Recap: Mercy me! That's the last game of regular season

Hello, readers! It has been a while. In addition to our week off, your not-so-humble writer has been working. Ergo, blog content has been light. Not this week! (Well, kind of this week.) I was able to get away and go to the game, which went down like this:

1st Inning
Top: Nate gets to second base. (NOT LIKE THAT. Unless you were thinking about softball. Then, like that.) Becki gets to first base. Which, how many other sports are there where if you get to the third of something, its a compliment? Anyways. Becki gets out, same with Julie. Nate runs home, shows emotion. Dan gets to first. Kelli strikes out, bringing Russ' to three outs.
Bottom: Brian pitches the first inning. Kyle and Julie work together to make a good play for the first out. Kyle makes a great catch. However, the ball was going so fast, Kyle said that it "might have broke my glove."
Score: 2-1, Buntes favor

2st Inning
Top: Mike goes to first. And then he's tagged out, Sarah gets out as well. Jason makes it to first base (insert "and he'll only ever make it to first base" joke here), Melissa strikes out. Our half of the inning goes remarkably fast -- a lesson the other team could have heeded later on...
Bottom: Jason takes the pitcher's mound. Nate makes a good try to get someone out at first. Dan catches a high and pretty.
Score: 6-1, Buntes favor

3rd Inning
Top: Jason goes to first. Same with Becki and John. Brian strikes out. Becki gets out, same with John. Two runs are scored in-between.
Bottom: The third inning, otherwise known as the inning where WE GOT THE POINT ALREADY STOP SCORING RUNS. They honestly reached the limit for home runs in an inning. That's how bad the inning went. Ten runs were made. Becki and Julie worked together to get the first out. As Grace pointed out, throughout the season, Julie has gotten very good at doing the splits!
Score: 16-1, Buntes favor

4th Inning
Top: Nate walks to second. Kelli gets out. Nate makes it all the way home. Kyle gets home, Sarah gets to second, Dan and Melissa get out. And... that kind of ends the game. We got mercied. And we got mercied good. What a way to end the regular season.

Next week begins Tournaments, which lasts for three weeks. Its always odd, because you never know if the team will last one, two, or all three weeks. The first game for us is next week, July 22, at 9 p.m. ET. Beyond that, I don't know the times... times will be posted on a as-I-find-them-out basis. :)

(Thanks to recent cosmetology school-graduate Grace for the notes!)

In Summary: The June 17, 2009 game

As you may have noticed, I was not around for the June 10th game, hence, no documentation. Not so for this week! Photographs and video were taken my yours truly, while Grace took copious notes. Those notes are what can make this recap happen. (Thanks, Grace!)

1st Inning

Brian pitches the first inning. Nate caught the ball! Not fast enough to get to first. But he gets first out. Kelli just about caught a high and pretty. Two runs scored by the Independents.
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Nate gets to first. Becki gets out, but we still love you Becki and you still love softball, for pete's sake. Kyle brings the ball over the fence! And then? Home run! Two runs scored by Russ'. Julie walked to first, Dan went to first also.

2nd Inning

Its Jason's turn to pitch. Becki gets the first out, Dan catches a high and pretty.
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Mike and Sarah strike out fairly quickly. Jason gets to second base (in sports, people!), Melissa strikes out. Neither team wins any points.

3rd Inning

Brian is back to pitching. He... doesn't take it completely well. "Butler. You're pitching the rest of the game," he exclaimed. Dan and Melissa both made great catches, which I know is absolutely compelling to read about when I have no visuals to demonstrate, but, trust us: they were good. Grace then wrote on the notes: "Think Dan gave B(rian)T(enBrock) a heart attack. 'Sarah, don't get hit by the bat!'"
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Brian gets to third. Becki gets out. Devan gets to first. Julie out. John out. I think someone got a run in this inning, but, I don't know who. Just... give it to yourself, gentle reader. Congratulations. The inning closed out, 2-3, Russ' favor.

