice Spiders "Fernando Rodney" hat style, the good positions on pick off throws, and some good batting stances. 

 "They may take out lives, but they will never take our FREEDOM!" (William Wallace, Braveheart). We actually stopped them fairly well with Crash and Houdini on the bump in the first two innings in Galt.  As visitors we got the "Red-Hawk" connection going early with Red's walk a Knock from the Hawk then walks to Houdini and Tank to score Red!  A one run lead that didn't last long.  Crash walked the lead-off batter on a close 3-2 pitch and he stole to third during the strike out to the second Galt hitter. Then a ground out to short scored the run.  No hits yet for Galt.  We got another run in the second inning by a walk to Spider and then he just took over stealing 2nd, third and scoring by stealing home.  2-1 good guys.  Houdini came in and did his thing.  He gave up a hit with one out walked the next guy then got a ground out; 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs then he walks the next batter to load them up--break out the Tums!, So he strikes out the next batter on 4 pitches.  Whew!

those were the highlights and next came the low lights.  Josiah (Grizz) comes and has a little trouble with control when he walks the first 2 batters. slowing down a little he strikes out the third batter of the inning.  One hit and 2 errors later our 1 run lead turns into a 4 run Galt lead.  We get hits in the mean time from Crash and Casino (Cole), a double play and a ground out end that Muskrat threat! Grizz gets a hit later and gets caught stealing, We get walks to LP, Spider, Hydrant in one inning but can't push them across.

  LP (Will) pitches really well for us.  No hits, one walk and one K with a couple of ground outs. Then the Hydrant comes on walks the lead off batter and gives up a hit before getting the first out.  2 errors result in the first 2 runs of the inning but then a double scores 2 of the runners that reached on errors.  The walks start and after 22 pitches we pull Hydrant and put the Hawk in. But the walk fever has taken hold and Hawk walks in a couple of runners that Hydrant left on then buckles down and gets the final 2 outs by strike out.7 pitches inning over. But the inning took so long the game was called for time. 

We can beat these guys! 1st game was 22-0 Galt  2nd 7-0 and third was 12-2 but the last 5 or so runs were in the last inning when the game was over by time. We have improved.  See most of the team on Thursday at Zehnder for practice 5 pm sharp.   

says it all doesn't it! Gnarly!  We really don't know what he is trying to say here but we agree!  From Bull Durham  The Skipper to Coach Larry Hockett "What is our record Larry?" Larry: "1 and 7" Skip: "How did we ever win that game" Larry: " It's a miracle!" Skip : " It's a Miracle, you lollygag the ball around the infield, you lollygag down to first base, you Lollygag in and out of the dugout. You know what that makes you---Larry?" Larry; "LOLLYGAGGERS!" that is kinda what we had Tuesday night after that little 11 run outburst the Mustangs put on in the first 2 innings.  But the Muskrats will survive!

It started normally for us with bands, heavy bats, but then we took a normal picture,

Still ok then we went to pieces!

We were ok on offense in the first and got the Red Hawk combo going again with help from Grizz.  Red got a one out hit, and Hawk reached on a strike out and a dropped third after Red stole 2nd, then Hawk stole second  and Grizz struck out on dropped third and scored Red by making them throw to first as Red scampered home!

LP pitched and was the victim of several errors and a wild pick off play that cost us some runs. 5-1 bad guys but we scored again thanks to Riv (Jordan) and Spider (Ryan). Riv walked and stole second and third with one out then Spider (seen below doing his Fernando Rodney [Tampa Rays reliever with the hat always on sideways]) reached on ball hit deep in the hole at short and beat it out. 

that was it for the scoring but Riv and Tank made a real good play on a dive at third by Riv and a stretch at first by Tank

 

Other good plays included a foul pop up catch by Hydrant, and a good play by Houdini behind the dish.  With few exceptions there was not much of a chance for base running but Casino tried to "cash in" on a steal of third and was caught because he did not slide, coach fault here as he has asked for instruction on that and we ran out of time so this week we do that.  Red had a good dive back on a pick off attempt at 2nd though

 

 

 

Thanks to Darrel Hughes for the pictures below. 

 

 

Like Jordan, The Riv on the bump, and Spider on the hill too.  

We out hit them, tied them in earned runs and out pitched them but lost by 13,with good pitchers on the bump like Riv, Spider and Grizz !

  What does that say about the defense?  our offense was a little better than the previous game and out attitude and drive were much improved.  The stats are updated. We had a good Kangroo Kourt session We will have some more pictures tomorrow.  Then we had a little pizza and soda

 

That was fun too.  Thanks parents!

Ok so the final was 19-3 but we had 3 hits they only had 6.  We pitched better than they did.  Grizz pitched the first inning and allowed 6 runs but only 1 earned

 

 

 

Our only productive offense was in the 1st inning.Crash and Riv walked With Grizz moving Crash to third on a fielder's choice.

 

 

 

 

then Tank, walked to reload the bases and LP got an RBI walk as did Mongo and Spider!

Then we had Riv on the Bump for a very good inning that almost started off in disaster.  Riv said thursday, "Happy's throw saved me, from a lead off triple." With Jon Leon, Redwings strong left hander, at bat Riv grooved a fastball and "Jonny Drops" (Redwing nickname) hit one on the screws to right past Happy. But he gets to it and throws over the first cut-off, Spider and right to the second guy in line, Grizz.  The throw was 120 feet on a line (Happy, in August, could not throw 50 feet on a line).  Grizz gets the ball and fires it to Crash at third.  In the pictures below notice the Runner is not in the picture until the third frame and then the head first slide and the tag, on the rear end by Crash as Jonny face plants to the dirt way short of the bag. 

 

 

 

The Coaches had fun with this one because it represented an improvement in the defense for Happy on the throw, Spider in position and Grizz with the glove side turn and accurate throw to Crash expecting the throw and making the tag.

From that point we had hits from Hawk and Grizz, but Spider, LP, Riv and Hydrant were robbed of hits by good Redwings defense supplied partly by regular season Beavers Dyn-0-Mike Jorrin, Lurch Kimberling and  Rocky Anguiano.  The Hydrant walked and stole 2 bases as well but we could not score him. 

 

Tank pitched well and had some good position for throws at third compared to earlier

 

Casino is out of this picture above backing up the throw on the line.

 

Only picture we had handy of Cole "Casino" Johnson. 

LP pitched very well, he gave up 9 runs 0 Earned runs and struck out one on NO Hits, that is right NONE!  Tank came in to the inning with 2 outs and gave up one run of his own, also unearned!

 

 

Over all it was a fun game and we got to show off some what they had earned we just won't mention the score, will we Happy?

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See left Menu for more Pictures "2013 v. Redwings"

For once our offense lived up to the pitching. 14 hits 18 runs and we stopped running on them after 2 innings. We were home team and LP started on the bump.  A walk started it but the good left handed pick off move of LP got the speedy lead off man for the Bandits.  LP and Houdini almost got him at first.

 

 

just barely missed then the leg lift by LP catches #9 running and Houdini gets the good throw from LP fires to Crash at Short and the ball beats the runner by plenty.  the tag is low but a little slow, #9 argues but the Ump calls him out.  Looks like a good call from HERE!

 

 

 

Nice play relied on LP making a good left handers pick off move as we practiced, then Houdini throwing the ball early to Crash and then Crash getting the throw in front of the bag and tagging low.  Even thought he was even with the bag and did not crow foot the ball in the glove with the throwing hand Crash got the Job done.  See guys we practiced the rundowns for a reason.

The offense went to work after a pop up and strike out of the #3 batter by LP (great job on the hill Will!)

With one out in the First Mongo gets hit by a pitch, LP gets a hit but Mongo gets caught trying to stretch to third.  With two outs and only LP on base Riv gets a hit and so does Happy! Bases loaded for Tank! Evan gets a solid shot to right and scoring LP and Riv.  then on comes Crash with a little 2 out "bingo" and Scores Happy.  3 Zip good guys.  that turned out to be as close as the Bandits got to us. 

Tank has a good second in spite of 2 walks and runner reaching on an error. He ends up as the winning pitcher because LP only pitched one inning so a reliever gets the win. 

We went back to work with the Hydrant up and he shoots one to center and takes an aggressive turn at first as shown below.

 The Hydrant steals to third and Grizz walks and steals 2nd followed by a nice hit from Houdini that scores Hydrant.  Casino  walks to load the bases and then the Spider with his small strike zone takes an RBI walk.  Mongo follows with a shot to Left center that knocks in Houdini and Casino.  Will and Riv walk bases reloaded but nobody out. Happy makes the first out on an Infield Fly.  But Crash comes through with another 2 RBI knock! The Hawk walks after that but no further damage can be done.

Riv takes over on the Bump and pitches a Pretty nice third in spite of another runner reaching on an error. But two strike outs and ground ball back to Riv end the inning for the Bandits offense.

At this point up 11-0 we are not running on offense, "station to station".  Sportsmanship lesson for us.  But Houdini, Casino, LP, walk and Riv gets an RBI walk as does Happy, Tank and Crash.  Then with the bases loaded Hawk decides to join the party with hit to left to score Happy. We probably could have scored more on that but we held the runners to one base at a time.  The Hydrant followed with another hit scoring Tank.  Grizz then walks driving in Crash.  that ended the Muskrats scoring for the day with that 7 run inning.  We did give up the shut out in the top of the 4th.  Grizz got an out on a stike out but the 18-0 score tightened up the Umps strike zone a bit and we walked some.  With one out and time running out on the game Mongo made his pitching debut for the season. With a walk to score an inherited runner, Mongo was on a short leash but he did get the second out of the inning by getting the next Bandit batter to hit a little hump backed liner to short stop for out number 2. Another walk and it was time to bring in the Spider to close.  Spider gets a strike out of the #2 bandit batter to end the game  18-4 Good guys and it wasn't that close folks!

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

Great function we still have an award and pictures for Grizz.  Happy picking his up Monday.  Also Coach Brent has a CD with your pictures on it.  A lot more than are on the website. So far Tank, Crash, Red, Spider, LP, Riv, Mongo, Houdini, Hawk and Casino are confirmed. Hydrant and Happy have made arrangements to pick up the award and CD.

The Muskrats will be one of the teams in the incoming 12 and 13 year-old division this Fall.  All you in that age who have just "aged out " of Cal Ripken are welcome to sign up www.eghardball.com for applications.  We have 2 players signed as protected by the Muskrats so far: Carter Thomas:

Carter is a pitcher, catcher, first baseman and outfielder.

 

 We also have protected Jesse Mejia, whose Brother Alex was a 2014 Beavers' player.  Jesse is an outfielder, 3rd baseman and can play other infield spots as well.

 

Brother Alex "Fox" Mejia shown below

These two are already fitting in in our pick up games as shown here on the bench with another former Beaver, Sam Sodergren.

  We can protect 4 more but need general sign ups for the league too.  Sign up by 8/16/14 and play games starting just after Labor Day. Practice will start late August. There is a 14-15 year-old division as well.  All players are urged to sign up on line as soon as possible.

the Muskrats started with Alex "Fox" Mejia, brother Jesse "J-Man" Mejia, Jack Francis and Carter " Bulldog" Thomas. In addition the coaching staff drafted Zack Fonseca, Joe Forrestdavis, Matthew Gomez, Gabriel Lefebre, Michael Quesada, Cody Ross, Kishan Shah and Caleb Yount.  Our first event is a "Meet and Greet" on September 2, Tuesday 6:30pm at Lamppost Pizza 5109 Laguna Blvd. Elk Grove 95758.  A fun event with Pizza for all, lots of information, hats and jerseys plus socks. We also have parents and players take care of forms and receive schedules.  Then later in the week we start practice with games the following week.  

We are working on nicknames for everyone. Some of the stories are on the "roster page" of this site (just click on the player's name).  To give you an idea of the process here is our Kishan. 

 

He moves well on the field with fast, "cat like" reflexes-- So- nickname Lynx after this creature

This is all for fun, of course.  And at Coach Brent's suggestion we seem to have a Cat theme going. Caleb Yount is a pitcher/ first baseman who reminds us of Andres Gallaraga in size, power and the way he handles first base.  His nick names were El Gato and Big Cat.  So Caleb is now Big Cat

 

Slider grip above.

"Let the games begin!" " Play Ball!" let's see oh "let's get ready to Rumble!" So those are all the trite phrases I can think of now! But your Whole Muskrats 2014 Schedule is listed now on this site.  Click on Schedules on the left menu of this site. Copies tonight at practice 9/4/14 Jones North.  Most of our games are at Bartholomew or Nottoli but we do have one "road game" at Galt Community park on weekday night, September 17, 6:30 game 5:30 show up.  All times shown are first pitch times and show up times are 1 hour before first pitch. Be there in uniform ready to warm up and remember to call if you are going to be delayed or can't make it. As much notice as possible please.  If you know now for any games or even practices you can't make please email Coach Doug.

