Squaring off with Dairyland Dingers (1-3) for the second straight week, Sea Kittens (2-1-1) once again rode a first-inning offensive outburst to a comfortable 13-6 victory. Braden “Gas” Furness and Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer had perfect nights at the plate and David “The Ringer” Engeldinger belted three extra-base hits to lead the Kitten offense, while Dan DynamOele, Erin “Mama Cat” O’Brien and All Day Kendra Haight made standout plays on a night the Cats played near flawless defense as a team.
Josh “Rusty” Weber led off for the Sea Kittens for only the third time in 2025 and got on base with a 3-pitch walk. Engeldinger dug in and- not being one who gets choosy about pitches- promptly rocked a double to left-center the bring Weber all the way around for the game’s first run. That duo was the first two of eight straight Cats to reach base to open the game. All Day Kendra singled, Alex “Puma ” Latzka walked to load the bases, and DynamOele, Roadrunner, Stephen “Slash” Grutzik, and Joe Hennessy followed with RBI singles and the Cats were on their way to building a 7-0 first-inning lead for the second consecutive game.
Roadrunner lead off the Kittens’ 3rd with a single, her second of three hits on the night.
The Dingers answered with runs in the bottom of the first and second innings and shut down the Cats’ bats with some solid defense of their own, but the Sea Kitten offense roared to life again in the top of the 4th. Rusty led off that inning with a single, and once again was off to the races on an Engeldinger double to extend the Cats’ lead to 9-2. The Dingers’ defense clamped down hard, making two outstanding plays in center to rob Haight & Latzka of hits, but DynamOele kept the rally alive with a two-out double and Hauer socked a single to bring him home. Grutzik and Hennessy capped the scoring with two more two-out RBI hits and the Kits finished their turn at-bat with a 12-2 lead.
The Ringer ropes his second double of the game, sending Rusty flying around the bases for the second time. Josh got in his steps on David’s running plan!
The Dingers kept scrapping and demonstrated some solid power within their lineup, touching up the Kitten defense for two more runs, but they were not able to string hits together to fully capitalize on opportunities. Sea Kittens added a run in the 5th and the Dingers pushed across a pair of their own to close the gap to 13-6, but by then the game’s time limit had been reached and the score stood as the final.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dingers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| Sea Kittens | 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 13 |
Dingers
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josh “Rusty” Weber | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| David “The Ringer” Engeldinger | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kendra All Day Haight | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex The Puma Latzka | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan DynamOele | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen “Slash” Grutzik | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Hennessy | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| Mama Cat O’Brien | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Braden “Gas” Furness | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red Shoes Hewitt | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 33 | 13 | 18 | 13 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 0 |
Salmon Snacks
- Kendra, robbed twice of hits on solid liners to CF
- Alex, robbed of two hits on balls he starched
- Stephen, denied extra bases on a ball he stung down the LF line
- Special snack to the Dingers’ defense for a number of nice plays
- Dan for his sweet leaping grab & heads-up double-play throw to Erin
- Kendra for her awesome backpedaling catch in deep left field
- Erin for the nifty behind-the-back tag on a runner at first after an errant throw
- Jami was 3-3 with 2 runs and an RBI
- Braden 2-2 with a walk, double and two-out RBI
- David was 3-4 with two doubles, a triple, and 3 RBI
Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game
You didn’t have to see it to believe it. Make your pick for the Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game! Last week- a tie! Emalie for entertaining us in a pickle, and only by the mercy of the softball deities, the Cats were not victims of a triple play… but it was close!
What's you pick for the Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game?
- Erin snagging an errant throw and making a behind-the-back tag on a runner at first base (0%, 0 Votes)
- Kendra racing back and making a backpedaling catch on a fly ball to deeeeep left field (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 0
Next Up
Sea Kittens (2-1-1) face off with Galen Craig’s Hitmen (0-4), a very solid squad that has run into a buzzsaw of competition this fall. Sea Kittens narrowly escaped Hitmen in the teams’ only previous matchup, in July 2025. In that game, the Cats scored 10 late runs to erase an 11-5 deficit and win 15-12, the rally punctuated by a final inning, go-ahead grand slam from David “The Ringer” Engeldinger. This one could be a barn-burner!
Roster notes and transactions
TBA 9/22/2025
Game Notes
- Sea Kittens opened the game with 7 first-inning runs for only the 16th time in team history.
- It was the second straight game the Cats put up a first-inning touchdown+extra point- a feat the club has accomplished only twice previously: August 18 & 25, 2022 and October 26, 2021 & April 21, 2022- across two seasons.
- It’s the third time in 2025 Sea Kittens have hit first-inning paydirt against Dairyland Dinger, but the Cats lost one of those games, so will never feel comfortable with a lead against them.
- Scoring 5 or more first-inning runs is good: Sea Kittens are 39-5 all-time when doing so.
- With their wins the past two weeks, the Cats (11-6-1) are assured a 6th consecutive calendar year with a winning record.
- Jami scored her 150th career run- the 6th Sea Kitten to reach the benchmark.
- With 84 game played, Stephen passed Tommy Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichosz, Jr. on the Cats’ all-time games played list (13th all time).
- Josh (49 games) passed Gretchen G-bomb Hansen on the career games played list. With is next game, Josh will become the 18th person with 50 or more games played- 9 of the current 17 on that list are still active!
- David (28 games) tied Detroit Josh Ghena and entered the top 25 games played leaders.