4th Inning

Butler gets the first out. Kelli makes a good catch, and Julie does the splits to get the last out. Yoga in the ballfield? (That's my commentary, not Grace's.)
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A few people made it up to bat, and most didn't score. Fine. I can repeat this for every inning, for every game, even the good ones. What made this inning special was this: we were playing, when suddenly we heard a player yell "whose kid is this?" Out by the outfield, one of Brian's kids had found a small hole in the fence, climbed through and was now on the playing field. He was quickly escorted out, to the amusement of everyone. Nate, Sarah and Kyle all make it home, ending the inning 2-6.

5th Inning

Brian is pitching again, and is one big basket of nerves. Julie advises him to "shake it off." So, Brian does some shaking there on the pitcher's mound. Good. for. him. Julie does the splits, again. Showoff. Kelli makes one good catch, prompting Grace to write "WTB Kelli!" A long story short: The Independents score a lot of runs.
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Mike walks to second. Julie strikes out, same with Jason. Mike the makes it home, so, good job Mike! Kelli gets out, closing the inning 6-7, Russ' favor. (I have to say, I was busy taking pictures and video that I never really noticed that we were winning for a couple innings. That's pretty cool!)

6th Inning

Melissa catches a foul ball, proving her dedication to catching no matter what. Kyle gets the second out, and then dives for the third. The other team scores one run total.
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Brian strikes out. Same with Devan and John. Melissa makes it to first base, while Sarah gets to home. (Sometimes, I wish baseball terms weren't used as metaphors for dating. You can read this all totally the wrong way!) Inning ends 7-8, Russ' favor.

7th Inning

Brian doesn't want to pitch, because, this is how he is. There's some good teamwork on the field to get some outs, even through the other team scores two runs, bringing them into the lead. The same kid who walked out into the field almost got injured by a stray pop up ball. Poor kid.
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Becki gets out. Nate gets out. Julie gets out. Just like that. And the game ends, Independents 9, Russ' 8.

Next Week

June 24: vs. Southside Party Store, 6:15 p.m. (V)

2009 Game 5: The Recap

Thanks to note-taking from Grace, here is a nice little recap of what went down during the June 3, 2009 game:

Practice: Practice went fairly well. We had some problems catching the ball, but overall, everyone was in great spirits. Especially Kyle, until he realized who we were playing tonight. "Is that the team with the guy in the spandex shorts?" he asked. "I HATE this team!"

First Inning: Butler was pitching tonight. No, not pitchy. He wasn't singing. He was throwing the ball. Kyle did a nice slide to catch a ball, but didn't get the out. The other team got off to a very strong start, grabbing five runs immediately. Nate scores Russ' one run to end the inning.

Second Inning: Second verse, worse than the first. The opposing team gets seven runs, totaling 12 total. At this point, the word "mercy" was starting to float around. And no one would let that stand. Mike ran to home, but got caught between third and home, and had to wiggle his way out to score a run. Sarah has an easier time getting to home, same with Jason. The inning ends, 12 to 4.

Third Inning: Julie does some splits to get an out. There was some good tag-teaming to get the third out. No runs were scored by the other team. Russ', on the other hand, got a few. John went home, Nate followed, same with Kelli. (I have a video of that... it'll be up later.) nning ends, 12-7 -- above mercy territory.

Fourth Inning: No one scored. On either team. Dan and Mike both got on base, but, they shut us out as good as we shut them out earlier on in the inning.

Fifth Inning: The tides turn. Jason got to second, same with Mike. That is as far as they got. Earlier on, though, the other team scored three more runs, closing out the inning 15-7.

Sixth Inning: This is kind of the sixth inning and seventh, because we got to go up to bat twice, since it didn't matter if the other team got more points, did it? John scored another run, closing out the game 15-8.

Next week's game is at 6:15 again.

Recap: A Well-Balanced Double-Header

Russ' neither came out ahead, nor came out behind, but rather maintained a balance: One win, one loss. The first game was won by a lot, but we worked hard to get there, and we had fun doing so. The second game? It was pretty clear what was going to happen right away. Any attempts to put up a fight were shut out immediately. It... was brutal. (And we play them again in a month!) Grace took notes, so I'm now able to bring you: the game summaries.

(Note: I am not a sports journalist. RBIs? Line drive? Sacrifice fly? No clue what those mean. This is written in a very informal way.)

