We had our third game of the season on Monday night. The weather was near perfect, if a little cool, as the bare minimum of Insult'ers gathered at the HO1 field to take on Schwing & a Miss. For those of you couldn't be with us (and that seems like just about everybody!), here's how it went.
We were the visiting team and got to bat first. Jeff led off with a single. Sharon was up next and singled as well. We decided to test their throwing arms early, but they seemed to be in better shape than we'd hoped, as Jeff was snagged trying for third. Rob pounded a triple to score Sharon, but we left him stranded and went out into the field. Our defense took a little while to find it's footing and we gave up seven runs. The end of the first inning found us in the hole 7-1.
Kathy started us off in the second with a double. Bob then doubled to score Kathy, and was brought home by a single from Jeff. Sharon singled, and we now had runners on first and second. Rob doubled, scoring Jeff and moving Sharon to third. Lisa was up next and singled, scoring Sharon and Rob. At the end of our drive we had scored five runs. We gave up three more this inning, but stopped them there with the help of a nice double play and the score was now 10-6 in Schwing's favor.
Inning three had us go three-up, three-down and it also saw our opponents score two more runs. We shut them down quickly after that with a rarely-seen triple play! Schwing had runners on first and second when a line drive was ripped at Eric. He snared the ball, tagged the runner who had taken off from second, then threw to first to nail a runner who was loping back to the bag. A great heads-up play! We went to the fourth inning trailing 12-6.
Eric led off the fourth with a double. Rob tripled, which brought in Eric, and came home on a single by Lisa. Bob tripled, and then Jeff punched a double to bring him in. After we were done, we had earned 4 more runs. We gave away two more in the bottom of the fourth and found ourselves behind 14-10.
In the fifth, we came up empty offensively and allowed three more Shwing runs. The score was now 17-10.
The sixth looked about the same, except that it was more "miss" than "schwing" for our adversaries as we posted our first shutout inning of the game. The score remained at 17-10 as we headed into our final at-bat.
Sharon got us moving with a double. Rob then doubled to score Sharon, and scored when Liz ripped a single (gotta love that silver bat!). Sadly, we ran out of steam right about there and did not even need to play the field. The final score - 17-12.
What can I say about this game? Despite a disappointing turnout, we were able to play a great game of softball and turn what looked like a certain pounding into a respectable performance. We have a great team here and I think it really showed Monday night. Offensive honors go to Jeff and Rob who were both 4-for-5. A defensive tip of the hat to Eric for the fine triple play, and to Jeff and Liz who turned an nice double play the inning before. Thanks to Kathy for handling the pitching duties and to Melanie for keeping score. After some rest and beer at the "tree", a small group of us headed out for pizza. A great time as always!