Shorthanded Storm crushes Crushers’ dreams of 3rd

Monday night’s game against the Coulas Bone Crushers meant nothing to Storm who had already locked up first place. It was clear the game meant nothing as almost half the team signed out and at least three of the players who showed up had, at the very least, contemplated signing out. One player said he only showed up because he had received four emails telling him he had to show up and play. So Storm showed up with a shorthanded squad of nine with many players playing out of position. Ken was moved from second to shortstop, but you wouldn’t know it wasn’t his natural position as he scooped up everything hit to him and made some beautiful throws to first. Joey was patrolling the outfield due to the lack of outfielders. He made some impressive throws in. Mills was there playing his natural position and covering a lot of ground. The other team said they shouldn’t hit it to him, but that was hard to accomplish since Mills was all over the field flashing his leather.

The game did mean something to Coulas. They were one of six teams within one win of each other. Third and Eighth place were only one win apart. Coulas needed to win both games to have any shot of finishing third. 

Storm was stubborn though, and as mentioned, they played some solid defence and held the Bone Crushers to a crushingly low score. As a matter of fact, the Bone Crushers didn’t score until the fourth inning, when they scored four and made it seem like it could be a tight finish. But Storm closed the doors and only allowed one more run through the final three frames.

While Storm didn’t have anything to play for as a team, Duran had something to play for as he continued his pursuit of the league home run crown. He entered the game four out of first, but did his best to gain the ground. He launched the first pitch he saw in the first inning off the path and against the tennis courts. His second at bat saw a massive home run. He had a home run to hit in each of his last two at bats, but was unable to knock one out of the park.

On a less positive note, Storm had some more baserunning issues. This has been a common theme throughout the season. Storm has run into a few too many outs, and it happened again Monday night. With Brian on first and Sam on second, Mills launched a high fly ball to short left centre. The fielders had been playing deep, but it was a fly ball. Initially, Sam was doing the right thing, which was staying put, but as the ball hung in the air, Mills decided he was not only batter, but also base coach, and for some reason started yelling “let’s go, let’s go, let’s go,” at which point Sam started running. Of course, the fielder caught the ball and doubled Sam off easily. Not a huge problem as Storm was winning by a wide margin but still problematic in the way it played out. Storm also had a runner easily thrown out at home. We won’t say who, but there was an awful lot of Reneing rounding third. Not sure if this was a coaching issue or a running issue. Will Storm be able to get its baserunning blunders out of the way before the season ends, or will Storm literally run itself out of the playoffs with errors like these.

Cycle Watch:

Duran missed the single, but he did hit two home runs, so…,

Rene missed the triple, but he hit a home run out

Storm    15   -   Coulas 5

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Coulas	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	5
Storm	3	5	2	1	2	2	x	15

Notable Boxscores:

Duran 4 for 5, 2 home runs, 5 RBI, 4 runs

Joey 3 for 3, 3 runs, RBI

Mills 3 for 4, 3 runs, RBI

Storm doubles up Greenthumb

 A ten man Storm team suited up against a shorthanded Greenthumb team who had a little help from some of The Crew in the Tuesday night matchup. Storm started strong with a couple of singles before Duran mashed a home run. This was the real contest in the game. Storm had already locked up first place, but Duran was chasing Richard from Greenthumb for the home run lead. This brought him to within three and put Storm up three. Greenthumb was blanked and Richard, who after watching three pitches land off the board outside, lined the next pitch to… none other than Duran who made the catch on the hot smash, but who came off the field shaking his hand because the ball had been hit so hard.

Storm added to the lead in the second. With two runners on, Joey launched a three run shot. Under normal circumstances, this would be something to applaud, but with first place already locked up, the gentlemanly thing would have been to leave the home runs for Duran. Duran then came up next, but with Storm plus two, he could not hit a home run. Scratch that. He could hit a home run, it would just be an out. And that’s exactly what happened. Duran mashed a home run out. 

With Storm up two home runs, Duran had his hands tied. Would Richard be able to increase his lead? Nobody would know in the second as Greenthumb went down in order. Storm chipped away and got three more in the third to take a 10-0 lead. But Greenthumb wasn’t done yet. They scored four in the 3rd to make a game of it. But it wouldn’t stay close for long. Mills, who played again like he had eaten some extra wheaties, mashed an inside the park the home run in the fourth to propel Storm to a six run mercy. In the fifth, Mills would outdo himself. He hit an inside the park grand slam en route to a seven run inning for Storm. 