Practice Highlight
- A little kid got hit in the eye. Kids, am I right?
- Mike was running to get a ball, didn't quite know where on the field he was, and... ran into a trash can.
- The game started a little over ten minutes after the scheduled time.

Game no.1
Inning no.1 - "Wow, we are kind of amazing!"
We had a little bit of trouble with fumbling with the ball when throwing to get the other players out. But when we got up to bat? That's when the confidence took over. Nate, Dan, Kyle, Becki and Mike all ran to home, scoring us five points. (That's right, this blog does math for you.) Three of those points were all scored at once, which was an incredible boost for team spirit right there. Inning score: 5-2, Russ' favor.

Inning no.2 - "Wow, we were amazing last inning!"
There was some more fumbling with the ball. Brian, the evening's pitcher, got a little mad, in his Brian-esque way. All in all, the other team only managed to get one player by us, giving them an extra point. Butler struck out, Melissa walks to first, Devan struck out, Leen got to first, John out. Inning score: 5-3, Russ' favor.

Inning no.3 - "Let's more than double our score, okay?"
There is a good play made by Jason, but I can't remember what it was. Mike makes a catch "high and pretty," as Grace put it, which worked out really well for us: the opposing team scored just one more run. When its our turn up at bat, it is pretty much an explosion of awesomeness, except for Julie. Julie ran to first. Julie thought she was safe. Empire said otherwise. Julie tried so hard to not be so mad! Basically, here's how it went: lots of the team got runs. Dan, Mike, Kelli... lots of runs. Inning score: 12-4, Russ' favor.

Inning no.4 - "Don't slide!"
I try not to bring Grace's note-taking in that much, because she was doing me a favor, and she wrote notes so that I could turn them into these wonderfully unreadable paragraphs. However, I think I'll just write what she wrote for while the opposing team was at bat: "Devan gets high and pretty. B(rian) T(enBrock) walks one. Boring." Short, sweet and to-the-point, no? Other team gets two points.
When its our turn, Becki slides in to third base, in spite of her mom yelling rather loudly, DO NOT SLIDE BECKI! Classic. She winds up scoring for the team. Inning score: 13-6, Russ' favor.

Inning no.5 - "What's a bad habit?"
While catching, Melissa gets hit in the head. And there was a joke made about "bunting," but, you really had to have been there. Or have a better memory when writing up recaps. One of those two. We shut the "others" out from getting a single point. Kyle runs to home, scoring Russ' another point.
Someone mad a mention about having a bad habit, leading me to state: "You know what's a bad habit? When all the nuns steal from the poor." Thank you, I'll be here all week.
EDIT: Apparently, the joke doesn't work, because logically, nuns live in an abbie and wear a habit. Still.

Innings no.6 & 7 - (We can really just combine these two)
Brian does a pretty sweet slide action. Julie does the splits for an out. Dan catches a high ball. And... well, other team scores two more, but that isn't enough to win the game.
Game score: 15-8, Russ' favor.

Game 2 - "Hey, weren't we good just two minutes ago?"
The entire game can be summarized as such: It took about forty minutes to get through the game. Immediately we realized that we were like David and we were facing a team with a few metaphorical Goliath's on them. Plus, we were tired, and the other team didn't have a game right before. Nate made a couple good catches, but, it really didn't matter if we caught the ball or not. The other team was good. And we didn't/couldn't/didn't bring it. Everyone is frustrated, because we did so good last game, and this other team makes us look like we've never played softball before in our lives! It took some doing, but we kept spirits up enough so nobody left the field feeling terrible. After all, we had one amazing game right before. Absolutely classic.
Game score: 0-8, Russ' mercied after five innings.

Next week's game: Is at 7:10 p.m. eastern time. I leave you with this sports quote that, according to the Internet, is supposed to inspire you. So, um... feel its spirit?

The pitcher has got only a ball. I've got a bat. So the percentage of weapons is in my favor and I let the fellow with the ball do the fretting.
-- Hank Aaron

See you next week. Pictures + video coming to the blog soon.

