Recap
Perhaps a mite sleepy with an 8:45 PM start time, Sea Kittens (2-0) toyed with Steal Your Base (0-2) before methodically picking their familiar prey apart for a 13-4 win at Olbrich Park June 2. The win was the Cats’ eighth straight over SYB and puts the squad in an early tie at the top of the MSCR Kenosha League standings.
While Sea Kittens did hit enough to put up double-digit runs for the second week in a row, the story of this contest was pitching and occasional infield defense. Zen Master Rowe continued his string of unbeaten summer performances on Field #3, mesmerizing the Basers with a kaleidoscope of pitches and tallying seven strikeouts. Only 5 balls reached the outfield of SYB bats, and two of those were shallow popups (both of which fell for hits); the rest were harmless groundballs to Kitten infielders with which said infielders sometimes did surprising things, creating excitement for players on both teams.
*DING* The game began with a ring, as Kitten leadoff man-Aaron Jossart yanked a foul ball off the light standard halfway down the left-field line and did a funky little dance to celebrate. He subsequently flied out to deep left-center.
After that literal early noise, the game’s early innings passed quickly and quietly with a paucity of runs. The Hennessy-O’Brien duo combined to tally one for the Cats in the first and Hauer-Latzka did the same in the second, but at the end of three full innings the Sea Kitten advantage stood at only 2-1.
Joe the Coffeecat sparked a little sumthin-sumthin’ for Sea Kittens in the fourth, opening the inning with a line-drive home run into Starkweather Creek (well, the drainage ditch tributary thereof). O’Brien and Dan Dynam-Oele followed with hits, and one out later Boom Boom Magyera brought home Oele with a sacrifice fly. Hauer and Latzka delivered again with two out, Latzka’s hit bringing Kristin “Hollywood” Brown home after she rolled through a stop sign at third base. It was the first run scored of Brown’s Sea Kitten career. With a little help from their friends Sea Kittens, SYB got two of those runs back in the bottom of the inning, and the book closed on the fourth with a 5-3 Cat advantage.
The Zen Master aided his own cause with a trademark hustle double to open the Kitten fifth, and the Cats sprinkled enough hits through the inning to tally four more runs. Two-out knocks from Oele, Brown, and Magyera capped the rally.
Now with a comfortable 9-3 advantage the Sea Kitten defense settled and cruised through the games’ final two innings while the offense scored a couple more runs, before
*DONG* Alex “Puma” Latzka spun a foul ball high off the foul pole halfway down the right field line and delighted all with a reprisal of the Jossart Jig with two out in the top of the seventh. This would be all over Tik Tok if the camera had actually been rolling. It was the final bell for Steal Your Base, who went quietly in the bottom of the frame to end the game.
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