The only thing left was to worry about home runs. Storm kept Richard off the home run board. He came close in one at bat driving a high fly ball to the fence, but Mills sprinted back and caught it. He also popped up to right centre and then to deep second base to go 0 for 4. Greenthumb didn’t manage a home run until the bottom of the 6th, which was too bad because Duran had made the last out of the top of the 6th and didn’t come up in the 7th.

Cycle Watch:

Joey missed the double 

Scotty from the Crew, but playing for Greenthumb, completed the cycle in his last at bat with a home run that was too late to help Duran

Storm    28   -   Greenthumb 14

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	3	4	3	6	7	6	1	28
Greenthumb	0	0	4	2	1	3	4	14

Notable Boxscores:

Joey - 5 for 6, HR (stolen from Duran), 5 RBI, 3 runs

Duran 4 for 6, HR, HR out (thanks Joey!), 5 RBI, 3 runs

Mills 3 for 5, inside the park grand slam, inside the park 3 run homer, 7 RBI, 4 runs

Brian - 5 for 5, 2B, 2 RBI, run

Sam 4 for 5, 3 RBI, 3 runs

Rene 4 for 6, 5 RBI, 2 runs

Kevin - 4 for 6, 4 runs

Storm Soars over Falcons

 In the first game of the doubleheader, it appeared Storm was trapped in a softball version of And Then There Were None, so while winning was important to Storm, getting through the night with everyone still (relatively) healthy was also a priority. 

Storm set the tone early with a six run mercy to start the game. Storm then scored in every frame, including a five run fifth on their way to a 22-9 victory.

Almost everyone contributed to the offensive onslaught. Mills had been eating his wheaties and went 5 for 6. He also played very solid outfield, covering most of the field. In the final frame he made all three outs without hardly having to move.

Joey hopped along at short with some nice plays, and got four hits. Duran started off strong in his bid for his ___th cycle of the season (we’ve stopped keeping track. He hit a three run blast in the first, a double in the second, and a single in the third. After getting the hard one out of the way (the single is the hard one for Duran, he struggled with the one everyone else struggles with, and ended a triple short of the cycle.

Kraig lived up to his alternative spelling and struck out, but he also hit a home run making him a true outcome player. Al pitched a gem of a game and added three solid hits. Jeff made a couple of nice plays at third and went 3 for 3 while hitting two sacrifice flies. Lancer Beam has clearly sacrificed a goat (or a daughter?) as he went 4 for 5./

Sam I am started looking like  he is in line to inherit the Pilkey dynasty. After a number of frustrating at bats Sam I Am, Looked a little more like his father as he went 4 for 5 and drilled his first home run of the season. Of course, Sam is his own man, so he hits pull instead of his dad. Between the two of them they have been peppering the foul territory on both sides of the field.

Kevin made a couple of nice catches in the outfield and got a couple of hits. Brian did his best High Jackman impression, as he was the lone X-Man of the evening being retired in every at bat, but he played a solid first base.

Storm    22   -   Falcons 9

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	6	3	2	1	5	2	3	22
Falcons	0	3	2	2	2	0	0	9

Storm neutralizes Isotopes, but lose Bob in the process

 Storm played an incredibly solid game defensively. The outfield was a vacuum and sucked up everything hit out there. Ground balls found their ways into gloves and throws were solid. Jeff and Al combined for the rare slopitch shutout as Storm won 12-0.

Defensive highlights:

The defensive highlights mostly occurred on plays made at catcher. Lance made a couple of outs against the Isotopes at catcher, but the Isotopes were short players and Lance also made a couple of outs against his own team from catcher. The first was Kevin popping up and Lance made a nice grab. The second was a foul tip lined back at Lance and he caught it. But turnaround is fair play, and when Lance had to leave catcher to bat, Craig jumped at the chance to catch. Sure enough, Lance hit a foul ball that Craig caught.  Call it Karma or the baseball gods, but it was hilarious to everyone watching.

Less hilarious was the injury report:

Greg came up limp and had to sit the last few innings. 

More seriously, Bob broke his ankle sliding into 3rd. There was a loud pop, (See picture) and Bob was unable to continue. Bob has signed out for the remainder of the season as he may require surgery. We all wish Bob a speedy recovery and hope he's good for the start of next season.

Bob's Broken Ankle

Storm    12   -   Isotopes 0

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	2	3	3	0	2	0	2	12
Isotopes	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0