Game report: July 30, 2008

"Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are." - John Wooden

And so we end our season this week. Perhaps not quite on the note we wanted, but it's the ending that was given to us. We went through many changes this year. Cal had to bow out due to a surgery. Amy had to bow out because she got a job out of state. There were a few weeks where we did not know if we would have enough people to play. (Likewise, if there would be enough people left behind to work at Russ' proper.) But we made it. And we did it in style.

I'll interrupt the inspirational speech to bring you a rundown of what happened in our last game:

First inning: It all started off so well. We shut the other team out well in the top of the first. When it was our turn up to bat, Nate and Kyle each got runs, ending the inning 0-2.
Second inning: Dan and Carleen both made some very impressive catches, shutting the other team out. In return, the other team shut us out very quickly.
Third inning: Mike got another great catch. However, we dropped a lot of balls. (Perhaps I should put that in bold: we dropped a lot of balls that inning.) The other team scored three runs. Dan caught a ball, then Mike, ending our very ugly inning. We strike out at bat, leaving inning behind, 3-2.
Fourth inning: This is exactly what I wrote in my little black book: "They get one run. :( Then 2 more. Dan tagged an out. Then 1 more [run]. THEY: Jump from 3 to 7." When it was our turn at bat, Kyle scored us another run. We were able to get the bases loaded, but were shut out from making a glorious comeback that round. We left the inning, 4-7.
Fifth inning: They got two runs. We did not get any points, but John got a great hit, bringing him to second and Mike to third. It didn't pay off, but it looked great and got everyone really excited. What didn't look great is everybody diving to catch balls they couldn't have caught anyways, as if they were in an action movie! The theatrics, they were high tonight.
Sixth inning: Butler manages to tag one of the other players right before he hit home plate. It was an amazing play to watch. But, then, of course, they get more runs. It doesn't matter how many more they get at this point. It's hot, everyone's tired, some are sick, everyone knows that the chances of coming back from 3-12 is very rare. The Bad News Bears would have to pull off the greatest upset in this inning in order for us to win.

And... we start to! With the bases loaded, Dan gets a great hit, bringing Nate, Carleen and Becki all home. Dan then manages to get himself home, too. We get four runs, bringing us to to a more respectable 7-12.
Seventh inning: Having escaped mercy rules, we play the seventh inning. They get four more runs. The exact word I used to describe the feeling in my notebook was "UGH." Indeed, Charlie Brown, "UGH" is the best sentiment to describe that inning. We did not score anything in our round, but did manage to agitate the other team when Mike was between bases, ran back to second, was maybe tagged on time and was declared safe, and the other team was visibly upset at it.
THEN...: The team retreated to the grass, expecting that we'd have to play another game at 9. But then we noticed that two umps, a player with the next team to play on the field, Jason and John were all huddled together. What are Jason and John doing there? some of us wondered, more than one aloud. We soon learned that there was much confusion over the post-storm bracket that had been worked up. Was it broken? Did they mess it up? Was it double elimination or single? Do we play next week? Tonight? Everyone was confused, and we were asked to hang back and sit tight while the officials figured everything out.

Later, the umpires emerged with Kyle, Dan and Jason, who had been talking everything out. It turns out that the way the bracket now worked, the people who were in the winner's bracket (Who would be us, Russ') could not lose a game at all if we wanted to stay in the tournament. If you were in the loser's bracket, you could lose a game. But not the winner's. Not at all. And since we had, that was it for us in the tournament. And for the season.

So we said our bittersweet farewells, Kyle previewed the fall league, and we were reminded of the pool party at the Johnson's house next week Wednesday. (Time to be announced.)

THE BLOG IS NOT YET DONE FOR THE YEAR!!! Chuck has a surprise in the works for you all, which will be posted on the blog hopefully in the next week or two. I'm sure the coaches have some parting words, and if this fall league works out, this blog will be alive and kicking for that as well, I'm sure.

