Fish Fall to Roman Brushett 8 - 16

Dear Fish and Friends,

 

We were valiant in our efforts last night but it wasn’t quite enough to avenge ourselves against Roman Brushett.

 

But our efforts were numerous and courageous, as always. Leepin Leevs stepped up when we needed him to try his fishy paw at 3rd base, and he handled that challenge with grace and fishy fierceness; NaSlamWell Tickets Trippe had a bat of fire, with at least a triple and a big tater in the top of the 6th (he opened a ticket and promptly closed it); No Prob Rob made his glorious pitching debut, and bedazzled on the mound, while never shirking his duties at the plate; Butters “Big Bats” Elwell was batting as per usual, with doubles galore and a tremendous tater in the 6th, and also snagged line drives like a frog catching flies at shortstop; Evan “The Beast/Go Daddy Go” Mauser made his triumphant return to left field, where we’ve missed him something terrible, and also batted like a man who has been softball-starved for over a year, racking up singles, doubles, triples (which really should’ve been a tater); “Yes Way” José had a double and prowled the outfield like a lion; Kate Scaldwell Elwell pitched perfectly, bamboozling them on the mound, and wielded a bat of fire, with at least 2 singles; Dan Bouchard batted with burly brawn with at least a double and a single; Purple Haze Hasley batted like a beast and hustled behind the plate, as always; Big Rich Wladkowski, who would like to be known as the Babe Ruth of Pop Flies, but I said no, so you had some pop flies, you were just having an off-night Rich!—well, he batted with his usual calm power, and guarded 3rd base and the outfield like a tiger; Liz “The Lizzinator” got all up in their lizness, but kept her cool even when their pitcher was getting all up in her face with the high heat.

 

Now Fish Nation, you know I do not usually write of myself in these write-ups, because I feel my presence is in your faces all the time. But I do have to mention an incident that involved yours truly. The RB Captain, a very nice and well-meaning fellow who is perhaps a bit overly chatty and wont to give unsolicited advice, well we had a bit of a tangle when I was at the plate. He was the catcher that inning and he asked if perhaps I might like to take a few steps closer to the plate. I declined, having seen the very high and inside heat their pitcher had been throwing. At any rate I will admit this ruffled my fish feathers. And then when I hit the ball and was running to first, I looked to my right and—there he was, their Captain, running along beside me. He claimed it was so he could prevent any overthrow at first. All I can say is: I have never seen anything like this in my LIFE. You can consider my fish feathers even further ruffled. At any rate, you’ll never believe what happened next in the bottom of the 3rd inning, when I was playing 2nd. We had two outs, and RB Captain steps up to the plate. Here I’ll let co-cappy Purple Haze take over to describe the events: “Our own Captain Batty made a near impossible snag at 2nd base with a throw to first to get the back-seat-driving, overzealous, friendly yet fierce Captain of the opposing team OUT!!!”

 

That’s right Fish Nation, it was a thing of glory, I felt the angels sing. It felt as if a magical flying unicorn had caught that ball on the bounce and then dropped it in my glove with a satisfying plop. I then channeled none other than Dustin Pedroia as I calmly made the throw to first—not freaking out and throwing the ball behind me, or way up into the sky, or into the bushes, or what have you. When I think of it now, I still feel a warm glow inside.

 

And speaking of magical flying unicorns, we were blessed with so many adorable Fish Youth, the Fish of Tomorrow, cheering us on: Maggie the Magical Sprite, Rock Star Robley the Rookie, Amazing Edith the Beauty, and (Introducing!!) Isaac the Intrepid. You’ll see their shining faces in the accompanying photos. They lifted our spirits and kept us fighting throughout.

 

Please join us next week for final two games of the season, a mixed double-header: first we face Shadow Masks on the Women’s Softball Diamond, and then we finish off the season with the Whybunts on field 5A.

 

Yours in softball,

Judy

Catfish Winning Streak Closed Down by CrEAPS with 6 - 12 Loss

Dear Fish and Friends,

 

There was much gnashing of fish teeth last night, as the Catfish winning streak was brought to a close by none other than the CrEAPS.

 

The game began quite auspiciously, however, with 3 up 3 down in the bottom of the first and a very artful diving catch on the run by Arthur the Artful in center field. Our bats were napping until the fourth inning when we had the brilliant idea to open up a ticket with Nathaniel “Tickets” Trippe to start a rally. And start a rally he did, closing that ticket with grace and courage. But the CrEAPS answered back with 4 more runs and our bats unexpectedly (!) took another little snooze. In the 7th we realized we had to open yet another rally ticket, and Tickets, Tslammy, and Butters did their best to close it, but it wasn’t enough to take things to the bottom of the 7th. So we sent the CrEAPS off with a cheer, courtesy Robley the Rookie, of “Three Cheeps for the CrEAPS!!” and swam sportingly off to the Muddy Charles Pub.

 

All of us played our fishy hearts out, as always: Leepin Leevz did lotsa leaping at 2nd base; Tickets Trippe had two triples and a double; Tslammin Tsunami Tsai had single and a triple; Butters had a single, some wildebeest-style running of the bases, and a much-need homerun; Chris Good Eye Eyer with Bat o’ f’Eyer had a triple and a single; Scaldwell was scalding on the mound as per usual and also had at least one single; Dan Bouchard, in his triumphant return to first base, made a dastardly double play with Tslammy on the mound, who made a terrific snag of a line drive and shot it straight to Dan B to catch their runner off the plate; Lil Richard had a single and swam his heart out in the outfield; Purple Haze Hasley had two singles; John the Baffler Abbate had a fine single; Liz the Lizzinator had a beauty of a single that sailed over the infield CrEAPS; Arthur the Artful made the aforementioned artful catch and wielded his bat with mighty ferocity; and Andrea the Heroic Herbst gave it her all behind the plate in the outfield.

 

Meanwhile, another battle was unfolding, between Maggie the Magical Sprite (joining us in her triumphant return), who was Team Pizza, and Robley the Rock Star Rookie, who was Team Watermelon. Catfish were unable to determine the outcome of that face-off, but we sure hope we see future iterations to gather more data.

 

The moral of this story, Fish Nation, is that wins are not served up to you on a silver platter; you have to work really hard for them. Fish worked hard last night and have no shame in their game, but we’ve got our work cut out for us for next week. Please join us next Wednesday on field 9, when we face our very best frenemies the Whybunts. Last time we saw them we beat them by 1 run—this time let’s make it 10 (ten)!!!!!

 

Yours in softball,

Judy