We have started practice and some of these pictures look familiar now!  Bands (Athletic Republic  www.athleticrepublic.com )

Heavy bats

 

Rosters on the left menu now have "bubble gum card pictures" and some new nick names-

  And oh 1-2-3 GO!

Long but fun day at the old yard!  We learned some things, had some success and tested our limits! At the end of the second game it was 103 degrees without a breath of wind.  In the morning at game time it was much more pleasant and the team responded with a good game.  In these articles I will use only nicknames so if you are unsure check the teams/rosters tab on the left menu.  The Big Cat started the game on the hill and pitched well.           He gave up one run in the first and 1 unearned run in the second while striking out 2. Meanwhile we put some runs on the board.  Z-Man got a one out single in the first and stole second

  Note the bad positioning by the Dirt Bags second baseman, not in front of the bag so the runner is getting between him and the ball, we need to be in front of the bag facing the catcher and then sweep the tag on the sliding runner.

then Big Country and Big Cat followed with walks to load the bases for the Lynx who delivered with a 2 RBI single.

El Toro walked and then Goldie came up with a sacrifice to the right side to score Big Cat. Nice RBI Goldie!  As it turned out that would be the only RBI, only plate appearance for the day! On defense Goldie was "shining", shown here making a catch at second base

  But it was a play at third base that put him out of the game.  Fielding a throw to get the sliding runner he tags him on the helmet and that we thought at first dislocated his thumb but no! wrong -broke and dislocated his thumb. Soft cast on Saturday to be followed by a hard cast and out for 4 weeks, darn! In the bottom of the second we got a hit from Shaw and Fox came up with 2 out and a runner on, Coach Doug told him to get a hit for his brother Goldie and he did. We did not score but the effort was there! We did pick up 3 runs in the bottom of the third after we went down 3 runs in the top of the Inning.  Lynx came in with the bases loaded and the three runs in to get us out of the top of the third..  Big Country walked and with one out Lynx came up with another RBI single. Toro then walked again as did Jack Rabbit.  That brought up Shaw who had a 2 RBI hit.

Tie ball game. Lynx stayed in the game to pitch the 4th. Although he walked 3 he struck out 2 and got us out of the inning without giving up a run. 

  The bottom of the 4th was the key inning in this game.  Fox led off the inning with a walk and Z-man was hit by a pitch bringing up Big Country.  He shot an RBI single into the outfield to give us the lead. Then with one out Lynx struck out but reached first on the dropped third but Z-man's wild ride started as he tried to score. the sequence was interesting. see below:

 

 He was safe there and later did score.  With time of game running out (no new inning after 2:15) we sent Big Country to the hill to close out the game, figuring if he uses about 15 pitches without giving up our 2 run lead the game will be over. Nope think again.  He strikes out the Dirt Bag's # 3 hitter on three pitches "Good Morning, Good Afternoon and Good Night", the clean up batter with one pitch grounds back to the mound for the "1-3" put out and the next guy on a 1-1 pitch hits it towards first where Big Country fields  for the unassisted put out. 6 pitches.  But the umpire says up to us to end it there or go up and bat for 10 minutes. Dirt bags agree to call the game there! First game first win!  Lynx with 2 hits 3 RBI and the win on the bump is the player of the game. Big Country gets the Save as well as an RBI single. Shaw had 2 hits and 2 key RBI.

I don't want to spend a lot of time on the second game except to mention a couple of key performances.  Once again Lynx on the hill was outstanding although the defense behind him gave up a few runs, Michael Quesada showed up for the second game after his basketball tourney was over. He provided some "spark" with a hit in the second inning (one of our 2 hits) He stole a base but then got a little greedy and got caught off of third. See sequence below where he is tagged out.

 There is a fire starter on the diamond like a "Bic" lighter.  A new nickname is born, Bic!  Also as I mentioned it was hot.  Z-man was catching and running the bases,  I the first inning of the second game he Reached on a strike out dropped third Stole to third and scored.  By the second inning he was getting dizzy so we pulled him and he could not finish the game.  Did not drink enough water during the first game and the break.  Coach Brent force fed him water and several parents provided cool towels and ice packs so he was ok at the end of the game.  Lynx and Bonanza scored in the first inning as well but that is all the damage we could do.  Walks by Jack Rabbit, Bic and Big Cat did not result in any runs or rallies. Defense was spotty but Gator (2nd and outfield), Bonanza behind the dish, Toro at third had notable plays.  Toro snagged a lined shot near the bag at third and dove (Mom said fell) on third for a inning ending double play. Some random shots of those guys: In addition, Coach Slick was unable to attend the game helping a friend after a house fire so Coach Dyn-0-Mike Jorrin was good enough to fill in  shown here leading stretch note Goldie on left (one of the few pictures we got before the injury. )

Thanks as well to Coach Rich Thomas who kept score for us and allowed us to bring you the details in this article.  All in all a fun day, one picture is worth a 1000 words eh Big Cat?

  Practice Tuesday 5 pm at BSP and  then our first night game in Galt at Galt Community Park on Walnut, Wednesday 5:30 show up. 

 Game stats are on the left menu under Game Results and these pictures and more are in the  photo album left tab and titled "Fall 2014 Muskrats 1"

Well, this was a heck of a game. The Coaches were very proud of the boys on this game. It was the first night game and the first game against a 13-15 team. The Galt team has as many 14-15's as 13 year-old players and some older pitchers who throw hard.  They also had played 2 games losing to the 14-15 Ironbirds and beating the 14-15 Redwings. We just about handed them their second loss.  Coach Brent is getting the pictures together and a full "game wrap" will be posted here by Saturday. The Sound is from Bull Durham The Crash Davis speech to Nuke about not trying to strike everyone out seemed appropriate here! we did strike out 6 Galt players but we struck out against them "too many times". Special thanks to Monica Ross who took some of the pictures below  (note the slightly different angle of the Hatless play at the plate Monica took the one on the left with the "baseball facial" and Coach Brent took the one on the right)

  As the Visiting team we started off right away with Hatless Quesada getting hit by a pitch. A Steal, then another with Michael finally scoring on a wild pitch. 

 

Notice Hatless "facial" That is all we could do in the first. Toro took the hill and pitched well

 two runs not earned and Toro stood as the pitcher of record on the wrong end, but he handled that later in the game with a nice 2 run single. Big Cat pitched next for us and did well also.  Big cat had a fabulous play at first on a throw from Zebra at third.

   

 

Big Country had a couple of good plays and hit on the night, including a great tag at home.

 

We had our big inning in the third mostly on walks but one big hit from Toro.  Bonanza, Fox, Zebra, Big Cat and big country were all in on the rally.

Other defense was helpful including Jack Rabbit at second and Lynx who also pitched at short.

 

After we tied the game Lynx pitched 3 innings of outstanding baseball but one dive at first came up about 2 inches short and the Galt team bested us.  It was a close game and a great effort by the whole team. After the game everyone gathered in the dugout. Despite the loss lots of good spirit.

The win and then we played a practice game which would have been a tie had we had the chance to finish.  But some good plays and 12 hits, we out hit them 12-6 and we had more errors too.  In Big Cats inning he had a couple of quick outs then the defense fell apart on him( he should have faced at most 4 batters but errors caused him to face 11 walking the last 5.  He hung in there well and we are proud of him!  The story of what turned out to be just a practice game is fun to go thru and once again Monica Ross and Coach Brent took some great pictures. We started the 1st as visitors and got going right away.  The first Muskrat batter was Hatless and he singled right away and stole 2nd easily. Lynx was our starting pitcher and #2 batter and he delivers an RBI double

Hatless scores standing up!

   

Big Country was our #3 batter and he has an RBI. here is a rare picture with Coach Brent at first base.

 Zebra singles but Big Country could not stretch all the way to third ( maybe a slide here and he is safe!) Fox then steps up with 2 outs and singles in Zebra who had easily stolen 2nd. That was followed by a base knock for Shaw ( remember I said Mom was also taking pictures) Here is Shaw waving to the crowd of Shaw fans!

 

That kid is going to replace Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight show I think! Anyway with Fox at third after the Shaw hit up steps Toro. He has the 4th RBI hit of the inning.  A great first inning.  Lynx to the hill. The first 2 defensive innings that Lynx pitched blended together but we had some good defensive plays By Bonanza in left, Fox in center and a Big Country (catcher) to  Zebra pick off play and third that you can see Lynx celebrate for the third out below.

   That was a big play and ended up with Lynx pitching 2 innings and giving up 2 runs, only one earned on three hits and 2 walks.  Meanwhile we got the offense going again in the 2nd after that 4 run first. Jack Rabbit, who hit the ball hard all night got a lead-off hit in the 2nd.

    Then Hatless promptly doubled to score Jack Rabbit. Lynx hit to the right side for a sacrifice moving Hatless to third. Big Country got another RBI with his second hit then stole 2nd to set up Big Cat for a Big at bat.  Big Cat launched one over the centerfielder's head and then "legged" that triple into a Double and scored Big Country easily!

 

                                                              7-2 after 2! Then we put the hero of the previous inning on the bump. Big Cat was sharp 4 pitches gave us 2 outs. Then an error put the third batter of the inning on base.  2 errors and hit later and the Big Cat was in Trouble.  He started having issues with his delivery and was striding "off line" to the plate vs.  going right at Big Country.  By that time we had already used our one mound visit so we went form 5 runs up to one run down. All Runs were unearned.  Toro came in for relief within 3 pitches Jack Rabbit got a pop up out at second base to "stop the bleeding!"  We kind of stalled on offense until the last inning. The defense after the third, until the 5th inning was ok too except that we had a couple of ground balls to the right side that were fielded at first and neither the second baseman nor our pitcher covered first. On a ball to the right side with no play at home, the pitcher and the second baseman must cover first base.  That cost us at least 2 runs in the game. One other item captured on film was the coverage on the steal of third.  Zebra, who had an RBI in the first and contributed on an earlier pick off at third was the victim here.  This is a learning experience! Note, the position for the throw from the catcher is behind the bag and thus the runner, sliding in, can get between the Zebra and the ball.  so this Angel was safe!   The ball ended up behind Zebra, if he is in front of the bag and the runner, towards the catcher, the ball is there in plenty of time and he can catch it and sweep the tag without the runner in the way! One other "learning experience" was on a Sacrifice fly. Jack Rabbit had a perfectly executed "Sac Fly" that Shaw did not score on. He did not understand the "be ready to tag up on a fly ball" statement that I made to him.  When the fly to medium deep left went up he could have tagged up (been on 3rd base) when the ball was caught and then broken for the plate.  He probably would have scored without a throw but he was half way home and could not score.  We could have used that run. That is what Fall Ball is for, learning!

The end of the game may become as well known as "The Catch" when Dwight Clark caught Joe Montana's TD pass in the play offs vs. Dallas.  "The Fox smash" was a 2 on, one out situation with us down 2 runs (Big Country hit by a pitch and Big Cat walked). So up steps Fox.  He smashes this ball about 18 inches up the third baseline and beats out the late throw while Big Country scores. Then Big Cat scores on Shaw's ground out.  We tied then but ran out of time for this exhibition game. The umpire called the game or we would have nailed down the tie.  A pretty good effort, very proud of our offense and we had some good defensive moments as well.

Double dip Saturday at BSP, 9 am show up vs. the Un-Athletics. 

 

 

Great job by the whole team this past Saturday. It wasn't easy or comfortable for the coaches.  First time this season we brought out the Pepto and the Tums!  Anyhow we started well in the first game as the visiting team. We got started with Hatless who walked in each of the first 2 innings and scored both times. The first time Lynx sacrificed him to second and he stole third.

  Now that's action folks.  Then Big Country comes through with the RBI single.  Zebra follows with a hit but Big Country is out trying to stretch to third. Slide and your safe big man!  Big Cat Walked followed by a Fox it. bases loaded for Toro who gets the hit and the RBI  Shaw walks for another RBI and up steps Jack Rabbit with one of 3 hits one the day.  he knocks in Fox.  Bonanza puts the ball in play but Toro is out at the plate trying to score.

 a little late on the slide there Toro!  4 runs in the first and the Big Cat goes to the hill.  We give up 3 runs in his 2 innings but all in all he pitched well with 5 strike-outs of U/A players. 