Next time you see Coach Kyle or Coach Nate, give them a great big hug and a firm handshake. Managing a softball team is not a easy job. It takes time, hard work and dedication. In spite of tonight, overall, we had an absolutely amazing year. Look at our record:

• May 7: vs. Siemens (W, 17-10)
• May 14, vs. Aqua-Tec (W, 8-5)
• May 21, vs. Sharkee's Bar & Grill (W, 20-16)
• May 28, vs. Brenner Oil (L, 8-3)
• June 4, vs. Huntington Bank (W, 12-8)
• June 11, vs. Westenbroek (W, 8-2)
• June 18, vs. Borculo Blast (W, 11-1)
• June 25, vs. Dykhuis Farms (W, 15-4)
• July 9, vs Animals (W, 15-7)
• July 23, vs. Dykhuis Farms (W, 7-5) T
• July 30, vs. Sharkees (L, 7-16) T

THAT IS PRETTY GOOD, if I can say so myself. Those are a lot of wins. And by some pretty large margins, too. Everyone, especially the coaches, have had a good year that they can be very proud of.

See you next week at the pool party!
Sincerely,
Chuck.

Photos/Report for July 23, 2008

With last week's game - which was cut very short due to weather - struck from record, we played a whole new game tonight against the same team. We got the same number of runs (7), they just got a few more (5). The weather was beautiful, perhaps too beautiful, slowing us down for the first part of the game. But once we got some energy going, we were unstoppable! Here is your very brief inning-by-inning report:

First inning: Nate scored a run. Score is something to something. (I arrived a little late.)
Second inning: The other team gets one run, but Julie got us a run, giving us the edge with a score of 1-2.
Third inning: Nothing eventful happened.
Fourth inning: The other team scores one, tying up the game at 2-2.
Fifth inning: This is where the tides turned. We scored five runs this inning. Mike and Amy got the first two scores for us. John was going to go for home, when the catcher got the ball at home, and was ready to throw it back to third. John's face was amazing as he realized he was trapped. He ran for third, and good for us, they dropped the ball, allowing John to stay safe. After a bit, Kyle went up to bat, getting an amazing play for us, bringing John and Carleen home, and bringing himself to third, all in that one play. Kyle them managed to score a run for home, but at the price of stepping on a bat and falling gracefully to the ground.
Sixth inning: The other team scores one run. Julie struck out, prompting here to say "I can't be patient!" which made me laugh. That actually may not be eventful at all, come to think of it.
Seventh inning: We played to 7 innings. I know! That has not happened in a while. Basically, "they" scored two runs, ending the game at 5-7, our favor.

Julie goes up to bat.

Look at that! The ball in motion.
In other news, Jason Butler is finally back.

Carleen strikes a pose.

Dan gets ready to swing.

Have you ever seen anyone so happy to run?
Actually, he looks like he is skipping, but I think he ran.

In other news, Kelli Elzinga is back this week.

Caden takes a look around.

James and Caden make contact through the fence.

The team... in the dugout... doing stuff.

Amy, I'm pretty sure, ready to swing her winning hit.

John looks on before taking a swing.

Mike gives Jessica some words of encouragement. (I hope!!!)

Whatever he said, it made her laugh!

Nate, not laughing, because he is in the zone!

Number 3 gets up to bat.

3 +25 = 28... Is anybody number 28? Because then I'd have a point.

Becks takes a shot at it.

Jason, straining to see 20 feet away, prepares to throw.

GUESSING GAME: After a few weeks break, I'm bringing this game back!
Who is that behind the fence?
The answer will come next week.

Mike takes one last stab at it.

Next week: We play at the same time, 6:15 p.m. EDT. But folks, WE HAVE A DOUBLE-HEADER. If we win, we get to play immediately after our game. If we lose, we have to wait it out until 9:00 p.m. EDT. There is no avoiding playing two games. It is a reality. Meaning I get to take lots of pictures! And it means we get to prove just how brilliant and excellent players we are two times in a row. That is how good we are. Amazing.

Photo Spread: July 16, game interrupted

This was the first week of tournaments. Did we win? Did we lose? When do we play next? The simple answer to all those questions is: we don't know yet. Chances are, we'll resume playing the game sometime next week. As in, pick up where we left off. But there were other games, other teams that did not get to play tonight, so the schedule has to be re-worked to accommodate them, and, well, I do not envy being in charge of the games over there right now. It is no doubt a mini-nightmare and I wish them the best.

