CATFISH WIN A GAME!!!

This just in from Co-captain Marc-o:


"Well Captain, this is your co-captain with a summary recap and status report as to last evening's game against the Whybunts. I believe the team did you proud, and I'm going to give you the reasons why.


"Short story is: we won. A close game, but everyone's cool was kept, and we came through.

"It was a lean team last night: lean enough that Evan's late arrival had raised some concern as to whether we were going to make the requisite 10 players. But when I say 'lean,' I also mean that it was a lean mean fighting machine of a team. I have to confess, I had felt concern when starting: sun had come out, storm no longer a threat, but result was an unpleasant combo of heat and humidity that didn't bode well with the 5 gatorades we had left to us (either we actually went through 19 of them last game, or someone was pilfering within the Press; let's assume the former). JC had soaked an impressive spread eagle through his T, and we hadn't even started playing yet.


"Dehydration was on my worried mind.


"But the playing was honed down, effective, and fierce (some noteworthy catches in the field: Evan stands out in my mind for those first couple of innings). We were away, so we batted first. Solid playing that gave us a run. Whybunts tied it up. Inning 2: we score 4 more, things are starting to look snazzy. Whybunts get another 2 though and out lead is only 5-3. A solid professional third inning had both teams holding each other at what they had. Then came the 4th (the dreaded 4th, given our history). We knock in two runs. Two outs.


"Alyssa does what she does and gets to first. JC proves that 'Superstar' isn't always a misnomer and we now got a man and woman on first and second. Emily comes up to plate, lemony-fresher than usual, and trades in her trademark axe-chopper for a strong swing that loads up the bases (keep an eye on this lady's batting hereon: we can expect some good moments from her second half of the season). Cecere is up at bat. In case I forgot to mention it, bases loaded, two outs, and fielders pooping their pants in every direction. I've got a mind to poop my own pants, as I know this play could decide Cecere's future, his character being what it is. Is it going to be the hit he's looking for, or is he going to be chopping his hand off as self- punishment after the game? Do I remind him that he has a child who is going to be needing tuition money one day, or would that translate as pressure?


"Needless worries: punishment is forestalled. The hit is not only solid and cecere, but some people would call it a graNd slam home run.


"We finish our round freakin' 11 to 3. I had told myself I wouldn't do it, but there we were,

moving into the bottom of the 4th, and I'm feeling guilty. We want a solid win, not a massacre. It is the Whybunts, after all, not the Shadowmasks. I don't want to humiliate them.


"And there you go, once again. Our 4th inning curse. The Y-Bs respond by scoring 7. We go into the 5th with only a 1 point lead, 11 to 10.


"The y-bs proceed to keep us from getting anywhere. Bottom of the 5th: they have a man on first and third (I think I may have errored somewhere in there, one of our only ones of the game), and pitcherman does a line drive batters only dream of and only astroturf makes fully possible. They all come in and we go into the 6th behind, 11 to 13.


"And it is here that we can really start officially calling last evening 'ladies night'; for it was the ladies that ultimately decided this game for us. They had aready performed throughout, as they always do: consistent base hits, Kate's pitching consistently on the eye (and her fielding always on target; combo plays to JC all the way to the end), and Diane making not 1 but 2 outs as catcher on pop flies this game. But it was in the 6th that 'reliability' and 'consistency' (the last things in the world to sneeze at) kicked it up a notch into plays that demonstrated what it is all about. We score another 2, tying up the game at the top of the 6th: 13 - 13.


"Can we hold them is the question of the day. Alyssa answers the question in Short Field: a high and mighty hit of which she makes short work. No sooner had eyes withdrawn back into sockets, a second hit gets slammed, and she makes a running catch that has even the Why Bunts talking and will have them remembering. Official MVP of the eve. Another out and we're up.
I'm up. I'd rather start a fight than end it, as you know. So nothing is yet churning in belly-land. I know I hit it, but can't quite remember how I ended up at second. (Overthrow? Better hit than I can remember?). Jose up: bring me home, Jose; end the torment. He tries.


"Out. Mitch up; the Mitcharoony, I mentally plead. Do the Mitch. He comes close. Too close for pleasure. Out. Diane is up. Calm, cool, collected. A cucumber, as always. Here things get blurry for me. Evan had been base coaching me, but the coaching had been going along the lines of 'do what you think.' I don't always thing too well out there. But I knew this: if she hits it, I should probably run. She hits it; I do so. I'm about to settle into third and see what exactly happened out there, except I notice some advice being thrown my way to take home. The hit had obviously been more than the YBs had known what to do with. Diane holds it up at 1st, but I'm running, in the right direction no less, but crippled by a disadvantage that I'd unfortunately introduced into the equation: I had delayed. I see macho man at home screaming for the ball, a side eye cocked at me. Do I comb my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? Should I be wearing White Flannel trousers and doing the etc.? Luckily, I'm unable to actually think and keep running because it is what I started to do.


"I'm home. Macho deflated. As Mae West put it: Macho, but not mucho.


"Diane has driven the run in.


"Bottom of the 7th: 14-13. Can we hold them? They get a man on second who should have gone nowhere. (My fault? Is there fault? I can't remember.) Ick. Can we hold them? Mitch says yes, I believe. A slammer that goes nowhere. Another one (who gets that one? It's all a haze). Final play: Kate grabs it, to JC, third out, man on second never got the chance to go anywhere. We've won.


"Problem is, YB captain has her own peculiar way of keeping score: 'Cumulative' she calls it, ticking runs off in a long stream. Says we're tied 14-14. It takes a good 5 minutes, but I go over the preceding 4 innings with her and her objecting macho (nice fellow, of course). She now says 4th had us tied at 11/11 (despite my checking with her as soon as that inning had ended and her telling me 11-10).


"We had actually corrected their account in the 5th as their getting 3 runs, not the 2 they had thought. I don't even mention the fact that she had yelled out to her team that they needed 2 runs just a few plays earlier. Could get ugly, but it doesn't. YBs good sports (even if captain a bit 'off'). Our victory is accepted. (NB, though: keep careful track of score for our next game with them: the same exact thing happened in a game with them last year: they contested score, claiming a tie, not a victory on our part; we took their word for it and went into extra inning, and they ended up winning. Now that I've seen her method of keeping score, we cannot allow that to happen again.)


"Things happened at the Muddy afterwards. We became a leaner crew at 6; penne pasta had replaced the wings, we got some pizza, I demonstrated the marketing meeting I needed to prepare, and I believe many pictures were taken."