 

Cool picture by Ms. Monica Ross there of the Big Cat. Great balance like we want to see on all our pitchers!  In the 2nd we scored 3 more and put the lead at 7 to 3.  We never gave up the lead and only played 4 innings so that means Big Cat can get the Win!  Our runs in that inning came on a one out walk to Hatless, moved to third on a ground out by Lynx and driven in by Big Country on solid single. Then the Zebra came up with Big Country stealing to third Zebra easily drove him in with a base hit. Then Zebra stole third as Big Cat walked and stole 2nd. Zebra scored when the Fox came up with his second hit and second RBI of the game in only the 2nd inning. Toro was on to pitch with a pretty good lead and real shaky defense behind him.  His control wasn't great either but he hung in there, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. We should have been out of the inning with only 1 run. Toro started the last inning after we had scored 5 more runs. Hits by Fox, walks by Toro, Shaw, Jack Rabbit setting up Gator

to drive in a run with well placed ball on the right side. Nice RBI Gator!.  But that left 2 on for Hatless who hit a ball very very far.  He ended up with a 2 run triple.

 

There were also some pretty good defensive plays.  

 Big Country with a snag here!

 Hatless with a good pick up and throw.

 Shaw with a good throw. Don't get me wrong there were some plays that didn't work out, but we learned from them. see the sequence with Bonanza below where he gets the ball and tries to tag one handed. He had time to "crow foot" the ball in the glove and "swipe tag" He knows now and it was a painfull experience too!  I told you he was tough!

 

 

Ouch! 

14 runs on 14 hits for the good guys. But it was still close. so Lynx had to relieve Toro on the hill and earned the save 14 to 11.  For a while there the coaches were a bit nervous.  Coach Richie had to make his first visit to the mound.

 Coach Doug was looking for Tums!  It wasn't quite as hot for this double dip as it was for the last. The Un-Athletics took a lead in the second game with Lynx pitching. He got a couple of outs early in the first but could not get the third before they scored 3 runs.  we came back in the first with Hatless drawing a lead off walk and then stealing to third.  He did not need to steal all the way there as it turned out with Lynx slamming a triple in the gap. Just the one in the first and we were down 3-1 but then things got better on defense and the hill with Lynx pitching 3 innings and only giving up one more hit and no more walks.  We continued to hit and in the second Fox started us with a hit, stole second , went to third on Toro's ground out and scored with steal of home.  Jack Rabbit got another hit with 2 outs but then got picked off twice with the same left handed move. the first time he wiggled out of it the second time he was just plain "out of gas"! Another interesting moment in the 2nd game was when we had 2 runners at third and Zebra was trying to get everyone's attention.  Makes a great picture.

  you-who over here!  I don't think we got an out and gave up a run too!  Oh well. We would come back.

We scored the tying run in the third on a Hatless walk, steal and a Lynx double.

  We went back behind on a couple of hits and an error or two when Big Country was pitching.  H got us going in the 4th though with a hit followed by a Zebra hit and Sacrifice by b Big Cat and then a hit by  Fox. Big Country scored  and  Zebra rounded third ... then the Sniper got him.  Fox could not get back to second as he was just about standing on third when the Zebra went down. Zebra got thrown out trying to steal home.

 We were running out of time down. by one run and Big Country was the pitcher of record. In the bottom of the 5th Shaw lead off with hit. Then Jack Rabbit got a hit as Bonanza walked . Then Hatless walked with one down to score Shaw. Tie ball game. Lynx, who was on fire, hits his 2nd double of the game and drives in 2 with Bonanza hustling around third and just making it home.  Zebra had an RBI ground out so we ended up 14-11 with Big Country being the "Vulture" on the hill, Giving up the go ahead run but being the pitcher of record when we had our come back.  Big Cat got a smooth save in the 6th. allowing one hit, no walks with 2 ground outs and a pop up to finish. Way to Go Cat.  

Before we start Saturday's game noon show up now is at Zehnder!!!          

Whew!! It wasn't easy and started with 3 unearned runs off of Big Country in the first inning.  Balls got through our infield or were bobbled and runners were safe and even a bad call by the umpire on Lynx's throw to big cat on the #4 hitter for the Dirtbags.

Some of the errors were improper coverage of the infield gaps. But we persevered through it. From there we went on to score a run. Lynx walked and scored on one of three Fox hits on the day. 

 

  That is all for now because Coach Brent, coach Richie and I have to go to the Yard and play baseball!  Ba ck now and we won our game. Pitchers duel 13-7. All the Coaches had hits Brent and Coach Doug 2 hits each and Coach Rich Thomas pitched 6 2/3rds and got the win.  

Back to our game we chipped away and got a one run lead for The Big Cat, but did not back him up on defense.  We went to the bottom of the last trailing 10-5.  But the boys came back on some walks and key hits by Big Country and Fox among others for the tie. Proud of all of them  now go beat the Angels! I certainly want to acknowledge the hits, runs and RBI's.  Hatless scored twice as did Lynx. Big Country got one hit. Fox was 3 for 4 with 3 RBI and a steal of home. Zebra was one for one with a run scored and an RBI.  Jack Rabbit has a run scored as did Gator and Shaw had a hit and a run.

 

This one featured our squad which out hit and out pitched the Angels but they beat us in the field on our own errors.  Toro on the Bump for us early and he pitched pretty well. We couldn't be consistent in the outfield or sure handed in the infield. We gave up 3 runs on a couple of hits and a couple of mental and physical errors. 

Coming to bat in the bottom of the first Lynx walked and Big Country got his first of three hits. Fox followed with a booming double to score both runs.

   although the play on big Country was safe, maybe a slide here at home would be good!! Toro walks and with 2 outs Zebra walks to load 'em up. Then Jack Rabbit hits one through the infield for an RBI hit.  Shaw re loads the bases on a walk and Bonanza comes through with an RBI Knock! 

Note Coach Jason Yount helping out as 1st base coach, Thanks Jason!

We batted around in the first scoring 5 but that was it for a while.  In the second we gave up a few more runs, 3 on 2 hits and a couple of errors. Jack Rabbit had trouble with a fly ball, The Willie Mays basket catch might not have been the right choice here. 

  We had a rundown too! Monica took this sequence and we ran him back to third but if it was yours truly umpiring it might be called fielders' interference.  see picture 3.

  there were some plays that were 1/2 good and 1/2 not so good (but funny)  Here Shaw makes a good catch in the outfield . This picture apparently is just the beginning of the play as Shaw did a "1 1/2 full tuck" roll from the position on the feet to the rear all the way feet over head and back to rear end on ground. A very high degree of difficulty, especially from the "low dive", feet on outfield turf, all the time holding on to the ball.  The good news is it is a very hard play executed well and in spectacular fashion.  Not so good news is it did not have to be so dramatic.  Rather than back peddle to get a ball like that turn glove side and move back while tracking the ball. It is a higher percentage play and in better position to throw to Zebra who is getting red in the face calling for the ball in the picture below to "double up" the runner at third. Great effort by Shaw and a teachable moment too!

 

But then Big Country came in for three of the best innings of the year on the Hill.  One hit, no walks, no runs and 3 strikeouts of Angel batters. Some defense with Jack Rabbit and Big Cat shown here with a nice 4-3 put out.

Big Country was in charge on the hill and kept us close

 Big Cat came in next and gave up one unearned run, no hits and generally pitched well.  His only problem was walks, too many. Before that we had one more rally.  Toro got a hit, then Big Cat came up with a knock to Right, "Oppo Taco"  Toro safe at second, sliding here might help. 

 Then Zebra hits.  Note the picture below and the hand/arm position as well as the head focus. 

 his switch hitting has improved while on this team.  That loaded the bases for Shaw who drove in the run with a single. We got another hit later from Big Country and Big Cat got plunked by a pitch to give us another runner but we could not score the tying run.  We ended up losing by 2.

from Tale of Two Cities " It was the best of times.  It was the worst of times."  We did lose both games and did out hit the Angels in both games 6-4 and 14-8.  We had some good pitching and some bad defense, we had some bad pitching and some great defense with double plays and runners thrown out on the bases. Our Photographers, Monica and Coach Brent caught our good sides and our bad sides too.  We started game one ok with a walk to Hatless followed by a 0ne out Big Country double to score hatless after he stole to second.

 

Fox walks and is out on Toro's fielders choice but with two outs Big Country is at third and Toro at first. Big Cat Walks to load 'em up and Zebra gets the 1st RBI walk while Jack Rabbit gets the second.  3-0 and Big Country keeps it that way for 2 innings with help from Zebra at the plate. Shaw at third, Hatless and Big Cat as shown below.

 Nice head tag Zebra lower is better!

 a lower tag better here too.

 Pretty good so far eh? The world would start crumbling soon on the Muskrats.  With 2 outs and a man at third for the Angels after a brilliant double play (Hatless catches a liner and doubles off the runner at first) with Big Country in his 3rd inning of shut out baseball on the bump, we try to pick off the runner at third. Run scores then we get the last batter of the inning. this would be the way things went the rest of the game. Hatless in center got bugged, see below

 then walks did us in with the Angels scoring 5 runs on one hit and 5 walks. We did get another run. In the Fourth Shaw had a lead off hit and scored on a grounder by Hatless, who reached on an error. We had hits by Toro and Big Cat after that but did not mount any big threats. Our defense continued to fall down on the job. A 9-4 loss game one. Game 2 was a better game for offense but defense was not good again. A few great plays but over all we were bad.  In the first inning hatless led off with a triple and shored on ha hit by Lynx then Big Country doubled Lynx home with Toro and Big Cat providing RBI singles as well. Jack Rabbit had a knock to drive in a run and ended up stealing home.

 

Once again our defense let us down had a record number strike outs with a dropped third where the batter reached because we could not tag the batter at the plate or throw him out. Offense after the first was Fox and Toro hits in the 3rd for a Fox run

 and Shaw plus Hatless hits in the 7th for a single run we dropped that one 11-8 and the Coaches needed more Rolaids, Tums and maybe some Pepto!

 

Stats are posted and frankly the batting averages are better than we deserve based on our record.  But we did waste a few base runners with 13 runners left on base in game one alone!  We prefer to dwell on the positive aspects of the game. Toro and Big Country were 5 for 6 at the plate in the two games. Big Cat and Zebra were  2-4 with a number of walks.   Other hits were: Jack Rabbit, Hatless (3 including a 2B); Fox (2); Shaw (2); Lynx.  Gator is improving on defense and we found our third catcher in Bonanza.  

For the first 4 innings it looked like a bunch of squirrels on the field fighting over pieces of broken up snickers bars. 

  

Then Hatless makes a brilliant play and it seems to wake him up and the rest of the team too. 

 

We were down 4-0 at that point. At that point the team started going and getting it together on defense and offense.  We batted around in the bottom of 4th. We benefited from 6 walks and banged out 6 hits including a Big Country 2 RBI double (moonshot-way up in center).  Other hits were Toro, Zebra (below)

 The Gator had one good hit too!

 

Jack Rabbit and Shaw had hits also. We went up 8-4 and never looked back.  Toro became the winning pitcher.  Defense was Hatless as mentioned above and Lynx  as well as Bonanza with great snag to his left while recovering from "dogging the runner" at second, going a long way for a leaping run saving snare.

 A very nice comeback although it had to happen because after the first 3 innings the coaches were out of Tums and paddles had yet to arrive to "defib" Coach Doug.  

 

Lynx was one star whose average went up at the plate. Our Cy Youngest Award winning player did most of his damage at the plate in this game. with a 3-3 day raising his batting average up to .387 and his RBI total to 13 in 12 games.

might have been out on this play at the plate but called safe, thanks Vern!

Lynx also pitched and gave up 1 hit but 4 runs, all unearned. He had a few strike outs but a couple were dropped third strikes where the runner reached and scored eventually. 

 Then there was our MVM (Most Valuable Muskrat) who raised his average and his RBI total to .581 and 15 RBI for 12 games with a double, a single and a ground out for an RBI. 

 

Oh and by the way folks Coach Brent caught the above sequence of  Big Country's RBI ground out, he was safe, Vern!

 

 

He did not pitch in this game because he had to catch most of the innings due to an injury to our Golden Cup Award winner, Zebra, who sat out the last game with an elbow injury. 

 

 Speaking of injuries, guess who showed up to play his second game of the season, Goldie. Welcome back Goldie!