As soon as there is information, I'm sure Kyle, Nate or myself will update this site with the relevant information.

Here are the people who scored runs, in the two-and-a-half innings we played:
First inning - Nate, Kyle, Becki, Dan
Second inning - John, Carleen, Kyle

The top of the third was interrupted by the winds pushing ahead of a storm system, causing sand to go flying everywhere. Then more lightning came, and the rain. The umpires told everyone to seek shelter for 15 minutes, to see if the system would blow over by then. After a while, it became clear that it would not. Everybody was released to go home. And if anybody has been out there, and knows the parking lot, you can imagine how much fun it was to try to get out when everyone is trying to flee.

There was very vivid lightning, very close-to-where-you-where lightning. The kind that kind of made you want to swear. It was slightly spooky, but a lot of fun. ANNNNDDD we still played for two innings, so you still get a photospread! And yes, I took all this in just two innings. I know. I know.

Dan gets ready to serve another pitch.

Nate contemplates where he should send the ball. (I ASSUME.)

Carleen gets ready for her moment of glory.

Number 25 gets ready to give us another run.

Julie, who was able to make it to the game after scaring us,
by warning us that she may not be able to.

Mike, looking amused and slightly confused by the pitcher's comedy.

Courtney reacts to the pitcher's comedy show.

Even John gets in on it!

Look at this happy team!

John keeps an eye on the action.

Becks gets ready to get a run.

Dan, ready to score us a point.

The gust front causes a neat cloud formation.

This was taken as the winds were dying down,
but you can still kind of see sand flying around.

The star of the night, the storm!

Grace and John wait for word on if the game is still on or not.

Grace took this while I was driving home.
It has nothing to do with softball, but, it's cool!

NEXT WEEK'S GAME: TBA.

Game Report: June 25, 2008

Another week, another team left mercy'd by the amazing Russ' softball team. The game started much later, probably around 9:50, 10:00 instead of 9:30. But that extra time was spent practicing, and very wisely so. Here is the inning-by-inning report:

First inning
Russ' is up to bat first. We score four runs, thanks to Nate, Kyle, Rebecki and Dan. We keep the other team from scoring in the bottom of the first, leaving the inning with a score at 4-0.

Second inning
Russ' tries, but is unsuccessful in scoring any more runs. We lose the game and go home. Not! But we honestly did not score any more runs. The other team gets in one run. Kyle and Kelli both make amazing catches to end the inning at 4-1.

Third inning
Russ' makes a comeback, even though they were already winning and not necessarily in need of a comeback, hence maybe making "comeback" the wrong word, but I already typed all that and don't feel like starting over. Yes, I just wasted your time like that. Kyle, Becki and Dan all make normal runs, while Julie practically slams into another player at home plate. The run still counts, giving us a total of four runs for the inning. The other team fails to capture more runs this inning, closing out the third with a score of 8-1.

Fourth inning
Another incredible inning for team Russ', as we score an additional six runs, courtesy of Mike, Amy, Nate, Becki, Julie and Kyle. While the other team is at bat, one of their players hit a foul ball, which hit near their spectator's stand. Kyle runs for it, to throw back. I mean, he just ran. It was very entertaining. Then after that ball, they hit another foul to their fans, but alas, Kyle did not sprint for it again. (It was terribly funny, though.) That gave the other team enough energy to score another three runs, closing out the inning at 14-4.

Fifth inning
Butler scored another run. I think. My chicken scratch note says "Butler - stcrek out :(", which I think means that Butler got a run and then we struck out. But I could be totally wrong. Anyways, we get one more run. The other team goes up to bat, and gets one out thanks to an amazing catch on Kelli's part, which had her falling onto the ground to keep the ball in her mitt. (And no, I did not get a picture.) Mercy rules applied after this point, giving Russ' another notch in our victory belt. We closed the game with a score of 15-4.

NEXT GAME is in two weeks, at 7:50 p.m. EDT. No lie, I like 7:50 a lot better than 9:30.

BONUS
Here's a video. I cannot provide context, nor do I want to even try to explain what is happening.