It was another exciting round of games played this past Tuesday evening. The most exciting game of the night was a make-up game from Week 6 between the Pink Penguins and Maroon $quad . The Penguins have been making progress at becoming a strong third place team and had reached a .500 record again at 10-10 prior to the game. The Maroon $quad were 19-0 and are currently #3 in the national rankings. The two teams had only played each other two times before this game. The first match-up was in Week 1 and the Maroon $quad delivered a 14-0 whipping on the Penguins. The next time was in Week 4 and the Maroon $quad crushed them 16-4. That was not only the status quo for the Maroon $quad facing the Pink Penguins but other teams in the league in general. They had outscored their opponents by over 100 runs and were a home-run hitting machine...but all of that seemed to change in their most recent game against the Pink Penguins.
The first inning was scoreless for both sides but in the top of the second inning the Penguins made their first move. Trey "Dub" Hathaway, who was pitching for this game as well, hit a 3-run bomb off of Ryan Briers to give the Penguins an early 3-0 lead. The Maroon $quad did not respond by scoring in the bottom of the second or throughout the rest of the game for that matter. The third inning featured a solo shot by Thelmer Damron. The real success story of the night belongs to Paul "Pauley" Smith who hit two home runs (one was hit in the 4th inning for 3 RBIs and one in the fifth for 2 RBIs). Pauley had only hit one home run the whole season before this week and whatever 'clicked' to make him hot at the plate really came through for the Pink Penguins. The final score was 9-0, a shutout (even more amazing than simply defeating the top team in the league). The Maroon $quad were visibly disappointed by the loss but a 20-1 overall record is nothing to be saddened by. When asked what happened during the game they all seemed to agree that the just "could not seem to get any hits." Whatever the reason for losing may be the Maroon $quad will surely stay reasonably ranked if they manage to not lost the rest of their three remaining games and perform well in the playoffs. But out of the three remaining games for the season they play the Pink Penguins twice. So finishing the rest of the season with no additional losses will not be met without challenges.
The Holy Balls were unable to make it to the fields because of injury or prior engagements and forfeited their two games (one against Maroon $quad and the other against the Pink Penguins). This is the second time they've forfeited and 4 of their 6 losses have been the result of it. Brent Thompson assured the league that attendance should not be an issue for the rest of the season and perhaps into the playoffs. The Terrorhawks are now on a seven-game losing streak after losing to the Pink Penguins and losing to Beaver Fever. Beaver Fever were in dire straights on the evening. Greg Sowards was the only consistent team member in attendance. Brandon Woolum was in North Carolina. Mike Saxton was on vacation in Mississippi. Chris Ramey is out for the season with a back injury. And Kyle Hetrick was stuck at work. Sowards had to rely on some players in reserve. Players that were on the roster at the beginning of the year as alternates in case of an emergency.
There were two spare players: Zach Daniels and Christy Saxton. Both players played last year (Daniels for the Turtles and Saxton for the Owls) and adjusted nicely to Beaver Fever's games of the night. Daniels was originally considered to be joining up with Welfare Warriors after the team had a falling out with one of its players. But Sumner and Evans joined Litton on the field so there was no need. Daniels performed well for Fever by hitting 3 home runs and bringing in 12 of the 15 runs scored by the team all evening. Saxton performed well in first game against Welfare Warriors until injuring her knee in the outfield near the end of the second/make-up game. Beaver Fever finished the evening by having a 5-0 shut out over the Terrorhawks in the late evening. The sun was largely to blame, according to Daryl Pullin who said "I keep losing the ball in the sun" while up to bat. Below are a few photos from last Tuesday's games (click HERE to see all of them):
