Offense!

A beautiful, cool morning brought oodles of people out to Smith for outdoor exertions on August 7, 2010.  On the grass was a girls' soccer practice; a family of roller bladers played hockey at the north end of the asphalt.  On the south side were six whifflers settling in for seven innings of whiff.  Lines drawn, teams set - the game was on.

And the bats were on, too.  In contrast to the wilting heat and scoreless play on Wednesday, this day would see 32 hits and 13 runs.  There were only 2 perfect half-innings all day.  The home siders got the scoring started in the bottom of the third, taking a real shine to Eric "The Bandit" Z's wiggly pitches.  Hans displayed epic plate discipline waiting and waiting for his pitch.  He drove in 2 runs that inning with both teammates, Boog and the Commish, each driving in 1 more.  4-0 Homeboys after 3.

Hans kept the visitors at bay in the fourth, and then Tim Baker took the ball for his second turn in the top of the fifth.  Read on, Whifflers and Fans, and take note.  Internalize what you learn today of Tim's trial on the rubber, because you nor any other whiffler have been to the place Tim "Boog" Baker went today.  The visitors sent FIFTEEN batters to the plate in the inning; each man batted five times.  Picture Tim's unique walking-pitching technique- he must've walked half a mile to deliver all those pitches.  When The Bandit struck out to end the ordeal, nine runs had scored (by virtue of 11 singles and a triple by Kurt) and the bases were left loaded.  The previous high batters faced mark in a non- "1-on-1-on-1" game was eleven.  Ice the shoulder, Tim, you earned it.

No more runs were scored this day as the pitchers found their grooves. The visitors retired 9 of their last eleven batters; Home pitchers 6 of their last 8.  Stats closed out the non-save with three straight K's.

Eric, Kurt, Matt - 9
Hans, Tim, Peter - 4

Notes:
Kurt started the game 0-for-5 at the plate, lamenting falling behind the idle R-Dave in the batting race.  He finished the game 6-for-8, however and raised his league leading average to .451.

Da Commish had a great day with the stick as well: 8-for-11, including 3 doubles, and a RBI.  Stats' 7-for-12 and 3 RBI finally got his hit total above his strikeout total.

Look at the stats: Hans is a great pitcher and the Bandit.. is a bottom half of the chart hitter.  But look at the Matrix.  Zamonski OWNS Hans - batting .538 off him, more than double the league average off Hans.  Eric was 3-for-4 today off Hans - the only three hits he allowed today.  It's a funny game.