Cats Handed First Loss

Fingers Don’t Lose (6-0) scruffed Sea Kittens (5-1) Thursday night in the Madison Sport and Social Club Fall season regular finale, coasting to a 14-7 victory on a pleasantly cool Autumn evening at Bowman Park.  The victory solidified FDL as hands-down favorite in its quest to win a third straight title in 2022, and relegated the Cats to the #3 seed in the upcoming league playoffs, scheduled to begin September 29.

Fingers Don’t Lose opened the game with a flurry of hits, slapping the ball solidly around the diamond. Sea Kittens and starting pitcher David Zen Master Rowe- in his return to action after a multi-week layoff- managed to weather the initial blow, but trailed 3-0 before taking their first turns at the plate.

Joe cracks a two-run triple in the first inning. 

Sweet Thing Bradley Harkins took an outside pitch backside and opened the game with a clean single to right, and moved to second on a one-out single from Chill Hil Dugan. Joe Hennessy put the Cats back in the game with a two-run, line drive triple to the right-centerfield gap, and came home with the tying run on a sacrifice fly from Dan DynamOele.

FDL answered immediately, touching up the Kittens for another 3-spot in the top of the second, aided by a little uncharacteristic leaky Kitten defense- innocuous glitches the club could ill afford against such a quality opponent.

Now trailing 6-3, the Cats clawed back one run in the bottom of the second inning, but Hennessy was thrown out at third base to ended the inning trying to stretch a double into a triple.  When FDL roughed up Los Gatitos for yet another three runs in the top of the third to go up 9-4, and the Cats went down in order in the bottom of the frame, the home team found itself backed into a corner from which there proved to be no escape this night.

It’s possible that triples to left are no longer part of my skill set. 

-Hennessy pondering being thrown out at third in the third

As always, Sea Kittens kept battling, but could not find a way to keep FDL off the board, and could not generate enough consistent offense to close the gap.

Salmon Snacks

• Gretchen because we love you and are still thinking of you!
• Aaron & Katherine, who weathered Fiona in Puerto Rico, and Covid while trying to recover from the hurricane *hugs*
• Adrienne & Dave for subbing
• Joe for going 3-3
• Hilary for a fine night in LF
• Dan for his sure-handed short-stopping
• Aaron to help heal his tweaky leg in time for playoffs

Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game

You didn’t have to see it to believe it. Vote here for the Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game!  Congrats to Dave E. for winning the Great Fillet last week for his running grab in deep center field.

Next Up

Playoffs!  Sea Kittens (5-1) will enter the Fall playoffs as the #3 seed behind Fingers Don’t Lose (6-0) and Make Signs Not War (5-1), having a smaller run differential than the latter team.  The Cats first opponent will be announced shortly.  Game September 29, time TBA.

Game Notes

• Joe has played in 199 games as a Sea Kitten- next one will be his 200th!
• The Cats’ six sacrifice flies this Fall are tied for second-most all-time- Sea Kittens hit eight in Summer, 2012 and six in Summer 2018… the Sea Kittens’ two championship seasons!
• Erin’s hitting streak ended at 29 games- longest-ever by a Sea Kitten woman, and 8th-longest all-time.

Sea Kittens’ longest hitting streaks

*- denotes active streak