Kittens Break Mirrors

Buoyed by an unprecedented, spirit-crushing, single-inning hitting and scoring barrage, Sea Kittens (4-0) cruised past Beer View Mirrors (2-2) in Madison Sport and Social Club Thursday Night League action at Bowman Park.  With the win, the Cats kept pace with league front-runners and favorites Fingers Don’t Lose (4-0) two weeks ahead of the teams’ much-anticipated regular-season finale.

Assigned to the visitors’ side for the third time in four weeks, Los Gatitos batted first and fell quite flat after a leadoff single from Aa-Lo Lomax.  Significant layoffs for The Puma, Alex Latzka, and Slash Grutzik may have left a veneer of rush of their swings, as sadly both saw significant consecutive-times-on-base streaks end in that uneventful first- a team record 23 for Latzka.

Oh well, takes the pressure off.

-Latzka, on the relief of making his first out since June 30

Beer View Mirrors stepped in for its first turn at the plate and greeted starting pitcher Joe Hennessy with a crisp single and quickly set up shop with another hit.  With one out and a runner in scoring position, Hennessy painted the outside edge with a filthy two-strike slowball, and a fly to Latzka ended the threat and the inning.

Then stuff went down.  Dan DynamOele opened the second inning with a double, and Mama Cat O’Brien moved him to third with an infield single.  Hennessy opened the scoring with a double to right-center, and Red Shoes Hewitt gave the Cats a 2-0 lead with a well-placed fielders’ choice.  Innocuous enough, so far… 

…but then the next eight Cats reached base, a misplayed fly ball to center factoring heavily in the mayhem.  Roadrunner Jami Hauer heated things up with an eye-popping dash to first base and DynamOele brought the rally to its first crescendo with a bases-loaded double off the center-field fence. With two out, Aa-Lo added the second climax with a booming three-run homer.  Still not spent, Oele brought the Sea Kitten wave to a third crest with a 3-run bomb of his own.  The Cats quite unexpectedly and suddenly up 17-0, an awkward, somewhat befuddling silence followed.  Oele, Hennessy, and O’Brien each contributed three hits in the inning- a feat no Kitten had accomplished previously.

It took Hennessy a few minutes to find his pitching legs after all that repeated exertion, and he walked the first two batters in the BVM half of the inning, but he and the Cats found their groove again and escaped the frame having only given back one run of the advantage.

DynamO reaches low low low to deliver the second-inning’s first big blow, a bases-clearing double.

With one out in the third inning, Sea Kittens rattled off four more straight hits, with Latzka delivering a two-run double to extend the Cats’ lead to 20-1, but the scoring ended with a mercy-killing, a “double play” call at first base that the man in Blue clearly felt was close enough, and nobody complained.

BVM found its hitting stroke in the game’s latter innings, putting up three runs in each of the game’s final three frames to make the final a much more respectable 20-10, while the Cats experimented with a little defensive shuffling, played a half-inning somewhat reminiscent of a “Sea Kitten Inning” and had a very quiet final time through the batting order.

Salmon Snacks

• Dave to help heal his knee & for keeping score in a bewildering inning.
• Gretchen because we love you and are thinking of you!
• Everybody, because we could not help but hit.
• Jami for her fancy footwork in her first base debut, and Hilary for making a play in her third base cameo.
• Dan, Erin, and Joe all went an unprecedented 3-3 in a single inning.
• Alex as a reward for a fantastic streak.
• Aaron for homering in back-to-back games.

 

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 to Laura for winning the Great Fillet last week- for her birthday snow-cone catch to squelch a Hot Pitches rally.

Next Up

Sea Kittens (4-0) host Miniature Equine Aficionados (3-1) Thursday, September 15 on Bowman Park Field 1.  After three weeks of playing in the cozier confines of Field 2, the team’s remaining two regular-season and any playoff games will be on the more spacious #1 diamond.  It’s unclear whether the Cats’ opponents are small horse-lovers, or lovers of small horses.  If his balky knee will let him go, Zen Master Rowe will get the start for the Cats, who will be without Mama Cat O’Brien for the contest. Start time 6:30 PM. 

Game Notes

• The 2022 Sea Kittens have the most calendar-year wins in team history.  The Cats sit at 15-3-1 for 2022; the 2016 team went 14-5 in MSCR & Harmony Tournament play, and the 2018 team went 14-4 in MSCR & Harmony games.
• The Cats 17-run second is the highest-scoring half-inning in any Sea Kittens game, besting the 15-run 6th inning Sea Kittens posted in a 19-7 win over Steal Your base July 5, 2017.  The Cats have scored 12+ in an inning eight times, and remarkably have only allowed more than 11 in an inning runs once! (and that 14-run first led to the Cats’ biggest come-from-behind win)
• With two August wins and two September wins, Sea Kittens have pulled to 0.500 all-time for each of those months- 19-19 in September and 25-25 in August.  Those had been the only two months in which the Cats had an all-time winning percentage less than 0.500.
• It was the first time Sea Kittens have hit 7 or more doubles in back-to-back games since September 28 & October 5, 2016.
• Six of those doubles came in the second inning, a team record.
• Fun fact: since the 2020 layoff, Jami is the Sea Kittens’ games played leader with 37, one up on Joe & Erin (36 each).
• Joe’s 4th-inning at-bat was the 700th plate appearance of his career, and his 4-4 game was his first since going 5-5 August 22, 2021.
• The streaks that ended:
  • Alex had not made an out since June 30- a span of more than 5 full games.  He’d reached base in 23 consecutive plate appearances before his first-inning foul out last night- 20 hits, 3 walks.  The previous record was 19, which Joe accomplished between July 20- August 21, 2016, a streak in which he had 19 consecutive hits over 4+ games.  Dan reached base safely in 16 straight plate appearances September 13, 2017 – June 6, 2018; and Alex had 15 in a row August 19- September 26, 2018.
  • Pitching-wise, Joe had allowed fewer than 10 runs in seven straight starts, tied for his career best and tied for second-most all-time. Dave had a run of 11 such starts in 2015-2016. With the final run of the this week’s game, no mas.
  • Stephen had reached base 11 straight times heading into this game, but his first-inning hot shot was gobbled up to end his run.

Most Runs in a Single Inning, Sea Kittens History

Date	Runs	Inning	Opponent (result)
September 8, 2022	17	2nd	Beer View Mirrors (W, 20-10)
July 5, 2017	15	6th	Steal Your Base (W, 19-7)
October 5, 2016	14	2nd	Steal Your Base (W, 34-11)
April 21, 2022	14	3rd	Bat Intentions SC (W, 27-2)
September 13, 2017	13	4th	Steal Your Base (W, 25-8)