Mark’s (Mostly) Softball Blog

Well the weather was chilly in Austin tonight, odd for the second day of spring and the cold seemed to somehow works its way into our bats tonight.

We started off the first inning with a softball rarity, 3 up, 3 down on 3 straight flyball catches.  In the bottom half of the inning we were able to push a couple of runs across and took a 2-0 lead.

In the 2nd we gave up a couple of runs but promptly got them right back in the bottom half of the inning to keep our lead at 2.

In the 3rd, the other team started to find their stroke as they pushed across five runs to take a 7-4 lead.  Our only run of the 3rd inning came on a homerun by our own Big Nasty as he hustled around to score.

Then the 4th inning happened.  I am not even going to talk about it or think about it.  Final score was 22-5.

Well this was a near HCO classic night for the Monday night team as we were trying to defend our first place position.

In the first inning we had a small spark going as we put up 1 run and took an early 1-0 lead.  The bottom half of the inning saw a good defensive stand that allowed only 1 run and tied the score at 1.

We were held scoreless during the second inning and the opposing team saw their bats come alive as they scored 5 runs and took a 6-1 lead.  In the top of the third we were held scoreless again but our defense put together another great inning and held our opponents scoreless.  The fourth inning was another defensive gem for a both teams as the score remained unchanged again.

In the fifth, the HCO classic started again, as the bats finally came alive and we put together a 6 run rally as everyone hit in the inning and we took back the lead at 7-6.  In the bottom half of the fifth the opposing team put up 3 runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead back at 9-7.

In the sixth, the bats kept rolling as we managed to tie the game up at 9.  In the bottom half of the inning, the opponents managed to get a sac fly with the bases loaded to push the winning run across at 10-9.

The Monday night team is now 4-2 on the season.

The HCO team won its first Thursday night game due to our opponents having to forfeit for reasones unknown.  The score on record is 7-0 but a win is a win, especially for a team yet to win a game this season.

Well the Wednesday night team had a good game going for a while before one inning changed the outcome of the game.

In the first inning we gave up 3 runs but turned around in the bottom half of the inning to score two of our own and cut the deficit to 1.  The second inning was almost a carbon copy of the first and after two innings, making the score 6-4.

In the third we held our opponents to 2 runs and managed to come up with 4 of our own to tie the score up at 8 heading into the 4th.  In the top of the 4th, the opposing team found their stroke and put up nine runs to take the lead 17-8.  On the other end of the spectrum, our bats started to fizzle and we wouldn’t score again in the game.

In the fifth we gave up only 1 run but were unable to push anymore runs across and the final score was 18-8.

Another Monday night, another HCO classic!  Well not quite the typical HCO classic, so let me explain.

The first 4 innings were a pitchers duel as neither team was able to score.  Then in the 5th our opponents find their stroke and put up 5 runs.  In the bottom of the 5th, we finally found our stroke, and managed to string together 3 runs to make it 5-3.

In the 6th inning our defense held again, and in the bottom half of the inning our bats duplicated their efforts from the fifth inning and managed to take our first lead of the game 6-5.

The 7th inning saw the opponents hit a 3 run homerun, mainly cause I kinda got burnt a bit (the word “toast” comes to mind) and took the lead 8-6.  In the bottom of the seventh we started off with two singles to put the tying run on base.  After an out, Slim came up with a single that scored a run and left runners on 1st and second.  After another out, Michael came through with the hit of the game to deep left center field that scored the tying run and put runners on second and third.  Wanda, a lady kind enough to fill in for us on short notice, then smoked a shot between short and 3rd that scored the winning run.

After tonight’s game team HCO is now 4-1 on the season for Monday night.

Ok, well the Thursday night team got better this week but we lost again 24-7 in 4 innings.  We are starting to get better on this night and eventually yours truly will learn how to field cleanly again

Well the Monday night team came into this game on a 2 game winning streak and we were facing the only team to beat us so far this season.

As the visitors, we batted first and managed to put up a couple of quick runs to go up 2-0.  The opposing team took back the lead in the bottom of the first with 4 runs to take a 4-2 lead.

In the second inning, we managed to get another run across to cut our deficit to 1, but then the opposing team scored 3 in the bottom of the second to take a 7-3 lead.

The third inning was a defensive gem by both teams as no one managed to score.  In the fourth, we pushed across another run to make it 7-4 and the HCO defense held for a second straight inning.

In the fifth inning the fireworks started.  We plated 4 runs in the top half of the fifth to take the lead back at 8-7.  In the bottom of the fifth our opponents answered back with two runs to take a 9-8 lead.  In the sixth, we were held scoreless and with about 4 minutes on the clock we had to have another great defensive inning to get a comeback shot in the seventh.  And a great defensive inning is what we had as with about 1 minute left we recorded the third out and had one more chance.

In the seventh, the hits started rolling as we strung together a few singles and some good running to get a 10-9 lead with 2 outs and runners on 2nd and 3rd.  Yours truly then came to the plate and well, I had probably my best hit of the season as I was able to rope a shot over the left center fielder’s head.  Stretch sent me from third to try and score and the throw was about perfect but the ball skipped away as I slid home and we had pushed the lead to 13-9.

In the bottom of the seventh, we had to play defense again to preserve our win.  We got the first two outs quickly, but then the opponents put up two quick singles followed by a homerun to cut the lead to 13-12.  A single followed by a double put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs when Mary squeezed the final out of the game on a pop fly to 3rd base.

We are now 3-1 in this league with a 3 game winning streak.

Well the Thursday night game was unfortunately more like the Wednesday night game than the Monday night game as we lost 25-6.  I think Bender on Futurama put it best when he said “I heard you were on the ass end of an asskicking.”

Hopefully, next week goes better.

Well, this game was not an HCO classic as we got waxed 21-2. And in the words of the immortal Forrest Gump “that’s all I’ve got to say about that.”