Kittens Overrun Capital

Sea Kittens basked in the warmth of late spring at Bowman Park Thursday June 2, relishing another idyllic night for chasing and batting balls in  the sweet green grass.  Looking to sharpen their claws one last time before post-season softball begins, the Cats (6-0) did just that, shredding Madison Capitals 20-1 to complete an unbeaten regular season.  

As has been the teams’ signature this spring, Sea Kittens came out swinging and put its first five batters on base en route to a 4-0 first-inning lead.  In all, Sea Kittens rapped five singles in the first, representative of the methodic and relentless approach they’d take all evening- the team socked 31 hits, 27 of them singles.

First-inning excitement on the bases. “OH BOY!” Exclaims player-manager Joe Hennessy.

Joe Hennessy took to the pitchers’ plate in the bottom half of the inning, and after a shaky warmup tweaked his delivery and got dialed into the strike zone, whiffing two of the first three Capitals batters.  The strikes kept coming, and Hennessy finished the game with four strikeouts against zero walks, while the Kitten outfielders had a contemplative evening, recording zero putouts in the course of the game.

The Cat attack continued in the second with another six hits, this time punctuated by a two-run triple from Alex “Puma” Latzka, the second of his five hits in the game.  The combo of Slash Grutzik and Latzka in the 4-5 spots in the batting order was unstoppable this evening, the pair each collecting five hits, Slash scoring four times while the Puma notched four RBI.

Up 8-0, the Cats moved to auto-pilot, the game’s further memorable moments coming in the form of a dog dashing onto the field during play- remarkably, a first in 195 Sea Kittens games- and a small beach ball and a nerf dart crossing the infield.  The distractions didn’t divert the Cats’ attention from the task at hand, and the team held Madison scoreless through three innings.

That was high on the Fun Meter

-Z-Force Slattery after the game. Zoe was 3-5 with 4 RBI in the game.

The Capitals kept pressing, and rapped two solid base hits to open the bottom of the 4th inning.  The next batter hit a sharp grounder up the middle, but Grutzik playing doubled play depth and shaded towards the bag at second , picked the hot potato cleanly, stepped and fired a strike to Mama Cat O’Brien at first to complete the double play, but commotion ensued.  Seeing the play in front of her, the Capitals baserunner panicked and returned to first; the umpire called interference. Puzzlement for a moment, as the runner had been already forced- was the runner out on interference or the hitter? Seeing the coffee klatsch at first, the Capitals’ runner who’d started on second and advanced to third on the grounder sneakily snuck towards home, the Cats seeing him a moment too late, and both the shutout and the opportunity for the first triple play in team history slipped away.  Sure, one could argue that upon the interference call the ball was dead, but, well, the Cats aren’t like that- in a 13-0 game, at least.

Z-Force Slattery collects two of her career-high 4 RBI with a bases-loaded hot shot down the line.

The forecast calls for a cool, wet week in Madison, but playoffs are the next stop for Los Gatitos del Mar.  That shiny 6-0 record will become but a footnote as knockout play begins, and the first test will be stern- Brews on First?, which gave the Cats all they could handle May 12, the Cats ultimately emerging with a hard-earned 8-3 victory.

Salmon Snacks

• Joe for being in the strike zone all night
• Alex and Stephen for 5-hit games
• The dog, for amusing us on the field briefly
• The outfielders, for staying awake
• Stephen & Erin for the double play, even with the ensuing commotion
• Katherine for waiting waiting waiting waiting
• Alex, Zoe, and Dan for collecting 12 RBI in the middle of the order- 4 each

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 Sunshine Curtis for earning the May 19, 2022 Fillet for her dazzlingly graceful glovework behind the plate. 

Game Notes

• Sea Kittens are 6-0 for the second time in team history, matching the team’s best start (Fall, 2017).
• The team’s 31 hits were the 4-th most all-time, and most since collecting 33 August 20, 2017 against Harmony Relics in the Harmony Tournament.  The Cats’ all-time mark is 38, in the 2016 season open against Beckett Tax & Accounting.
• Zoe became the 5th woman to notch 4 or more RBI for Sea Kittens in a single game, joining Sunshine Curtis, Boomer Boehm, Boo Rabbit Bradly (twice), and Mama Cat (3x).
• Alex & Stephen joined the 5-hit club- the 12th & 13th times a Sea Kitten has accomplished the feat, and the first time since August 26, 2010- the Kittens’ 11th game ever- that two players did it in the same game.  Erin (6) and Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichozs, Jr. (5) did it then.
• Alex joins Erin, Joe, and Dave as Sea Kittens who’ve twice had a game with 5+ hits.
• Alex collected career hit #150, career double #30, and career triple #20, all in the same night!
• Stephen notched his 50th career hit, in his 70th at-bat.  He’s the second-fastest Cat to reach the 50-hit mark, trailing only Mercury Stevens, who notched 50 in his first 61 at-bats, which is just silly if you do the math. Special mention to Doc Kornis, who had 48 hits in his 67 career at-bats.
• It was only the second time in Joe’s last 10 starts that he didn’t walk anybody, following a stretch in which he’d issued zero walks in five of six games.