On a beautiful Tuesday night, Storm faced off against the Expos. Both teams had some rough defence and good offence, which made for a back and forth affair that was closer than Storm would have liked it to be. The Expos managed to hang in the game partially because they hit well, and partially because they are the anti-Hanet. Whenever anyone made a mistake, their team taught them what they should have done, and encouraged them. This positive attitude made Storm feel slightly bad about coming back to beat them. Slightly, but not completely.
The game didn’t start well. Batting Practice Thomas didn’t hit the mat in the warmup. He had apparently hoped that Captain Underpants would be a last minute sign back in. He did, eventually find the plate and Storm made some plays behind him and Storm got out of the inning only having given up 1 run. Storm was able to one up the Expos, literally, by scoring two in the bottom of the first!
The second was not kind to Batting Practice Thomas. The Expos scored six runs, mercying Storm. Rick O’Shea once again lived down to his name a with an error. However, he was not the only one. Bongo that frothy panted Monkey showed up and caused his usual mayhem. Some outfield juggling followed by a throw from the Saskatchewan Howitzer that had the option of chicken or fish as it’s in flight meal had the Storm bleeding runs.
Storm was only half the offence the Expos were and scored three. The bottom of the order started things off with three consecutive singles and Big Daddy D hit a fourth consecutive single and Lancer Beam capped off the inning.
Storm’s defence and pitching calmed down and they blanked the Expos in the third. They then had their biggest inning of the game so far. Again, the bottom half of the order got the ball rolling. Bride of Frankenstein, Tank Engine, and Ciggy Stardust hit consecutive singles. PP, who was hitless, decided that he was better off waiting for a walk. Lancer Beam drove in two and Rick O’Shea moved to vrigin sacrifice because he drove in a run.
Storm’s solid defence and pitching continued in the fourth as the Expos were held to one run. Bride of Frankenstein and Tank Engine again started with singles, Big Daddy D and PP hit triples, Lancer Beam doubled in a run, and Rick O’Shea’s virgin sacrifice kept working as he finished off the inning with another single. Storm scored the max six and took what looked like a commanding 16-8 lead. At least, it looked commanding. Until the top of the 5th…
Oh whoa is the 5th. In the 5th the wheels fell off, as not a lot of folks seemed able to move. The Stormy outfielders are so confident in each other's abilities ( as they should be) they didn’t feel the need to back each other up. Case in point. The 1967’s had 2 men on. The Bride made a valiant attempt at a short liner, which got under his glove and sans backup the ball rolled all the way to the fence giving the 67’s an 3 run in the park HR! However, on the other hand other Les Stormies were moving too fast (or at least their throws were). In the same unfortunate inning with a runner on third, a hot shot came back to Batting Practice who then rushed home plate only to fire a missile at Barbies Beau who was catching and returning after a lengthy injury break. The ERYX 145 wire guided missile bounced of the heel of BB’s glove and between his feet allowing the run to score. Bingo the monkey had grown so weary playing his organ that packed it up and starting flinging his own faeces ( as this was more entertaining than watching the Storm play defence) Score 16-14 Storm
After being thoroughly embarrassed in the top of the 5th, Storm kept the embarrassment coming in the bottom of the 5th as they scored a giant goose egg. Momentum had clearly shifted and the Expos had it all. But softball is an interesting game and the momentum seemed to shift again under the feet of the Expos as they were unable to score in the sixth. In the bottom of the 6th, Ken, who was returning from the injured list for a list of injuries so long we could never list them here or run the risk of running out of ink (isn’t that quaint), led off with a single. Big Daddy D apparently asked him if he wanted a courtesy runner. He said he was fine. He didn’t know what was about to transpire. Big Daddy D’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw the right centre fielder playing shallow and he hit the ball over his head. Kevin, coaching third, knew that Ken was aching and so he put up the stop sign at third. What Kevin hadn’t realized, was that Big Daddy D was a home run short of the cycle, and he was not stopping. Thankfully Ken felt the ground shaking, and ran through Kevin’s stop sign. The only question now was whether or not Big Daddy D would pass Ken. Thankfully he didn’t. Big Daddy D scored on an inside the park home run for his second cycle of the season. Storm would score five.
The Expos put up a valiant fight, but Storm’s thundering bats compensated for at times questionable defence, and Storm held on to win 21 - 14.
Check out the Podcast of the game as reported by;
Boxscore |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Total |
Broadway | 1 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
Storm | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 0 | 5 | x | 21 |