For the second time in 2022, Sea Kittens roared into the Madison Sport and Social Club Thursday night playoff semifinals as the #2 seed, and for the second time in 2022 were unceremoniously bounced from the competition. The Cats (4-2-1) matched up with the Avengers with a Summer League championship game appearance at stake, and The Avengers (4-3-1) threw down a 5-run fourth-inning hammer that sent Sea Kittens scampering.
On a hot, humid, still evening at Bowman Park, the Cats’ bats stayed ice cold until a late, futile seventh-inning mini-rally. Starting pitcher David “Zen Master” Rowe and the Sea Kitten defense kept the game tight through three innings, holding The Avengers to a lone run, but Sea Kittens managed only a single hit in the same three frames. The game’s fragile balance shifted in the fourth as The Avengers found green grass and capitalized on opportunities, and extended the lead to 6-0.
The usually-resilient Cats had but a quiet mew in response, with Alex “Puma” Latzka and Stephen “Slash” Grutzik banging back-to-back extra base hits with two out in the bottom of the inning to put the Sea Kittens on the board, but no more hits followed, and The Avengers extended their advantage by two in both the fifth and sixth innings.
Behind 10-1, a certainly daunting and concerning but not insurmountable deficit, Los Gatitos mustered three hits in the final frame to claw within 10-3, but the rally was too little, too late, and the Summer season faded away.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Da Hittas | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Sea Kittens | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
Da Hittas
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zen Master Rowe | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex The Puma Latzka | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen “Slash” Grutzik | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Chill Hil Dugan | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aaron “Aa-Lo” Lomax | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Zoe “Z-Force” Slattery | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mark Slattery | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Red Shoes Hewitt | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sweet Thing Harkins | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 28 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 0 |
Salmon Snacks
- Mark & Zoe became the Sea Kittens’ first-ever father-daughter duo!
- Alex managed three of the team’s seven hits
- Stephen added two
- It was noted that both Jami and Hilary hit the ball hard several times, but Avengers were there to make plays
- Everybody stuck with it, believing there was a chance until the bitter end. I wasn’t there, but that’s just how the Cats roll
- Joe, to ease the distress caused by missing three consecutive Sea Kittens games 🙁
Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game
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Game Notes
- So, it was a schneid-ly game… The Cats’ seven hits matched the team’s 3rd-lowest total in its 205-game history
- Of the six times the team has managed fewer than 10 baserunners, three happened during The Schneid
- The seven total baserunners were second-fewest ever, only one better than August 19, 2013, when six Cats reached base in the only shutout in even the Sea Kittens’ occasionally inglorious history. That was game 2 of The Schneid.
What the heck is The Schneid? You’re new here, aren’t you? It’s THIS. Now hush your voice…
And it only ended with FIRE
- Jami’s streak is at 47 consecutive games played, fourth-most of all-time, behind only Dan (65), Joe (61) and Joe (51)
- Alex finished the summer with an 0.889 batting average- 16 hits in 18 at-bats- the highest batting average ever for a player with more than 20 plate appearances in a season (he had three walks to give him 21 PA), topping Joe’s 0.875 in Fall, 2016.