Goldie was our Trainers award winner for the season. This is an award that Coach Doug has won twice at our San Francisco Giants Camp. Once for a broken hand mid-camp, Wholly parallel Universe Bat Man! Anyway Goldie had one previous plate appearance and got 2 more at bats with a walk in this game. He finishes the season with the one RBI he got in the first game. Speaking of people missing games, Gator was unable to come to the game because it was his Birthday! HBD Gator! He won our Rudy award for most inspirational player, named after Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger of the movie Rudy and also after Dillon "Rudy" Kennedy a small and exceptionally  driven baseball player who played for coach Doug in the past (he still plays EGBR alumni games for Coach Doug).  Speaking of driven baseball players who try harder, how about our Silver Slugger award winner, Fox, who had a sac fly and an RBI single in two official at bats in the last game ending the season with a .533 average and 12 RBI in 11 games played.   

Big Cat, our Gold Glove winner had a good outing on the hill with one inning and no hits, (except the batter he plunked, but later assisted in catching him stealing), no runs allowed.

Shaw, our MMUC winner (Muskrat Most unusual Character award), had 2 walks and 2 runs scored in this game. Always fun to have Shaw around. His award created for our former player Nick "Lady Gaga" Salamy shown below at his  best. (hey that might be Blur, Gator's brother to the left of Lady Gaga with the gum and the "blouse")

 But our 2014 award winner was something else with his joy on the field and his somewhat unusual questions and style of play. The perfect MUC Award winner.

Wave to the fans Shaw! 

Then there was Toro.  Our Rolaids Relief man Award winner who had a hit and an RBI in his final game for a .519 finish to the season. Good job Toro. 

Bonanza, our Coaches Award winner, continued to contribute with a couple of "Gutty Innings" behind the plate as well as walk, stolen base and run scored. Also scoring with a hit a walk and 2 runs was Hatless, Allstate Good Hands Award.  Hatless had his first inning on the bump.

He  struck out the side around a bunch of close pitch walks.  Jack Rabbit, was our Silver Spikes Award winner who contributed on defense throughout the year. He finished hitting .304 with a .529 on base %. Very respectable.   We did lose this game but all in all a real fun season with a great group of young ball players.

 look at these characters!     

 a more normal team picture here.                                                    

Former players and incoming Spring 2016 13 year-olds, if you have not signed up yet please do so at www.eghardball.com  a new season begins after Labor Day and practice starting around August 23.  There is still time to sign up!  See sample article below from last Fall.

Coaches Brent Tetlow, Doug Penney and Michael Jorrin
Roster so far.: Kishan and AJ Shah, Josh Walsh, Santino Barajas, Martin Gonzales, Troy Ngo, Carson Powell, Jakob Abercrombie, Jaymes Arguelles, Dylan Narayan, Kaleb Drake, Joshua Turner, Martin Camerena.  We have just started practices and our first game will be on 9/12.

Our next practice: Thursday Sept. 3 Jones South at 5:30pm Sharp!

 

Coach Doug:jcpenney6@comcast.net 
Coach Doug Penney

Our first games are scheduled!  Saturday 9/12/15 we have a doubleheader starting at 1pm  Jones North We play Joe Matlen's Rivercats as the Home team at 1pm then at 4 pm we are the visiting team to Galt. Because they are  our guests we clean the field after that game as well. Show up time is noon.  Ready to play, bands, heavy bats, stretching, throwing progressions. We will add whiffles and bunt drill then infield/outfield.

We have our next practice before those games at 5:30 Wednesday 9/9 Zehnder Park.  We have a lot to do at that next practice to get ready to play those first games!  we have the hats and socks to give out on Wednesday. 

We ended up splitting the "twin bill" but showed some real good character in the second game loss to a team with a lot of older players.  We hung in with them.  It was a long day but the team had some fun. 

 

 I see some smiles between games. 

Anyway we played the Lightening ( formerly known as the Rivercats) coached by league president Joe Matlen.  Initially we gave up a run with Carson on the "Bump" (pitching). 

In the bottom of the first we got right to work and got 3 runs on a walk  by Jake "The Snake" Abercrombie, a walk by AJ and a couple of steals ahead of a Jammer's (Josh Walsh) 2 RBI hit.  Jammer stole second and scored on a hit by Kaleb. 

And he was Safe!

In the top of the 2nd The Lightening went ahead with some of the rare shaky defense that we had, most of the day we were solid on defense turning 3 double plays and a couple of good plays at the plate. Anyway with Carson still the pitcher of record we went ahead to stay in the bottom of the 2nd.

Lynx drew a one out walk and stole all the way to home, Carson struck out but reached on the passed ball. Stole 2nd Then Snake had a hit to drive in Carson, followed by a hit by Josh Turner, another walk by AJ Shah and yet another RBI hit by Jammer.  Jammer scored on MG (Martin Gonzalez) hit.  A big 6 run inning.  AJ came in to pitch and pitched 2 shut out innings.  good defense including plays by Kaleb, Carson, Lynx, Snake and Josh helped a lot. 

We scored a couple more runs, with hits by Lynx, a walk by Carson and hit by Josh.  Then another hit by Jammer  with a couple of steals, who scored on sacrifice to the right side by Kaleb (good hitting.)

Lynx had another late Double and scored to make the score 13 to 8.  But the Lightening would not go away.  They rallied producing the first Coach's "Rolaids Moment" of the season.  Lynx and Kaleb with a little help from Jammer and Snake finally shut the door with Kaleb earning a Save (Winning run on deck or within three runs when the pitcher enters the game and gets the final out)

 

We needed everyone of those extra runs as the final score ended up at 13-11 Muskrats over Lightening!

 We had only a brief break, less than 1/2 an hour after cleaning the field until we faced Galt. Although they pitched only 13 year-old players, they did have several 14 and 15 year-old players including a couple of Liberty Ranch and Galt High players.  We started the game with
Carson who got our first hit.  He was a spark plug at the top of our line-up and in the field as well. Throwing out a runner from the catching position.  We gave him a traditional team nick name (Sparky). We did not score in the first and Lynx took the hill for the Muskrats. He gave up two runs, one earned in the 1st. He ended up pitching 3 innings and gave up one added run. 4 strikeouts and only 3 hits. 

 

Our first scoring opportunity came in the third inning. Both Dylan Narayan and Santino Barajas walked. 

 

Note the wild hair escaping from Dylan's helmet.  A symbol of the wild side of this talented athlete who is just leaning the game, Thus his nick name is Wild Thing.  Well, Sparky steps up with Dylan on third and Santino on second. and punches a 2 RBI double into the outfield.  Great hit Carson!The very next inning Lynx singles and steals to second and his brother AJ gets a 2 out RBI single to tie the score. AJ on to pitch and a couple of walks, (tight zone from the umpire) a sacrifice fly and a single plate two Galt runs.  A 5-2-3 double play ends that threat.  (3rd base, Kaleb, to catcher, Jammer to first, Snake) Between AJ and Sparky they hold the Galt team down.  Despite 2 hits by the Wild Thing, Dylan, walks to Lynx, Snake and Santino we can't push anymore runs across and lose a hard fought game 5-3. We were proud of the boys for hanging in with the older team.  Here are some added pictures that Brent took that we didn't get to use in this story.  All of them will be on CD at the end of the season given out to each individual player. 

The first stats are posted on the Roster page left menu and the Game results are recapped on the Game results tab also left menu on this page. 

Play Ball.  Our game vs. the lugnuts (Kilbride/Carr) is at 10 am Zehnder Saturday September 19 and show up time is 9am SHARP.  A lot to do before the game,  We are missing Jaymes, Kalleb (Shooter) and Lynx for this game.  10 guys and plenty of playing time. 

Sunday at 3 pm we are visitors to the Pocket Little League field. to play their Juniors.  Show up is at 2pm Sharp.  Our team will have 12 without only Jaymes.

The Field is Bill Conlin Field just off of I-5 between the water tower and the town of Freeport.  I-5 north to Cosumnes River Blvd. Go West to Freeport Blvd and Turn RIGHT (I said the other way in the email, sorry) the field will be on right, first parking lot entrance.  See you all there, let's have some fun!

Here is just one of our scores as Jammer comes home as a ball is thrown away on a pick off attempt.  We scored in just about every way you could think about, wild pitches. Bases loaded singles, doubles with a runner at first, bases loaded walks, Fielders' choices and flat out errors.  It really wasn't as close as that 21 to 4 score would indicate.  We stopped stealing bases early.  That was hard for the boys to do. We are just getting them to take advantage of opportunities with runners on base when there is a wild pitch or passed ball. Now we are trying not to embarrass the other team and we tell them not to take the extra base.  But they did do that and the score wasn't 36 to 4 as it could have been.  Troy "Tank" played his first game with us. 

Nice running catch here at shortstop.  Anyway the point is there was very little drama in this game from the start.  We were visitors and we started by batting around our 9 man order twice!  
Sparky had two at bats and walked once hit by a pitch once scoring twice just in the first.  Teo Turner walked and scored twice in the first also. Tank had a nice hit and an RBI his first at bat and got an RBI ground out his second at bat.  Jammer got an RBI hit in the first as did Snake and AJ 

Wild thing had an RBI walk in the first and then an RBI hit, Santino, "Shark" started off with an RBI hit and added a walk later in the first.  (shown here with student coach Smooth Black at first, thanks Smoothy!) Then Hammer contributed an RBI, bases loaded walk. 

Hammer had 2 walks and 2 RBI on the day.  He is starting to make contact with the bat and shows promise. He did score his first run of the season on Saturday.  We had some pretty good results at the plate with Snake at 2 for 5, Sparky 2 for 3, Teo 1 for 3, Tank 2 for 5, Jammer only 1 for 3 but 3 RBI, AJ Shah 2 for 5 and 4 RBI,  The Wild Thing hit the ball really well with a double and 4 RBI (2 for 3), Shark was 2 for 2 with three walks. The lugnuts did make too many errors to count but ours were easy.  We made 1 only!  Defense was solid but did give the coach some moments of worry.  See this one below of the Wild Thing making a catch in left with what appears to be ...wait for it.............

his eyes closed (see the second picture)

Spark, Teo and AJ were really good on the "bump"

Sparky got into some trouble but Teo to Tank to Snake for an inning ending double play. 

Great job Muskrats.  Go get Pocket Little League tomorrow!

Saying it was hot was an understatement! Thanks to Coach Wally and Jake for the shades over the dugout!  Sorry about the pictures, but without Coach Brent to help we were stuck.  We did get Mando Anguiano as substitute coach, Thanks WK! coach Jorrin had third base coaching duties. It wasn't really hot yet at game time and the team stretched and seemed to be ready!
We started well.  Sparky got hit by a pitch but was thrown out stealing, per the base umpire (I don't think so Big Boy!). 

 We got past that as Teo and Tank had back to back hits. 

Then Lynx came up with an RBI single,  Lynx then pulled the oops play, delayed steal to score Tank.  He got in the rundown long enough to score the run.  Jammer tried to start a 2 out rally with a hit

 

but Snake's long fly ball was tracked down on good play be the center fielder. 

On Defense with Lynx on the hill and Jammer catching we gave up a lead off hit.  Lynx struck out the next two hitters but a line drive to left was missed and they scored. A couple of steals and walk latter we had first and third.  We ran our play "1" and the throw from Jammer to Lynx to AJ at third caught the runner off of third for the final out 2-1 good guys.  

 In the second we could not score in spite of a hit from AJ, (we thought about Ajax and decided on just Jax for Arjoon) a walk to the Shooter we could not score. 

 

Shark had a good at bat getting a lot of pitches out of the pitcher.  I thought that would be a factor but their pitcher went all 7 innings!

 

Lynx struck out the side in the 2nd but ended up giving up 2 runs (unearned in the 3rd) did get another runner this one on 1-5-2 put out in a run down.  Lynx, Jax and Teo this time. 

One down but not to worry.  Snake started the next inning with a double. Shooter drove him in with a nice base hit to right.

 

Wild Thing followed with a drive to Right field but it was caught on good play by the outfielder.

 

We gave up another run in the 4th. Tank struck out the first batter and gave up a big strike zone walk with a couple of wild pitch/passed ball things he was on third.  Then a little dunk into right and we had a one run deficit again. 

Top of the 5th we couldn't score.

Then it all fell apart.  Bottom of 5 with Sparky "on the bump".  After a pop up to third, There was hit to right which we miss played. then an error at first and a ball miss-player in center for a triple.  A double to left followed. A walk, another error, an infield hit before some ground balls that we did play to end the inning.  6 runs and maybe 1 at most earned.  We were hot and tired.  See the hat on the shark!

We tried to rally in the top of the 6th and got one run when Jammer was hit by a pitch, then Snake singled moving Jammer to second.

  Jax with a fielder's choice to move Jammer to third then shooter with another FC to score Jammer.  The Bottom of the 6th Jax shut them down. A two out walk and a steal turned into a rundown play 1-5-6.  In the 7th we could not turn a Teo hit into anthing and lost 10-4.  It was a much closer game than that. 

