No Korans were burned in the course of this game.

Nine were met at the asphalt this morning and the Commish deftly made the teams, setting in motion a taut, even, ten-inning affair.  Glen, Kurt, Stats and da Commish were assigned the Home Team moniker.  Together, these four whifflers have pitched 178.1 innings.  Glen had to leave early to glorify his children's violence, and Dave Bush (yes, kids, DAVE BUSH) took his spot in the line up.  They faced a wily visiting squad of R-Dave, Ben, Hansoo, and Eric.

Glen did get an inning in on the mound, pitching a perfect first, and was 1-for-2 at the plate.  Glen would be the only person to RAISE his batting average, except for Dave Bush who made his debut in the stats this week.  It was a pitching heavy game, raising talk of rule changes to beef up the offense next season.  Likeliest solution would be to move back the "mound".  But more on that in the off-season.

The visitors were shutdown at the plate for the first four innings - 12 up, 12 down - with Stats, Peter, and Kurt following up Glen's inning with perfect innings of their own.  The visitors broke up the perfect game and the no-no with a lead off triple in the fifth from the bat of R-Dave off Dave Bush.  Welcome back to the asphalt.  But that leadoff triple would be stranded right there as Dave B. struck out three that inning, with a Hansoo single mixed in.  The struggles for the Visitors continued from there as Stats, Peter, Kurt and Dave B. each rattled off another string of perfect innings.  The perfect 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th innings included some strikeout pitching from Peter and Kurt, and tremendous fielding by Stats, who had some miraculous snags on line drives, denying Hansoo a hit and Zamonski two.

The Homesteaders were not as skilled at the plate as they were with the "glove," though they had their chances.  R-Dave pitched two perfect innings: the first and the ninth.  But when he pitched the fifth, the Home side managed to load the bases with one out, including Matt's first ever hit off Dave.  Check it out in the matrix - he's hitting 0.066 off Eldridge now.  But Dave buckled down and got out of the jam without allowing a run.  Ben allowed hits in each of his first two innings, and Hansoo allowed leadoff extra base hits in both of his innings (third inning double by Peter, seventh inning triple by Dave Bush) but no runs.  Eric, who curiously  has a reputation for being hittable, allowed 1 single over two innings.

And thus we arrived at the tenth inning in a zero-zero tie.  Shamelessly, the Homeboys urged there be one more inning so they could face Ben one more time.  And foolishly, the Visitors agreed.

But first there was the matter of the top of the 10th.  Stats pitched into trouble, allowing only the third and fourth hits by the Visitors all day - two singles.  He manged to strike out Eric and Ben, and allow no runs.

In the bottom of the inning, Ben took the ball.  Matt climbed into the batters box, but he shouldn't have.  The Home Team batted out of order because in actuality Matt ended the ninth with a strikeout.  The out was recorded on the wrong line, and did make it appear that Stats was due up.  Well, the Visitors didn't catch it at the time and Matt hit a tricky, spinning grounder, misplayed by Ben for a single.  Once Ben threw his first pitch to Peter, the prior batter's at-bat counted.  When Peter then hit a long line drive over Eric's outstretched hand, which tipped it over the HR line, it was a 2-run walkoff homer for the game winner.

Glen, Dave B., Kurt, Matt, Peter - 2
R-Dave, Ben, Hansoo, Eric - 0

WP: Matt Lindsay
LP: Ben Montague

Ben pitched to 2 batters in the 10th.

Notes

• Welcome to Dave Bush.  His 1-for-8 in the season's debut was a triple.  He also managed 2 scoreless innings pitched.  As the clouds thickened, the sunglasses stayed on.
• Peter's homerun was the third ball he hit past the HR line, but the first not caught.  It gives him 5 on the season, to lead the league.
• Most batting averages went down, as well as most ERAs.  Kurt's 0.445 still leads the league, ahead of Brian Simpson's 0.428, and Peter Berwald's 0.411.  R-Dave has hit a slump, falling to 0.410.