Bringin' da Junk

Six wifflers were assembled at the appointed hour for the Labor of Wiffle Ball on Labor Day morn.  Republican Dave, Stats and the Commish hubristicly took the field confident in a blow out win because Glen was on the other team.

Fools.

Glen pitched decently, though found himself unable to hit many of the underhand pitches he received. It was Eric Zamonski, who arrived in the second inning, who made ALL the difference. Reader, I ask you to decide what was the more important of Eric's contributions today. Your choices:

1. Eric was added to the Visiting team of Glen, Han-Soo and Kurt. Adding Eric allowed them to push back Glen's underhand pitching to the fourth inning, and also made sure that Glen would only pitch once. With an ERA of 27.00 (that's three runs per INNING), minimizing Glen's IP is a positive strategy.

2. Eric pitches some good $hi##y junk, to borrow a phrase. The ball looks like it comes out of his elbow and you don't know where it's gonna go. Up? Down? Tail away? Dave (R-OH) had him figured out (4-for-5 off him for the day), but Matt and Peter were stymied by him in the third.

But rules are rules, and Glen must eventually pitch. And so he did, but REALLY well. Seriously. He ended up allowing just 2 runs on a 2 RBI triple by Dave. But he followed that up with a ridiculous strike out of Stats to end the threat right there.

[Matt, who was due to pitch next, fell into a little tantrum from that strikeout and then hit the first batter he faced in the ribs who was Kurt for which he was not sorry at the time, but he is now. That has no place in the game no matter how good it feels (and sounds!).]

The 2-0 lead held for a while, until Eric (who you may recall MADE ALL THE DIFFERENCE) allowed three more in the bottom of the 7th. A merry-go-round of singles did all the damage, with 2 RBI from Matt and 1 from Peter.

It made the difference because Matt, pitching again in the top of the 8th, allowed two runs from a bases loaded double by the aforementioned Kurt Mosser (who must have really enjoyed those particular RBI, and deservedly so). In fact, he went opposite field for that double in a classic hit where they ain't. Or weren't. But the three run lead did hold as Glen, representing the tying run, flew out to end the game.

Glen, Han-Soo, Kurt, Eric - 2
Dave, Matt, Peter - 5

W: Eldridge
L: Cebulash

NOTES!!
Kurt passed Han-Soo in the batting title race with a 7-for-10 day, while Han-Soo (and the new doo) managed only 4-for-10. Kurt, now batting .527 is now 0.002 ahead of Han-Soo's .525. Riveting (labor reference).

Dave pitched three scoreless innings, lowering his ERA to an even 1.50. Kurt was similarly effective, but only pitched two innings. Kurt's ERA dropped less and now stands at 1.63.  Both men allowed two hits; Dave K'd 6, Kurt K'd 5.

Peter Berwald managed to stay one strikeout ahead of Matt (81 to 80) in the race to be the King of K's (as a batter).

There were no homers today and Kurt and Glen remain deadlocked at 10.