Proud of the players for hanging in there in the heat!

 

 Spoiler alert, we won 8-3 and our 5 pitchers were superb!

Jax started and went 2 innings 2-K, 2-Hits and 2 walks, 1 unearned run. and the win!

Teo threw an inning giving up a hit but no runs with one strikeout.

Tank struck out the side around 3 walks in the one inning he worked.

  Lynx pitched 2 innings and 0 hits but 3 walks and 2 unearned runs. He also had 3 strike outs including the ones listed below. The Shooter finished with a good play from Jax, a great catch of a bullet by Lynx and a nice put out from Shark (2nd base) to Tank at first to end the game. Way to use the whole infield Shooter! Other good plays included a leaping snag by Snake at first

 

A 2-3 pick off of a runner at 1st by Teo who caught 4 of the 7 innings

 Then there were the strikeouts! The headline should be:  "Muskrats strike the Lightening...Out!"  10 K,s 6 of them looking.  Lynx had 2 where he locked the lightening batters up with a strike 3 change-up.  It had an action like a slow split finger or sinker. The look on their usual #3 hitter, Tony Sole', when Lynx threw him that pitch was priceless.  Then he struck the very next guy out on the same pitch.  He struck out the side in the 6th, in fact. 

 Our offense was on fire! Teo started it with a one out double in the first inning.

We ended up with 4 RBI from the Shah family.  2 by Lynx; 1 for 2 with a sacrifice

Note the little "I am cool" flip of the hand behind the back after crossing first.  We had 2 RBI by Jax 1-2 with a sacrifice and walk. Snake got hit by a pitch, stole second and scored on a steal of home. 

 pretty casual- walked on in to home.  Jammer had 2 hits, two steals and 2 runs scored while Wild Thing had a hit and a run.  Shooter was our lead off guy this game and scored 2 runs on 2 hits. 

  Note the ball in the air above Big Vinnie in this picture. Tank had a nice hit as well. Game ball went to Martin "Hammer" Camarena  Who had an RBI on a dropped third where he forced the throw to first and Jammer scored from third on that throw. But in the last inning with 2 out, facing Big Vinnie, hard throwing right hander, Hammer got "hammered" in the ribs. Ouch! Hurts me to see this picture.

Hammer hung in there for the post game hand shake.  He is a little sore but will play Saturday.  Pretty good offense, good defense and great pitching 0 earned runs and 10 K's!

This was a thrilling game providing the coaches with a lot more stomach acid than they bargained on.  Coach Doug was out of Pepto, Coach Brent out of Rollaids and Coach Michael out of Tums at the end of the evening. We started out falling behind on the visiting Lugnuts by 3 runs. One earned run off of Teo who pitched really well with 4 strikeouts in two innings.

Sparky threw out a would be base stealing "nut" at second with Tank taking the throw. (it was a coaching moment because he tagged the runner too high on the body, which we explained.)

In the bottom of the second we finally broke through on the scoreboard. Sparky worked a walk

and so did Jammer. Then Wild Thing got a hit to load the bases with no one out

but after an RBI walk to the Shark we worked our way out of a good situation, 3-1 Bad Guys.

Tank went to the hill and shut the Lugnuts down. 

Teo "back-picked" a runner at first with a good throw to AJ. 

 

Then after a good play in the field Teo got his second hit of the night stole second, went to third on hit by Tank who stole second setting it up for Snake who had a 2 RBI single with one out. Tie game, good hitters coming up.  Then Sparky walked. So Snake decides to steal third and gets picked off with too much of a lead. Good news! the Lugnuts blow up the run down play and Snake is safe at second (he was about 2/3rds of the way to 3rd base at one time in the run down) But the last  of the throws gets by second base into the outfield grass, which is really high, Snake trys again to steal third base and is out by maybe 20 feet. so our first and second one out situation turns to a runner on first with 2 outs.  In spite of Sparky's steals of 2nd and third,the game remains tied.

Tank gets the Lugnuts out in order in the top of the 4th and we don't score in the bottom half. 3-3 tie. Jax goes to work in the top of 6th. He creates some drama giving up a hit and a couple of steals. but with one out Jax, Sparky, AJ and Teo combine on a rundown play, very well executed, to get the runner trapped and tagged out between 3rd and home.  A "swing-through" Strike three ends the inning.  Jax starts us in the 5th with a one out walk and then a steal with a passed ball gets him to 3rd. Snake drives him in with a ground ball out. We got another hit from Sparky but could not score more than the one run. 4-3 good guys.

Our pitching discovery to the hill next, the Shark!

After a strike out he hits the next batter who works his way around to 3rd. then another strike out. A mental mistake as the pitch goes in the dirt. We throw the batter out at first but didn't check the runner from third who scores.  We get out of that inning with a good play Teo to Tank at 1st. But 4-4 tie!

The bottom of the 6th and we put together a great rally. Shark got a good one out hit and stole bases, then Hammer walked.  With 2 down and the game on the line Teo  beat out and infield hit to  load them up for Tank who came through with a two out, two RBI hit.  Jax then drove in Teo with a knock and we were up 7-4. Easy huh, not so fast Bunkie!

Snake to the hill for the close. 

He got one out, but we had 4 errors and fielders choice. They scored 2 runs to make it a game. Sparky came in.  Since in was Jaymes' first game we put him back in the game for the last two outs sending him to right field for the Hammer.  Sparky got the second out on the strike out and then with tying and go ahead runs on base, the lugnuts #2 hitter launches a ball to right that was hit well. We are thinking "Oh no!" Jaymes calmly snags the deep fly ball and gets us the win while earning his new nick name "Snag"! 

A 7-6 thriller!

A big win in several ways.  We obvioulsly hit the ball and played good defense behind our pitchers: Tank, Shooter, Jax and Teo.  We started the game as home team with Tank on the hill. He gave up 2 runs but only one earned.  He left the hill with the lead thanks to one of 7 RBI he had on the day.

  We never lost that lead. He get the win on the hill.  As mentioned Tank was also responsible for a lot of the offense. His team record this year is the 7 RBI he had With two doubles, a single, a walk and an RBI fielder's choice. Overall 3 for 4 with some good defensive play as well.  Teo was impressive on the hill ( a shutout inning with 2 strikeouts) His offensive stats were not up to his usual standard because the Galt team had seen him before and walked him 3 times He scored 3 runs, reached on an error and a fielder's choice.  on base% 1,000 for the game.

Other impressive stats included Sparky scoring 4 runs.

Jax ended up with one official at bat, one run, a perfect sacrifice, a hit by pitch and 2 walks plus a nice 7 pitch shutout inning as a pitcher in the game.

 Jammer had a nice double ( one run scored too), Wild Thing 1 for 2 with a run scored,

 Snag with a hit and an RBI,

Shark with a run scored, Snake with a hit and 3 runs scored

, Shooter with a hit and 2 runs scored plus 2 scoreless innings on the Bump. 

 

We did some things we hadn't done well yet like the throw around after a strike out!

  We made a defensive play on a ball that got by us but Shark recovered  flipped it to Teo and Toe got the runner at 3rd on a great relay using something we practiced ..."The glove side turn"

Stats are up and are impressive though see left menu "Teams/Rosters" 

Lugnuts, "Gut-Wrenching" okay, it is a stretch but you get it, right?  We actually started alright with a couple of runs in the top of the first. Teo started it with a double.

Then after a nice hit by Jax ,  and a Jax easy steal of 2nd, Tank drove in Teo with a hit of his own. 

After one out Wild Thing drove in Jax on a fielder's choice.  Jax didn't lose his head and scored, 

In over 10 plus seasons of Coaching with Coach Brent, he has done the majority of the photography and never cut off anyone's head.  In the shots, Coach Doug takes, it is 2 out of 3, so maybe I took this shot, eh?  Wait, I can see some face here!

Anyway 2 zip good guys with Jax taking the hill.  He pitched well with 2 innings of work, striking out 4 and allowing one run, on one hit.

 In the top of the second Snag walked  and with 2 out Teo, Jax and Tank  had "back to back to back" hits to score Snag and Teo.

Jax left the game with a 4-1 lead, That should have been the final score but we kind of kicked the ball around a bit. In the bottom of the third with Tank on the Bump we made at least 3 errors both the mental and the physical kind and the Lugnuts went ahead on one earned run and 3 unearned gifts. 

We went back ahead on a couple of runs in the 4th with Shark taking a walk, another double by Teo scoring Shark and then a one out RBI by Tank on a blooper that bounced off of the tip of the third baseman's glove and then off of his head! In the bottom of the inning Tank shut them down with the help of a nice double play,Jammer to Shooter to Snake!

Not the best ready position but it did get the job done!

In the Top of the 5th we scored on a Wild Thing hit,  two steals ,Jammer walk and a Shooter Sac to the right side

We ended up going all 7 and the Shooter, momentarily, became the "Vulture", see below!  Shooter took the hill in the 5th and 6th. In the 5th he walked 2 but after one out and 2 on, Teo snags the lead off hitter's liner and instead of flipping the ball to Jammer at second  for the easy out on the runner who was already at third, he threw across the diamond to get the runner who was off of first.  We are up 6-4 going to the bottom of 6 and Shooter gives up his first earned run of the season on one walk and a hit. Then a second run scored on a  questionable decision on a fielder's choice. Tie ball game. There goes the win for Tank. At this point the Coaching staff is all out of Tums, Rolaids, Pepto and Scotch!

We come up in the top of the last and Tank walks, Steals 2nd and third then comes home on a sacrifice swinging bunt by Snake.

The Coaching staff can breath again. So a one run lead and Teo on to close, easy right? Not so fast Bunky! Teo hits the first batter, the #7 hitter of the line up, in the helmet on the brim.  That is very hard to do if you are trying but Teo managed by not trying.  Anyway,the tying runner is on first, until that is, he steals second. Then his mistake was to try to steal third. Jax gunned it to Tank at third who put on the low tag.  Then Teo strikes out the next two for the Save on the hill. Shooter, who gave up the lead by allowing the tying run to score is the "Vulture" in this game because he "Vultured" the win from Tank.  Jax with 2 hits, 2 good innings pitched and the caught stealing on the potential tying run, gets the game ball. 

 

The Lugnuts had one really bad inning with 4 walks and gave up 2 sacrifices both reaching on errors. we scored 7 runs.  It was a close game for a while but we ended up "running away" with the game 14-3 and it wasn't as close as that score might indicate. We stopped running in the 4th. We probably could have scored 6 more runs after the 4th if we had been running on the catcher and pitcher's over throws. Teo started on the mound and went three innings giving up one earned run. He earned the win. 

What is Sparky saying here? "look at the girl in the soccer uniform on the Lugnuts side", maybe? "Don't make it obvious!"

Okay, maybe not.  Anyhow, a good pitcher catcher team!

Those two started it out on offense by the way both walking and scoring in the first inning. After stealing Shooter drives in Teo with a hit to the right side and Jax does the same with Sparky.

In the top of the second, our game ball winner of the day, Jammer, walked and stole 2nd, third and home for the lead we never lost.

Jammer also had 2 doubles and single in three official at bats, scoring another run and driving in 3.

look at lugnuts position on Jammer on the play at second. He is to the left field side of the bag. If he is in front of the bag the throw takes the glove into jammer and he is out!

Jammer shown below diving back in to first after the single on a pick off attempt. 

In the Top of the third we started with the top of the order and they walked Teo again. We decided to try to get a bunt down to move Teo to second. Sparky put down a good bunt and reached on an error as Teo continued to third.

Shooter drove in Teo with a hit and Sparky who had stolen to second also scored. Jax walked and Snake singled him home.

Wild Thing walked  and Jammer had a two run Double.  Snake is the back runner on that and has to slide at home, but comes up a little short as the ball gets by the catcher so he has to get up and tag the plate with his hand. It just looks Weird!

The bleeding didn't stop there as Shark got a hit to score Wild thing from third and Sparky got a 2 out hit to score Jammer.  10-2 good guys. Teo continued to pitch well and also benefitted from so nice defense.  below Shark grabs a low line drive that sends him to one knee!

Jax fielding at Shortstop a little later in the game.

The offense in the top of the 4th seals the deal! Jax gets a hit, steals all the way home.  Wild thing Walks and then Jammer drives him in for RBI #3 on the day! Then Sparky comes on to pitch a shutout inning in the bottom of 4th.

