From aswNS@hampshire.edu Wed May 18 09:16:21 2005
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 09:15:44 -0400 (EDT)
From: Al Woodhull <awoodhull@hampshire.edu>
To: Dragons Softball Mailing List <dragons@avacoda.com>
Subject: Dragons 17, Drawing Dead (*) 2 (Tuesday 5/18)

Knowing ahead of time that three of our women regulars were not going to
make it yesterday, Tom and I put a lot of energy into phone calls and
e-mail, trying to make sure a team would appear. At game time it looked
like we had failed, we had only two women. Then a call to Marcy's house
was answered by "She's on the way" -- Marcy picked up our psychic
vibrations and at the last minute decided to join us, giving us a team
(with the automatic out at #10 in the lineup).

The game started out looking like a tough, low-scoring one -- at the end
of the second inning we had a 1-0 lead, after the third we were behind
2-1. Then things started happening. Brian started the top of the fourth
inning for us with a single. Vince watched 6 balls go by, elected not to
take the walk, and placed a nice hit into right field for a double. Tom
doubled next, and Matt cleaned up the bases with a home run.  Suddenly it
was 5 -2 Dragons, and our opponents seemed to run out of luck. They never
scored again, while the Dragons went on to score 4, 3, and 5 runs in the
5th, 6th, and 7th innings. Final score Dragons 17, Drawing Dead 2. Not
bad, considering that our 10th player was Otto, the invisible woman who
always makes an out.

There were a lot of highlights. I can't remember all, or all the details.
We pulled off several nice double plays, Mark (SS) to Jen (2B) to Marcy
(1B). With 2 outs, runners on the bases, and batting 9th just before Otto,
Tom did what was right and cleaned up the field with a home run to end the
5th inning. (Was it a grand slam? My records don't tell me whether all
four runs in that inning came home at the same time.)  In the 6th Jen hurt
her leg after hitting the ball past several outfielders and could barely
walk the bases, but it was an easy double -- my comment when she came home
was that it was the slowest double I'd ever seen. Lawren cleaned things up
for us with a homer in the 7th inning.

All-in-all, quite a game. The Drawing Dead are last year's 10-56s, from
UMass Transit, a lot of young strong players who can hit the ball really
far -- and often right into the gloves of Matt or Lawren in the outfield.
We were not so dramatic in our hitting (although three home runs is not
bad), but we efficiently turned 24 hits and one walk into 17 runs. Our
opponents only got 8 runners on base, and of these only two scored.

Playing today (lineup order): Matt, Jen, Mark, Lawren, Marcy, Brian, Mary,
Al, Tom, Otto. Vince subbed for Al after 1st inning. 

Next: our old friends and often formidable opponents the Coyotes, Thursday
May 19 at Kiwanis field. Sorry folks, but I have to start nagging about
getting players now. Jen may be on the injured list, as likely I will
be also, Anna and Ray will still be in Japan, Marcy probably won't be
playing. So we are once again faced with the spectre of a forfeit. And it
would be nice to keep Otto out of the lineup.

Although we are frequently concerned about having enough women players,
more men are also needed. This was the second game in which I started and
felt I had to leave the game after one inning. Fortunately in both of
these we had exactly one extra man available.

BTW, I am preserving game reports like this one on the web page -- click
on the results of each game and relive the glory!

- Al

(*) For the meaning of "Drawing Dead" see:
  http://www.pokertips.org/glossarydefs/17.php

+----------------------------------+
| Albert S. Woodhull               |
| Hampshire College, Amherst, MA   |
| awoodhull@hampshire.edu          |
| http://minix1.hampshire.edu/asw/ |
+----------------------------------+
Don't believe everything you think.

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