OK- lots of catching up to do, Sea Kittens fans!
Lets start here- Summer League semi-finals, August 22, 2024.
The top-seeded Sea Kittens (4-2) squared off with Bat & Boujee (4-4) in the league’s first semi-final matchup. Sea Kittens came in looking to begin defense of their Spring league title, but once again Bat & Boujee brought he kryptonite and flattened the Cats 22-12. At time of writing, in 2024 Sea Kittens are 13-0-1 against anyone not Bat & Boujee, and 0-3 against B&B, while Bat & Boujee is 4-9-1 against anyone not Sea Kittens.
Despite the lopsided final, there was, for a hot minute- drama and hope for Sea Kittens. Fresh out of an 11-3 quarterfinal win over Bad Chads Hot Toddies, the Boujee bunch came out swinging and jumped to a 7-0 first inning lead, the biggest first-inning deficit the Cats had faced since 2022. Still, this veteran Sea Kitten bunch has played long enough to know such leads are never safe. Roadrunner jami Hauer and Joe Hennessy recrded RBI single for Sea Kittens in the first inning, and after B&B added a tally in the second the Cats made a huge two-out move in the bottom of the inning. With one run in and two out, Mitch Trow knocked a double to left. Marcy Messina worked a brilliant at-bat into a walk, turning over the lineup for Stephen “Stretch” Grutzik and Dan DynamOele, two of the Cats’ top sluggers. They met the moment. Grutzik doubled home a run, and Oele ended the Sea Kittens’ franchise-record 12-game home run drought with a clutch, 3-run bomb to left-center field that brought the Cats within a run.
When the game was still a game, Rusty & Z-Force lashed back-to-back hits that brought Sea Kittens within two runs in the bottom of the 5th inning.
Hennessy and the Cats’ defense struggled to keep B&B off the board though, and the visitors extended their advantage to 9-7 in the third. The Cats matched that in the bottom half and had the tying run in scoring position with one out, but could not capitalize against the tight Boujee defense.
Again B&B tallied one in the fourth to go up 10-8, but the Cats scratched back in the bottom of the inning. Trow and grutzik set up shop, and Oele knocked home a run with a single. Roadrunner tied the game with an RBI groundout. but the rally stalled there.
Bat & Boujee struck back immediately, scoring four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 14-12 lead. Sea Kittens tried to counter the punch- Alex “Puma” Latzka led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and with one out Josh “Rusty” Weber jacked a run-scoring double to left. Z-Force- Zoe Slattery ripped a single to left to cut the Sea Kittens’ deficit to two runs, but once more Bat & Boujee clamped down and stymied the Kitten rally.
It was the Cats’ last stand. The visitor put the “Bat” in Boujee in the top of the sixth inning and throttled a beleaguered Kitten defense for eight demoralizing runs. Tails tucked, Sea Kittens mustered nothing more than a two-out walk in their last at-bats as Bat and Boujee earned a spot in the championship match.
The following week, Hot Pitches 96-2) got hotter than hot and dumped 32 seed Da Hittas 6-5 to earn a spot in the Summer Championship Game, where they continued their mastery of Bat & Boujee with an 11-9 victory to secure their first title. In the past four seasons 9excluding the rain-aborted Fall’23 campaign), MSSC Thursday Night upper division has had four different campions- Da Hittas, Bat & Boujee, Sea Kittens, and Hot Pitches, all of which remain active in the league.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bat and Boujee | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 22 |
| Sea Kittens | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 12 |
Bat and Boujee
| AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SF | IP | RA | WK | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Sea Kittens
| Player | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SF | IP | RA | WK | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stephen “Slash” Grutzik | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan DynamOele | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Hennessy | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex The Puma Latzka | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mama Cat O’Brien | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Josh “Rusty” Weber | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zoe “Z-Force” Slattery | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zen Master Rowe | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mitchell Trow | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Marcy Messina | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 34 | 12 | 16 | 12 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 22 | 0 | 0 |
Salmon Snacks
- Marcy for a really fine game- a huge two-out walk and several good defensive plays
- Alex, Joe & Marcy had a killer 8-1-2 putout at the plate to end the 4th inning. Felt like a game changer at the moment
- Mitch & Zoe for subbing
- All the Cats for a fun summer season
- Dan for his 3 hits, home run, and 4 RBI
- Josh for going 3-3 with a pair of doubles
Game Notes
- This game marked the first time Sea Kittens had ever allowed 3 or more first-inning runs in three consecutive games in team history
- The streak didn’t end- Alex Huml (5) and Hot Pitches (3) jumped on the Cats in the first inning of the first two fall-league games, but the Cats rallied to win both of those.
- The Kittens’ homer-less streak ended at a team-record 12 games
- Bat & Boujee’s 22 runs were the most allowed since Fingers Don’t Lose dropped 29 on the Cats in the 2022 Fall Championship (with a bunch of ringers)
- The 34 total run scored were the most in a Sea Kitten game since June 15, 2023 when the Cats won in a wild, walk-off 19-18 playoff game over SP Prairie Dogs