Nice  "T", the "L" should be starting right about here.  One strike out and one runner reached on an error but was stranded at third. Good Job! In the 5th Teo walks again and steals second, no sign so he is in the book! but Sparky singles and scores Teo.  Sparky gets to third on wild pitches and scores on Shooter's fielders choice E-6.

 that closed the scoring for us and going to bottom of 5 we are up 14-2.  Snake time on the hill.  I might mention here Snake appeared pretty much "Snake bit" to this point, outside of the one single in the 3rd he had hit the ball hard into outs twice.

If we ignore the 5 balks, he pitched pretty well. Two strikeouts to start but then the single and a 2 out runner on.  The first pitch to the next batter had not happened yet and Old Tom Kilbride, Lugnuts pitching coach, calls time to go talk to the Snake on the mound. Telling him he had done about 2 things to that point which would have been a balk. Was that our one trip to the mound?  Don't know, but I do know in walking the Batter Snake created two new and different ways to balk.  The next batter up and Jake had yet another balk that fooled the runner and Teo threw him out at second to Sparky by a lot!

 

It came down to the bottom of the 6th and Lynx had just arrived from his other game so we put him on the hill. On two pitched\s he got his first out with a swinging but that he fielded and threw to first nicely.

The Shooter finished up on the hill and the lugnts did not score so the final was 14-3.

Snag managed an RBI on a bases loaded walk. Hammer made good contact but ended up with nothing to show for it.  He is improving. A little off the front foot here so if we can get him to stay back more, his batting average will improve.

After  good 2 innings we lead! 1-0 behind Lynx on the hill. The start was Shooter with a base hit to right.

Shooter steals second by the skin of his teeth, the throw beat him but he slid around the tag.

 

Lynx, who shut them down in the first on all of 8 pitches, comes up with the two out RBI knock!

 

 Lynx continues to mow down the Redwings with some help from the defense, Jammer and Tank combine here for a 4-3 put out.

 

Then they take the lead on an error or 2 still 3-1 against the older team. Still Lynx pitched 3 good innings. Maybe Coach should have let him go 4 innings with only 40 pitches through 3 frames, why? because the relief pitching didn't work on this night!  The 4th inning was plagued by disaster with a capital "D"!  we give up doubles, walks, errors, hit by pitch, everything! Flood (of runs) Earthquake (seemed like it but just the sound of bats, balls and heavy feet on the bases) Locusts! (well not really but you get the idea)  Some Good things. Shark got an outing in a high pressure situation. But, with defense falling apart behind all our pitchers and a few Redwings lucky breaks, Shark didn't have much of a chance. 

Wild thing pitched an inning striking out 2 and walking 2 no runs.

Teo pitched really well impressing the Redwings Coaches. Shooter got the Redwings out in the 7th with 2 K's and no runs also.  Lynx had a good outing and was our only hitter with more than one hit. Snag had a hit as did Jammer and Wild Thing.  

  Jax had some great plays on defense like this one that chased Coach Gormley out of the coaching box at third. 

We were down big but never lost heart or what we have been trying to teach above all else, "Love of the Game"  look at the rally caps on Shooter and Tank!

 

Lynx ended up surprising us and asking to catch.  All yours "Big Boy"!

Hammer continues his effort and never gives up either.  Gamer!

Still reaching a bit but we are working on it!  In the end down 19 to 1 we did rally with a Lynx hit, and a Jammer hit, Then Jax sacrificed his brother across the plate.  Jammer scored on a Wild Thing knock and we ended the game 19-3.  There are several 16 year olds on that team. (Spring 15 year-olds  who have "graduated" from Babe Ruth are invited to play in Fall) Their youngest players are 14. Maybe we are a little humbled by the loss but our spirit is still there!

It may have made the team a little hungrier for Saturday and the Lightening!

 

The Story of the game was Joe "wholestaff"  Our Whole Pitching Staff, every hitter on the staff, every base runner and every fielder contributed to what was really a "blow out" Win! 

 

We only went 6 innings and the plan was to use 7 pitchers.  We had to do some shuffling on the hill but we did it.  It started at the plate with Sparky a lead off hit and Rocket (Teo) who walked. Then Both runners ended up stealing so we had 2nd and third. Sparky wins the post season "Sparkplug award because of his tendency to start rallies like this one.

With one out Lynx put a ball on the right side of the diamond for a run.  Nice piece of hitting.  Sparky scores, then goes to the hill to pitch and defend the lead. he gives up a hit and a walk but we get a fielders choice to get the lead runner, Rocket to Lynx and then a strike out and a pop up to Lynx and we are out of the first. Good pitching by Sparky!

In the second Jax, who get on base with a hit, Then Jammer is...wait for it...hit by a pitch! Jax Steals third and Jammer to second.  Wild Thing strikes out but reaches with his speed when the catcher drops the ball.  Bases loaded with one out for Snag.  He executes the sacrifice to the right side, a nice piece of hitting!  Hammer walks and so does Sparky for an RBI  3-zip Good guys. Tank goes to the hill and works around a one out hit with a strike out and a groundout.  defense was pretty good. Even when they did get a hit we covered things pretty well like Rocket, Shark and Jammer below.

 Then our big third inning, Tank walks and steals, then is doubled in by Lynx. 

Lynx scores on a solid hit by Snake.  Jax is plunked by a pitch and with one out  Wild Thing walks and  on Shark walks driving in Snake. For the second inning in a row Snag does a right side sacrifice and scores Jax.  Hammer walks to reload the bases. 

Shooter just arrived in time to bat.  "right out of bed" as they say he gets a 2 RBI hit. 9-zip good guys.  Bottom of third and Shark to the hill. 

He manages to load the bases but a strike out and a pop up and we are back in the dugout with no damage done.  

We waste a Tank hit in the top of the 4th and don't score. 

Jax to the hill and he did not pitch badly but the Lightening got three "gift runs" on a couple of miscues.  Only one earned run.  We did enjoy Snake in his first effort this season at catcher throwing out a runner at second with a pretty good throw to Shooter. 

It is a good thing Kourt is over both Coaches noticed that the shins are on the wrong leg, buckles on the outside!

Our turn again and Jammer gets on with a hit in the fifth. He steals to third as Wild Thing walks and steals 2nd. Shark and Snag again execute sacrifices to the right side.  Jammer and Wild Thing score.  11-3 Muskrats. Rocket to the hill.  He gives up one run but settles down and strikes out 2, Then gets the lead off batter on a ground ball.

Ok back to work.  11-4 now.  The Doubles parade starts with Sparky then Rocket trading places at second and home.  Both balls hit really well.  Tank moves Rocket to third

and Lynx gets a solid hit to plate Rocket. After 2 out, Jax walks. The Shah brothers get on base and Jammer gets a 2 RBI knock.  15-4  

We are running out of time and the 6th is our last Inning with Lynx and Shooter to pitch. Lynx Strikes out the first 2 batters but struggles a little allowing a hit and a couple of walks. We bring in Shooter and after another walk Shooter completes the strike out of the side. 

It ends 15-6 and everyone contributed.  Every player reached base or drove in a run. Nice team win nice way to end the season. We had the post game hand shake with league President, Joe Matlen, Lightening Coach. Note some Smiles from Wild Thing, Rocket and Snag.

After the handshake it was post game awards.  Hammer got the Coach's Award

Snag got the Gold Glove for outfield

Tank was our Silver Slugger for the best pure hitter.

Our MVM (Most valuable Muskrat) was Rocket, Although we would have liked to protect a whole bunch of players on this team for the Spring, We had one slot, so he he gets the Orange Beavers Jersey as well as his MVM Certificate.

Other Awards included Shark (Rudy Award) and Shooter (Rolaids Relief man award)

Coach Brent, Coach Doug, Coach Toni (Rocky) Anguiano and new Coach Alex (Fox) Mejia, are looking forward to a great 2016 Fall Ball Season with sign ups going on still we only have a few players "protected"  For the first time we have a returning player who is still age eligible, Teo "Rocket Turner and through Rocket we got Joey Avila, Evan Olsen (both those two from Wilton), Brennen de Santiago, Mason Koyama and Carson "Sparky" Powell.  In the draft we got, in no particular order:  Caleb Hansen, Dylan Soto, Misael Ceja, Daniel Corona and Jermaine Smith. 

Our first practice after the "meet and greet" is Thursday 5 pm at Jones South not North as previously reported. Our Friday Sept 9 practice is at Jones North not Zehnder.  

OUR MEET AND GREET FOR PLAYERS, PARENTS AND SIBLINGS IS 6 PM Monday AUGUST 29 6PM LAMPPOST PIZZA 5109 Laguna Boulevard was held and a good time. 

Let's have some FUN!

Like  last year!

This shot above shows one of our older Spring players coaching first, Noah "Smooth" Black advises young Santino on base running.  Mentoring is a big part of our team and this year we continue with Youth Coaches Toni "Rocky" Anguiano and Alex "Fox" Mejia.  Rocky is an experienced player and coach and is Babe Ruth Certified as a coach.

Fox is a new Youth Coach having just graduated from the League as a 16 year-old player. A skilled outfielder and hitter, Fox will be a great addition to the Staff.

 

These guys understand Fun, right down to the team picture!

 

We have 12 games starting Saturday September 10 with an early game 10 am that is 9am Show up. We are visitors at Jones North to the 51's coached by Mike Steele.  We have a lot of preparation to do.  Practices Saturday 9/3 1pm Zehnder and then Wednesday and Friday at Jones North at 5 pm.  Our jerseys are on the way and will be to us before Friday's 9/10 practice. Now we have the last of our hats too! click on the schedule tab to see the whole Schedule!

 

 

 

Just a collage of interesting shots that Coach Brent took. The Best Muskrats Fall season by far!
At the last game we gave out some post season awards. These had humor attached to them but were serious in a way too. Everyone one the team distinguished themselves in some way. For some it was one or two outstanding games and some were just very steady at one or most times more than one aspect of the game. But this team didn't win all the games they won this year on "Star Quality" alone. It was teamwork. From Major League, the movie Lou Brown Says about 1/2 way through the season to his assistant Coach "They're starting to come together Pepper, Startin' to come together" Coach Doug said that to Coach Brent in the 5th game of the series after we won and then we won 6 more in a row after that to close the season out. Below some of the awards are featured and some are grouped in the last article.

Hey Muskrats:

We have a partial Schedule. We have a new player who like Xavier played for the coaches in pick up games and his name is ..Xavier Claudio. Short stop and ... wait for it...catcher! X-man joins Blurr,Panda (Leland), Slash-(Jared), Josh and maybe one more in the brotherhood of the cup. Also Sy Hesselberg, Pitcher, 1B, 2B, 3B.(pictured above)

This what we have for the next 3 weeks: Sat 9/8 at 10 am (show up time is 9:15 for warm up) we are visitors to the Trojans (Matlen/Kilbride) at Jones South
Wednesday 9/12 BSP at Clauson's team 6:30 (show up 5:45 pm)
Practice Thursday 5pm BSP 9/13/12
Saturday 9/15/12 at 1pm (12:15 show up) Zehnder we are home team vs Clauson

Wednesday 9/19 at BSP 6:30 pm we are home to the Trojans

Thursday 9/20 practice BSP 5:00 pm

Saturday 9/22 double header day/night feature games at BSP (snack bar , scoreboard) 4:00pm and 7pm games home vs Clausen at 4pm visitors to the Trojans at 7pm

Further schedule to follow but we have practice at 5pm every thursday Thru October 18.
This is sketchy and we may have a 4th team to play a couple of games against with in this schedule.

The Hats will be available at practice Thursday night. Now almost everyone has been to a practice. We still need to get all 11 together. Maybe 9/4 or 9/6 for practices next week. Jake Edwards was a first time practicer on Tuesday and did well. Remember to tell coach if your arm is sore or any other injuries, aches or pains. The Schedule should be out in a day or two but we have at least one game on 9/8. We are still recruiting players so if you know anyone interested in playing let us know. We will see everyone except Stretch on Thursday 5:30 at Nottoli! NO PRACTICE ON SATURDAY 9/1 Happy Labor day weekend.

These 2 guys batted 4th and 5th most of the season. Solid players with Surf Sam Splinter handling his pitching staff earning the Famous "Golden Cup" award for the catcher of the year. He was always getting key hits with a .308 average and a .514 on base average. Sam was tied for 4th on the team with 10 RBI and had 16 steals which was 2nd on the team. Jimmie Hammer Robinson was our Golden Hammer winner for the best power hitter on the team with a homerun and 3 extra base hits. His batting average ended up at .524 with OPS at 1.524 and he was the Hit by Pitch leader as well!
Michael "Dyn0mite" Jorrin was our Golden Spark Plug winner for the year. In the middle of the line-up Dyno started us off again with his .300 average, .774 on base average and OPS of 1.074. He stole 18 bases and had 2 sacrifices for the team. What a job by our smallest teammate. Always smiling and always picking up his teammates.

