Sea Kittens (0-4) tangled with fellow winless MSSC-Upper Division cellar dwellers One Hit Wonders (1-2-1) at Bowman Park Tuesday night, and in the end it was the visiting Wonder bunch which emerged with its first win of the season, topping the Cats 12-9 in a closely played game.
Zen Master Rowe calmly collects a leadoff double to spark a 5-run Sea Kitten first inning rally.
For the first time in the fall season, the Cats held their opponent scoreless in the first inning, riding the energy of a leadoff strikeout to quickly dispatch the Wonders. Looking to spark the scuffling Sea Kitten offense, manager Joe Hennessy shook up the batting order, and for a hot minute the changes came up roses. Zen Master Rowe led off the game with a trademark hustle double, and after falling behind in the count, Joe “The Pup” Bevington tomahawked a single to left to set up the Cats with runners on the corners. Hitting in the 3-hole for the first time in her career, Sunshine Curtis delivered an RBI single, and Dan DynamOele and The Polish Puma- Alex Latzka- delivered back-to-back run-scoring doubles to give Sea Kittens a 3-0 lead with nobody out. Slash Grutzik and Joe Hennessy added run-scoring hits, and the Cats finished the frame with a healthy 5-0 advantage. In all the history of Sea Kittens, the 12 times the team built a 5-run or larger first-inning advantage, the game ended in a Kitten victory.
One Hit Wonders was neither impressed nor intimidated by that statistical tidbit- or was simply unaware of how things were supposed to go- and saw the Kits’ five and raised them one with a 6-run second, and then set the Sea Kittens down 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the inning. Each time Sea Kittens seemed like they could escape an inning unscathed, OHW managed to tally at least a run, while Los Gatitos struggled to drop a clutch hit, going 0-4 with runners in scoring position and two out, and 0-6 in the game overall with two out.
“We’re finding new ways to lose.”
–Dan DynamOele, one of the veteran Cats who was around for the Schneid, and who has seen fascinating and surprising ways to lose softball games. Before Tuesday, Sea Kittens had been 12-0 when building a first-inning lead of 5 or more runs.
Slowly the Wonders’ lead grew to 12-7, but Sea Kittens staged a 5th-inning rally, with Oele, Latzka, Mama Cat O’Brien and Grutzik stringing together hits to pull the Cats within 12-9, but the rally stalled. The Sea Kitten defense made a big stop in the top of the 6th to keep the game within reach, but up against the game’s time limit the Cats’ bats went gently into the good night, retired 1-2-3 to end the contest.
Results
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sea Kittens | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| One Hit | 0 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 12 |
Sea Kittens
| Player | AB | R | H | RBI | 2B | 3B | HR | BB | SF | IP | RA | WK | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zen Master Rowe | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| The Pup | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sunshine Curtis | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dan DynamOele | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Alex The Puma Latzka | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mama Cat O’Brien | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stephen “Slash” Grutzik | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Hennessy | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 3 |
| Jami “Roadrunner” Hauer | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Boom Boom Magyera | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kari Fenske | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 34 | 9 | 16 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 1 | 3 |
One Hit
| 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 |
Salmon Snacks
- All the Cats for playing- full roster!
- Joe for a solid game on the mound, despite getting hit in the face by a throw from Dave
- Kari, for getting up each time she fall down
- Katherine for another 2-hit game
- Dan for going 3-3 with 2 doubles
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!
Next Up
Game Notes
- Six consecutive losses is the second-longest winless streak in team history- the longest skid other than The Schneid, which ended in July 2014.
- This was only the third time in team history Sea Kittens led by 5 or more runs and lost; September 28, 2016 the Cats had an 11-3 second-inning lead over Foul Balls but lost 19-16, and September 12, 2012 Sea Kittens led Magnetic Monopoles 9-4 at the end of 4 innings but went on to lose 13-11.
- Prior to this, the Cats were 72-2 when having a 5-run lead at any point in a game
- Sea Kittens had been 12-0 all-time when leading by 5 or more at the end of the first inning.
- Sea Kittens fell to 22-3 when scoring 5 or more first-inning runs.
- The only previous times Sea Kittens scored 5 or more first-inning runs and lost were July 11, 2012, when the Cats scored six to answer Wilson’s four first-inning runs in what ended as an 11-9 Wilson’s win, and July 8, 2015, when Steal Your Base ambushed Sea Kittens for 10 runs in the top of the first. Sea Kittens scored 6 in the bottom of the first but couldn’t claw back and lost 21-9.
- Tuesday Bluesday: Sea Kittens are now 2-8 all-time on Tuesday nights.
- Sea Kittens went 0-6 with two outs. That also happened June 16, 2021, but Sea Kittens won that game 11-0, so it went unnoticed.
- A number of people have matched or are nearing career highs for things like hits and runs scored and home runs, but in hope of not jinxing them before establishing a new high water mark, they shall not be named in this space at this time.