Two of the Madison Sport & Social Clubs three remaining unbeaten Thursday night softball clubs clashed in the prime-time 8:30 PM slot at Bowman Park May 19, with Sea Kittens (5-0) striking early and riding out a win over Bat and Boujee (4-1). With one game remaining in the regular season, the win assures Sea Kittens of no worse than the #2 seed for the playoffs.
With game time temperatures in the upper 70s but falling, and the wind blowing in steadily from left field as thunderstorms passed on the northern horizon, the key to both clubs’ offense would be hitting the ball low and hard- line drives and ground balls would rule with the flight of long balls impeded.
Bat and Boujee struck first, with the team’s speed lefty leadoff batter blooping an extra-base hit to right to start the game and scampering home shortly thereafter. Sea Kitten starting pitcher Zen Master Rowe quickly found his quiet center on the the bump and limited the damage to that single run, assisted by strikeout and a nice snag of a foul pop by catcher Sunshine Curtis.
As it’s done all season long, with 21 first-inning runs scored through five games, the Sea Kitten offense came ready to hit. Man-Aaron Jossart drew a very manly walk to open the Kitten half of the first, and five consecutive hits followed to give the Cats a 4-1 lead. Curtis and The Puma Alex Latzka followed with a run-scoring grounder and sac fly, respectively to extend the lead to 6-1.
Rowe and the Kitten defense put B&B down quickly in the second and got back to work with their bats. While the Cats only drew two first-inning walks in the game, they made the B&B pitcher work hard throughout the game with a relatively selective hitting approach, except for the times where they weren’t selective and hacked at stuff three feet over their head or three feet short of the plate. But sometimes the hacks work, and Jossart tomahawked a 1-out single. Joe Hennessy sent him to third with a two-out knock, and Slash Grutzik dug in and delivered as he has all Spring, roping a double to the fence in left-center to bring home two runs. Mama Cat O’Brien singled to set up Dan DynaOele with runners on the corners, and the slugging shortstop knocked the second of his three RBI doubles of the game to extend the Kitten advantage to 9-1.
Down but far from out, the Boujee side struck back and closed the gap in the top of the third, the sinister-side leadoff guy once again sparking the rally, this time with a hard single up the middle. The Boujees capitalized on a rare Kitten miscue, with the heads-up, aggressive baserunning of the B&B centerfielder keeping pressure on the Cats as B&B closed the gap to 9-4. Finally wriggling out of the jam, the Cats went back to offense in a much tighter game.
The Puma led off the Kitten fourth with a single to center, rounding first base hard. When the return throw to the infield trickled away, he dashed in to second base, unfortunately catching a hard throw to the bag with the left side of his face as it eluded the B&B second baseman. Latzka stayed in the game but the Kitten bench was rattled. Z-Force Slattery sent Latzka to third with a hard single down the third base line, and Rowe brought him home with a sacrifice fly to center, but the Kitten offense stalled.
Bat & Bougee tallied another run in the top of the fourth to close the gap to 10-5, and set the Cats down in order for the first time in 32 innings of softball- dating to the 7th inning of a big Kitten win in the 2021 Fall playoffs. The Cats had not gone down 1-2-3 in a meaningful inning in more than 10 games, and B&B did it to the top of the Kitten lineup.
Unwilling to concede the opening, Rowe threw everything Zen in the 5th and held B&B in check, again assisted by a marvelous snag by Curtis behind the plate.
The Big Cat bounces back from a swat across the nose with an RBI single. Meanwhile, Sunshine Curtis misses the telepathic stop sign.
Having had time to shake off the impact of the impact to Latzka, Sea Kittens got back to hitting, banging five consecutive hits to open the bottom of the fifth, the last in that string a solid knock by The Puma in his first plate appearance after the injury. The lead swelled to 13-5, and Red Shoes Hewitt twisted the dagger a final time, hustling down the line to beat out a run-scoring infield single.
Showing the grit that had put them in the upper reaches of the standings, Bat and Bougee battled through the finish, gamely rallying for four sixth-inning runs before Sea Kittens squeezed the final, decisive out.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bat and Boujee | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
| Sea Kittens | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | x | 14 |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Man-Aaron Jossart | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Hennessy | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen “Slash” Grutzik | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mama Cat O’Brien | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan DynamOele | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sunshine Curtis | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex The Puma Latzka | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zoe “Z-Force” Slattery | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zen Master Rowe | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 4 |
| Red Shoes Hewitt | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 30 | 14 | 19 | 14 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 2 | 4 |
Salmon Snacks
- Alex gets a bag of frozen Salmon Snacks for his face
- Katie for snagging two foul pops
- Stephen for his single-double-triple game
- Katie, Dave, and Alex for each bringing home a run with a productive out
- Dave for stranding runners on 2nd & 3rd with one out in the 4th
- Erin, Dan, & Stephen for going 9-9 with 8 RBI in the middle of the order
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 Dan DynamOele for capturing the week 4 fillet for his cat-like dive back into first to avoid a double play.
What's your pick for the Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game?
- Alex, so he has a frozen fillet to press on his face this week (25%, 2 Votes)
- Katherine's scramble and lunging catch of a pop-up in the 5th (75%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 8
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Game Notes
- Sea Kittens are 5-0 for only the second time in team history. The team’s best start was 6-0 in Fall, 2017.
- The current 5-game winning streak is the 7th stretch of 5 consecutive wins or longer in team history. The longest streak is 8 games, June- August 2018 (10, excluding Harmony Tournament play, June- September 2018)
- Currently the Cats have a remarkable 18:4 base on balls to strikeout ratio while batting.
- With her next appearance, Sunshine Curtis will tie Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichosz, Jr. for 7th on the Sea Kittens’ all-time games played list. Of 14 current Cats (including temp inactive Boom Boom Magyera), 11 are among the top 15 in all-time games played.
- Dave & Alex’s sacrifice flies marked the 8th time the Cats have had two or more sac flies in a single game. The record is 3, set July 23, 2014- remarkably, Joe hit all three of those.
- Stephen fell a home run short of the cycle for the second time this season. Yesterday he collected the single, double, and triple in order in his three at-bats, but didn’t get a chance to swing for the fences in a fourth appearance. The last Cat to single, double, and triple in order was Joe on August 10, 2016, in a 25-0 thrashing of Steal Your Base. Dan (10/19/2016) & Joe (6/27/2018) are the only two hitters who have cycled in Sea Kitten history.