Let's have some fun with baseball in the Fall. The Muskrats of the Elk Grove Babe Ruth League will play in September 2012 and will be 13 year-olds (league age for 2013 that is). This is an instructional league for players moving up to the bigger field. This is MLB size! Great prep for those playing in the Spring or planning to play High School ball. Also it is just plain Fun! Sign up at www.eghardball.com We have our first player assigned and it is Woody's younger brother, Tylor Trejo. Wes "Woody" Trejo was a mainstay for the Spring team the Beavers and a 13yr old all star. Also added Jared Mayer and Xavier Lefebre, both of them Catchers ( so are both of the coaches-accidental-I think not) Here are our other players: Joshua Hames, Ricky Rodness, Keith Denny, Jacob Edwards, Jacob Espinosa, Blake Lujan, Joseph McCarley and Leland Buraga (another protected player). Good team so far but we need 2 more players so go out and recruit! Our first practice is At Bartholomew Sports Park (Franklin High street and Whitelock Pkwy) Friday night August 24 5:30 to 7pm. Equipment needed baseball pants, a hat and glove. If you have a big barrel bat you like please bring it. Cleats are suggested rubber or metal baseball cleats only please. Then we have a Saturday 8/25 practice 9am to 11am at Zehnder park

What a group here! Buzz is obviously distracted here. Maybe his perfect day at the plate 2 for 2 with a double got Chase Goodlett a little off track. He was our "hot corner" winner for the Fall as our best 3rd baseman. Vicente "Jolly Roger" Arroyo won our Mr. On Base % award for his .640 on base average. Stealing 9 bases and getting 5 RBI with out a hit. Tanner "Bad News" Joyce was a pleasure to have on the team and was our "MUD" award winner. (Muskrat Unknown Discovery) of the year. As a pitcher he had 3 appearances and 2 "holds" Not giving up a tight lead.He had not pitched before and sometimes it showed but he made great progress. Bad News batted .304 and drove in 7 runs sealing 6 bases.
Then there was the MUC Award winner, Nick "Lady Gaga" Salamy. MUC stands for Muskrat Unusual Character Award. Nick kept everyone loose but knew when to get down to business. .375 batting and 1.026 OPS he had a triple and 2 doubles 10 RBI.
Then there was our Cy Youngest award winner to our best pitcher. Jordan "Old Man River" or River/ Riv (as in Jordan River) Driebe was solid on the bump. ending with 5-0 record in 6 games started and he pitched in 9 of 12 games in the season with an ERA over 26 innings of 2.77 and 26 K's of opposing batters.
Don't forget our Mr. Clutch Award winner who was RJ "Mr. Clutch" Neel. He was one of our best hitters with a .550 batting average and one of those 1+ OPS guys with a 1.269.
Then we had the Coaches Award winner. Reece "Wild Thing" Martinez was a real joy to have on the team. His improvment from day one was unbelievable. he made catches in the outfield. had hits and scored 8 runs with 7 RBI and a respectable .387 on Base average. He stole 9 bases without being caught. A good teammate and contributor to the 9-2-1 Muskrats!

Muskrat takes a swing, tell us who you think this is taking a good cut. More photos, mostly taken by Don Logsdon,plus some taken by coach Brent are in the Muskrats 12-1 album on left menu under "photo albums". Also most of the players in their profiles have pictures. click on their name in Teams/rosters on left menu to see those "bubble gum card photos"

These two were big contributors in different ways. Derek had a high average at .667 leads the team in Slugging % with .889 and his 1.624 OPS was second only to Tony. Derek had 6 innings on the hill with 3 saves to lead the team in that category as well as a team leading 1.00 in WHIP (walks+ hits per innings pitched). He was a lead by example player and a great asset and our Silver Slugger award winner.
Josh was the leadoff man of year and our Rolaids relief man as well. His pitching in 14 innings got him 2 wins, one in relief and 2.57 ERA. His batting average was very good with .533 and 1.253 OPS. He was a "fire starter on the bases and at the top of the line-up as well as with his "team spirit contributions" Nice mustashe!

Derek scores in last game of season!

From the picture above do you think we might have missed one? Probably more that one fine missed but what was discussed and "run up the Academic Hill" was pretty funny. Everybody got tagged for something and no one appealed as they were worried that the fine would double. Their concern was justified. The whole thing took less time than previously was our experience. There were some good fines.

Buzz "look what I found" My swing, 2 for 2 with a double. Not the only one. Lady Gaga(Nick Salamy) with a triple, Jimmie and Derek with double also.The Wild thing, Surf Sam, Rocky, RJ, Riv and Josh (2) had hits. Our pitchers were outstanding: Josh started went 2 innings and allowed one unearned run only. He did not pitch long enough for the win so Riv who pitched 2 innings of shut out releif assumed the role of the Vulture to get Josh back for Wednesday. Tanner came in and pitched but didn't have his usual magic. he allowed 2 earnies and defense let him down for 2 more. Derek came in with bases loaded in a 10-5 game and got the Save striking out 3 over 2 innings.

I will have some pictures and more in an article later but now off to Willow Glen High in San Jose to play ball at 1:30. "Baseball is Life, the rest is just details"

X-man Claudio started the game, much to his surprise, as Lelands battery mate. He did a great job and threw out a would be runner (the ump missed the call), as well as calling a good game. He also set the tone for the night with a base hit to lead off the game and when the ball got away he alertly took 2nd, saw no one was covering third and coasted into third to score later on Panda's 2 RBI hit. We put up an 8 spot in that inning. Everyone on the team reached base. Blurr Lefebre had 2 knocks and an RBI Sy Hesselberg scored 2 runs on walks with 3 steals, Dusty Trejo did about the same, Josh had a hit and 2 walks and, how about this 2 steals. Jake Edwards had a good inning at first and Keith Denny had a couple of good plays including a hot grounder at 2nd. Blake had a number of good plays including the fly ball catch to end the 4th inning and get us out of trouble. Our catchers did well, Xman, Slash and Blurr. See everyone at practice today and then we wish you good luck Saturday vs the Longhorns again, 12:15 show up Zehnder 1pm first pitch.

Stretch McCarley struggled through the first inning but ended up striking out the side in the bottom of the first inning with no runs allowed working around 3- 2 out walks to do that (one of the walks was a strike 3 that was called a ball on a good 3-2 pitch). In the second he came out of the game after throwing 67 pitches and getting about 4 balls that should have been outs. Cy Hesselberg came in and got some more pop-ups and grounders but could not get the outs. 14 runs scored. Ricky pitched the third and gave up one run. It is questionable if that was an earned run or not but it was a lead-off walk where the umpire missed the call on a pretty good pitch and our defense did the rest of the damage. Sabo Espinosa worked the 4th but the game was called on time limit. The few Offensive highlights were Ricky with a first inning base hit, Sy with a lead-off base hit in the second inning and a stolen base as well as Stretch McCarley with a pop up that he reached on in the third. Dusty Trejo reached on a walk and stole 2nd and Cy along with Sabo drew walks. I think there was a shell shock factor in this game. After the good first inning we could not field a ground ball or catch a fly ball and the game snowballed out of control. FIDO--"forget it drive on". Game Wednesday under the lights at BSP 5:45 show up 6:30 1st pitch. Let's have some fun with this one.

The first couple of practices are "in the books" We have not gotten our schedule yet but should get it soon. We have yet to see all our 11 players. So far so good though. The other coaches in the 13 division are already complaining that your 2 "catcher-coaches" took all the good catchers in the draft, and they are correct. We have some good arms too. Ricky is starting to stand out in the field, Leland has a strong arm and an some impressive athletic ability. Reminds the coaches of SF giant all star, Pablo Sandoval and thus the first nickname of the season Kung Fu Panda or Panda for short. One of those catchers we hoarded also stood out first practice. Xavier Lefebre is very fast for a catcher and thus "Blurr"! Joseph McCarley is what we all look for in a first baseman, a tall, lean player with some power potential and so it is Joseph "Stretch" McCarley (like McCovey or Stretch Armstrong). Every year we get a player who is willing to get down and dirty to field a ball. Tylor "Dusty" Trejo. Jared Mayer, another catcher seems like a hard nosed player who is versitile so we dubbed him "Slash". Other nicknames are in the works and everyone will have one.

Here is a great opportunity to support your player's baseball league. Poker Texas Hold'em style Saturday October 6 registration at 5:30 at Plaza Del Sol Resturant on Elk Grove Blvd in the Big Lots Shopping Center near hiway 99 ( 8523 Elk Grove Blvd. 95624). game starts at 6:30 pm. $40 buy in and $20 optional re-buy for the first hour. $300 visa card for the winner second place is $60 visa card. You don't have to be a good player to win. Just have some fun. See Coach Doug for tickets.

We call Jacob Espinosa "Sabo" because with the glasses he reminds us of former Major Leaguer, Chris Sabo of the Reds. A 300 hitter, 3rd baseman with power. Sabo Espinosa had some big contributions in this game with a base hit and an RBI, a couple of stolen bases and run scored. above he steals second (Coach Brent got the ball coming out of the glove.) He also pitched in the end of the game getting 2 outs in the top of the 7th. With 2 on he came out of the game and one of the runners he left on scored on a pick-off play, an error, so no earned run for either pitcher. Other big contributions to a close game came from the starting pitcher, Panda Buraga, 3 innings, 3 hits allowed an only one earned run. Panda also had a hit and an RBI. X-man Claudio had 2 hits including a double with one run scored, Ricky had a hit and a run scored. Dusty Trejo came thru big time for the team with a double and 2 RBI in the game moving his batting average to .333, other RBI's were Stretch McCarley, Sy Hesselberg and Josh Hames. Bullseye Denny scored a run as did Blake Lujan. Defensively we have some stuff to work on in practice, pick off throws, outfield relays, bunt plays and steal defense. Big weekend coming up see you all at practice except the Panda who is excused.

Leland "Kung Fu Panda" Buraga pitched well for the 2 innings he was asked to toe the pitching rubber. 5 of the six outs he got were by way of strike out. He had an 2RBI single in the first and a Triple later in the game. Stretch McCarley followed him on the bump and had 4K but walked or hit batter 5 times leading to a earned run and one gift score. But did well. Ricky completed the game giving up one hit and one earned run. He put out the fire in the 4th and nailed the game down in the 5th inning. Ricky also scored in the first stole a couple of bases on 2 walks and was robbed of triple on catch at first of liner ticketed for the right field corner.

See Muskrats 12-2 in photo albums for new pictures. The story of this game was our offense coming back in the bottom of the fourth inning. It was a wild one with the Muskrats having the home team Hammer. We gave up one run in the top of the first, an unearned run while Stretch was pitching. Then the offense worked some walks and batted around with key hits from Ricky, Blake and Blurr 6-1 good guys! Second inning Stretch woes again, he gives up 5 runs for the 6-6 tie, just bad luck mostly, hit by pitch, couple of bloops and a "ground ball with eyes" Again we take the lead after Sy walks, Sabo walks and Blurr gets hit by a pitch. Slash Mayer gets an RBI fielder's choice and we lead again. Ricky pitching very well but us not fielding result in 2 more unearned runs and one earnie. Down by 3 going to the bottom of the Fourth. Plenty of time to come back in the next two innings right? Wrong! We started at the top of the order and Dusty Trejo draws a walk, steals a base and scores on a Stretch double! Then comes Panda Buraga, who has thrown out a couple of Horn runners, hits a single for first and third then steals and scores with Stretch on Blake's base hit sending Ricky, who walked, to third thus a tie ball game. This all sets up the "Babe", Sy Hesselberg, for his home run hero of the day act. He hits an absolute missile down the right field line into the corner for a three run Homer! Suddenly we lead by 3 no one out. We need to get more runs because there is enough time for another inning to start. Right? Wrong! Then we get 3 singles in a row from Sabo, Josh "Montana" Hames and Blurr Lefebre for another run. After one out Bullseye Denny walks to reload the bases and Lefty Jake gets the RBI with his walk. Top of the order for Dusty who singles in 2 runs! At this point we stopped stealing up 8 runs. But Stretch hits a lawn dart infield pop up that should have been an out twice but we score with the late throw home and big Joseph is safe at first. Panda hits what should have been an RBI ground out but reached on the E-6. A 2 out walk to Blake scored our final run with the game called due to time limit and we squeak this one out 21-10! Great comeback win guys!

Actually this is our Wednesday night game picture for Dusty from a walk and then getting to third by others walking and steals. In this game he got there in one play that is one for the books. According to reports, he struck out and on a dropped third not only reached first but made it all the way to third. (a strike out triple?) I guess. nice base running Dusty. He scored in that inning and also walked and scored another time. He wasn't the only star by any means. The game was close for 3 innings then we broke it open. The bottom of the first we came up after Blake dispatched the Longhorns with 2 strike outs and Panda threw out a runner. Xman Claudio got plunked by a pitch stole to third and scored on the first of Panda Express' 3 hits. The scoring seal was broken and despite a couple of more walks we did not score further in the first or second inning. The Third inning was different. A walk to Josh who scored on Dusty's "Strike out Triple" then Ricky knocks in Dusty with one 2 out hit and Panda drives Ricky in with his double to re take the lead 4-3, of the three Longhorn runs, 2 third inning runs were unearned off of Blake, who struck out 5 Longhorns in three innings of work. Still a close game but that all changed in the 4th inning. Ricky came in to pitch the fourth and was outstanding but still the 'Horns came up 2 more unearned runs and the lead. Thus Ricky becomes the "vulture" ( a pitcher who comes in to the game with the lead and gives up that lead then his team scores enough to go ahead for good is said to "vulture" as in Buzzard, the win). We scored 11 runs in the bottom of the 4th and took the commanding lead making Blake the winning pitcher. The 4th started out the way our 1st inning at bat did, Hit By Pitch, this time it was Blake who got plunked. He moved around as Sy walked, Blurr walked and Sabo Espinosa got an RBI when he walked. Then with the bases loaded Keith reached on fielder's choice that the pitcher fielded forcing Sy at the plate. Then Slash Mayer walks (another RBI). Josh (pictured below) got a hit with his team high 3 game hit streak extended. He gets an RBI as well. "Lefty" Jake Edwards walks for an RBI and then Dusty gets his second RBI of the game, still no hits as he walks also. The hits come next with X-man Claudio getting an RBI knock and then Ricky gets his RBI walk when Leland busts this thing open with a 2 RBI double. Blake gets a hit also with an RBI. 11 Runs in the 4th and we were done. The Longhorns got to hit in the top of the 4th but could not mount any offense vs Stretch McCarley. 15 to 5 win and it wasn't as close as it sounds. The difference was really good batter's eyes on our crew vs theirs. The stats are posted under teams and rosters and Game results.

A come-from- ahead tie. A good game nonetheless. Shown above Slash easily into second. Big hits from Blurr Lefebre and 2 knocks from Slash Mayer as pictured above plus another triple from Panda Express Buraga.The Sound by the way is for the Trojans because we have one more game with them! Our pitchers all did a good job starting with Blake with 2 innings of work. Then Panda Express rolled in allowing 1 run, unearned an only 3 hits in three innings. Stretch McCarley came in for the save but a couple of unusal infield errors prevented the save and even only giving up on hit and one walk we pulled Stretch in the tie game. Ricky came in a closed it out on an unusual play with a runner from third coming home, getting in a run down and was tagged out by Blurr to end the game in a tie.

Saturday we play the Longhorns at 10am at Jones North (the commish says we will play them one more time after that.) then we have the Lodi Crushers at 1pm moving to Jones South. The next event for us is Practice on 10/4 at BSP 5pm then the 10/6 game and we are looking for a 10am match up with the Trojans at BSP. Lets beat them this time. The following Wednesday 10/10 we will have a 6:30 game at BSP Then on 10/13 a 10am game. One of those last 3 games will be against a team that is an outside team. We don't know who yet. The other two will be a rematch with the Trojans and Longhorns.

Remember on 10/6 at Plaza Del Sol there is a poker tourney to raise money for the league. Coach Doug still has 5 tickets at $40 each to sell.

Jake is pictured here because the first time he comes up with his new bat he gets a solid 2 RBI single. The "Magic Bat". Jake was not the only one swinging well in game one of our double header. It all started with Blake who was our starting pitcher and our lead off man. He got a key RBI hit in our 8 run second inning rally. He also pitched well enough for the win. Sy "Babe" Hesselberg started that inning with a walk stole second and third then Josh Montana Hames walked and stole 2nd. Next up was Slash Mayer who also walked then Dusty walked to get an RBI.Jake then singled in his 2 runs so we are looking good. Bullseye walks to set things up for Blake and his RBI single, Stretch McCarley follows with an RBI knock of his own and Xman Claudio has another hit. Blurr gets 2 of his 4 RBI in this game with a hit of his own. That is followed by Babe's second at bat of the inning and he gets the 8th run of the inning on an RBI single. We could not score in the third, maybe we were worn out be all the base running. We did give up 3 unearned runs in the first 2 innings and 3 more runs only one earned in the 4th. That brought them close but we came back again in the 4th with 2 runs one walks to Stretch, Xman Claudio, and Ricky. Blurr steps up and drives in 2 more runs (4 for the game) with a solid hit. That was all that Ricky and Sy needed to nail down the win. A "hold" for Ricky and Save for Sy. 10-6 the final.

The coaches were very proud of our recreational team hanging with a Travel Ball club that has played together for 6 years. We did not get a 10 run loss like the Trojans who lost to the Crushers 29-0. Our score ended up 13-5. A few errors on defense made the gap in score wider. On earned runs it may have been 5-4 Crushers. Blake (4 innings), Xman Claudio (2 innings) and Sy plus Stretch (1 inning combined)were outstanding on the hill having to pitch through errors and some walks. We went down 8 -0 real quick but the guys did not quit. We scored 2 runs in the 4th on hits by Blake, Stretch and Xman with some good base running forcing the action. We were still down but managed 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th on a double by Blake, single by Stretch McCarley and walk to the Xman. then Blurr (5th RBI of the day) singled in a run followed by another RBi single from Sy and what turned into a sacrifice by Sabo Espinosa on a 9-3 put out. A game effort to be proud of considering what happenned to the Trojans.

The rest of the schedule posted and as Blues Brother Jake said "it wasn't my fault" The schedule was supposed to extend to 10/20 but due to the outside teams we needed to get 'er done so: we do have the Trojans on the 6th only one game at 10am, no game on the 10th (Wednesday), the Thursday 11th practice is Kangaroo Kourt 5 pm BSP! More later on that but see below for last years info. On Saturday 10/13 we now have a double-header. At Jones North first the Trojans at 10 then another outside team. Best Speed #1 at 1pm Jones North also. We will be missing Sabo but we can still beat these guys. Then our last contest and meeting will be at BSP on Wednesday 10/17 6:30 frist pitch 5:45 show up. We turn in jerseys after the game but the hats you keep.

The story of this game is very involved. First we were going up vs a good team with only 9 guys. So naturally The Babe, Sy, tries to catch a ball in warm ups with his upper lip. So our Fat Lipped slugger has to play left field in the first inning (after we stopped the bleeding that is). Jared Slash Mayer is our lead off man and plays third. As 3 CPO says "Thank the maker" we had him, no but wait. We are the home team and they manage to get one unearned run off of the Panda on the hill. Then the aforementioned Slash gets a hit in his first AB but he gets caught stealing and bumps his elbow in the process. He plays one more defensive inning and is due to hit in the bottom of the 2nd with one out and 2 on. His elbow is killing him. We skip him in hopes that he can play later but it gets worse. So we go the final 4 innings with 8 players, only 2 outfielders. The good news is after we skip Slash then Stretch walks and Panda bombs a 3 run double. We are up 3-1. As it turns out those runs were the winning runs but be didn't know and were scared of playing with 8. But the rest of the way our pitching would have carried us with Leland pitching 2 added innings and giving up nada! 2 hits (first 2 innings- 0 last 2) 1 walk and struck out 6. Meanwhile we had a pretty big 4th inning. Panda doubled again and then Blake walked. Sy with the even fatter upper lip now singled in Panda and Blake. Sabo Espinosa came through with an RBI hit and then alertly took 2nd on an overthrow. Blurr followed with an RBI knock and Dusty walked. Up steps Lefty Jake and puts a hard ball in play, it is hard to say if the attempt to force Dusty at 2nd would have worked but then they threw the ball away after the dropped ball at second and the merry-go-round of runners started. With, Sabo and Blurr Scoring and Jake to second, Dusty to 3rd. Dusty scored on the Stretch hit and Blake singles in Lefty. 10-1 good guys. Stretch pitched the 5th and Sy started the 6th and got 2 outs. He was out of sorts though, allowing one run with 1 hit and his lip was even bigger by this time. So we got Blake in to face the last batter. A strike out and we think the game is over. The Trojans want to see if they can get us out and get one more AB. Stretch, now the top of our order as Jared left for the urgent care with a bad elbow, walks, Leland manages a single and some wild pitches get them to 2nd and third. From there Stretch steals home to make it 11-2. When Blake and Sy walked the up called the game. Great effort for 8 guys to beat the #1 team by 9 runs and it wasn't really as close as the score would seem to indicate! We played together, hit well with 11 hits and only gave up 2 runs on 3 hits. No word from Jared on the elbow yet. Per Trojan Coach Old Tom Kilbride the Longhorns beat the vaunted Trojans as well. Wasn't their day, apparently it was ours. The Boys got half way to the goal of 10 "dive backs" 5 more in game one of the double-header next week gets them Pizza on the coaches.

We have not been getting dirty on pick off attempts on our runners. Diving back to the bag and barely making it on pick offs means that you have taken the right lead-off. If you can go back standing you have not been aggressive enough. With lunch between the last double header of the season coming up, coaches say 10 dive-backs and they will buy Pizza for the team for lunch. We got 5 against the Trojans last Saturday so let's do that and more this time. And oh yes Kangaroo Kourt Thursday at Practice. 5 PM BSP Here Come the Fudge er I mean the Judge!

The less said about the Best Speed Game the better. Bronco Blake Lujan, our horse, Started and was projected to go 4 innings. If we played good defense with few walks and few deep counts he could pitch all 4. We did not play good deense and plate ump more than Blake gave us some deep counts. Still with the 3 innings and 5 K's 0 ER in the first game and 2 1/3 innings in the second with 2 earnies and 3K's Bronco turned a good effort. He also went 3-4 on the day at the plate including a hit off of the Best Speed started who was very tough. Our only other hits in the second game included a hit by pitch that Blurr took and solid single by Slash who wal also 3 for 4 on the day with a double. Best Speed scored 13 runs only 5 of which were earned.

Blake was the potential hero in both of these games but circumstances conspired to rip the first game victory away from him vs the rival Trojans. With our Horse on the hill (now nicknamed Bronco) we built a big lead. Bronco Lujan eventually pitched 3 innings 5 K's 0 ER and gave up 2 hits. We got going early with a one out double from Slash Mayer and Bronco Blake Lujan got plunked with a pitch. So we worked a double steal. Then they walked Sy so Montana Josh was up and hit the perfect looper to between the pitcher and second baseman to score Slash. 1-0 good guys. Bronco got the first 2 batters to strike out but the sec ond reached on a dropped third passed ball. He came around to score on a couple steals and a ground ball. 1-1
Then the team went to work to support Bronco. A hit to lead off the 2nd by Blurr and his steal of second followed by a perfect sac Bunt by Bullseye and we got the go ahead run on lefty Jake's RBI Ground out. Bronco Blake continued on the bump for 2 more innings. Giving up 2 hits and striking out the side in the third. On offense in the third Slash Mayer "slashed" a single to left followed by a Bronco hit. The Double steal set up Sy for a 2 RBI knock and he alertly took second on the throw home. Sy stole third and scored on Josh's RBI ground out. Athough Sabo followed all that with a nice hit of his ownwe did not score again in the third. 5-1 good guys! The top of the 4th Dusty walked and stole second but was still at second with 2 outs. But Ricky comes through with a solid RBI single, Slash walked and then Blake hit a 2 run double. We had to have a new pitcher for the bottom of that inning so Bronco could still pitch vs the Travel ball team. But 8-1 good guys. Bronco's line 3IP 0ER-2 hits- 2 walks and 6 strike outs.
Bottom of 4 and Sabo got the first hitter to ground out. So far so good BUT_ he walked the bottom of the order hitter. Hit the lead off guy in the back and then gave up a 2 RBI knock to the #2 hitter. Ricky came in with one out and right off got the ground ball that should have given us at least one if not 2 outs but right through the infielder's legs. Another error followed and that one for sure would have been an out, number 3 if we could have stopped the previous ball. The ump then started squeezing Ricky and we walked 5 with only one cheap hit. 9 runs all unearned. We had Slash come in to close this and he got the final two outs allowing 2 inherited runners to score. Wow what a horrible inning. We ran out of time and lose by 6 on a game where Blake had a 7 run lead when he left the game. What next? Pizza. The guys got the 5 dive backs they needed by the 3 rd inning so Coaches provided Pizza!