Kittens Repel Base Invaders

Under the dark night sky on the remote back lot of Bowman Park, Sea Kittens calmly and efficiently repelled defending league champion Base Invaders (2-1) to move to 3-0 in the Madison Sport and Social Club Spring Thursday night season.  The win leaves the Cats as one of three unbeaten teams in the 12-team league.

Base Invaders landed on the field in full attack mode, finding open space and drilling base hits to stake a 2-0 advantage in the top of the first inning.  The damage could have been more substantial, but pitcher David Zen Master Rowe and the Sea Kitten defense kept its poise and stranded the Invaders with bases loaded.

Why is Jami The Roadrunner, you ask?

The Cats returned the volley in the bottom of the first, with Dan DynamOele clubbing his first home run of the season, a 3-run shot to left-center field to give the Cats the lead.  Sea Kittens continued to hit, and re-loaded the bases, but could not push another run across in the inning.

Rowe and the Cats methodically disposed of Base Invaders in the second, third and fourth innings while the Sea Kitten offense consistently landed scoring blows, putting up two, five, and two runs in those frames, highlighted by patient plate appearances by Mama Cat O’Brien and Alex Puma Latzka- who accepted a gift RBI for his birthday in the form of a bases-loaded walk, and 2-run double off the fence from Oele.  All onlookers were astounded that ball didn’t leave the yard, even on a cool, humid night, but it was enough to drive the Cat advantage to 10-3.

The Invaders staged a counter-attack in the fourth, loading the bases with nobody out, but Rowe cut down a run at the plate on a comebacker.  Base Invaders got one run home, but after retiring a runner at first O’Brien made an astute throw to the plate that Red Shoes Hewitt corralled to hold an Invader at bay on third base, and what could have become a big inning ended quietly.

Attempting a a different attack in the 5th, the Invaders worked the right side effectively for a pair of runs to close the gap to 12-5, but again the Kittens answered with three of their own, punctuated by head-up baserunning on an unexpected infield fly ruling- with Zoe Z-Force Slattery scampering home from third and Slash Grutzik wheeling home from second while the ball fell quietly on the outfield grass.

With the time cap approaching, Sea Kittens retired the first two opponent hitters in the top of the 6th, but the Invaders re-loaded the bases with two out and notched another run before the Cats finally closed the door and ended the battle, emerging 15-6 victors.

Salmon Snacks

• The Sea Kittens for an overall smooth game- that was pretty
• Alex gets a birthday Salmon Snack
• Laura for a 3-hit game & run-saving stop at the plate
• Dave for a steady pitching performance
• Zoe for taking one for the team in her return to the diamond
• Dan for a bunch of offense- 3 hits, home run, 6 RBI
• Erin for another multi-hit game and solid play at 1B
• Jami, Stephen, and Bev for each rapping 3 hits

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 Zen Master Rowe for capturing the first fillet of 2022 for his first-inning quadruple last week.  

Game Notes

• Sea Kittens are 3-0 for the fourth time in team history, and fist time since Summer 2019.  The team’s best start was 6-0 in Fall, 2017.
• Kittens have collected 20 or more hits in five consecutive games (dating to 2021) for the first time in team history
• No Sea Kittens struck out- only the 14th time that’s happened in 192 games
• Laura notched her fourth career 3+ hit game, and first since 2017
• Last week Dan scored his 200th career run; this week he re-took the all-time HR lead (51)
• Joe’s 5th inning single was his 400th hit as a Sea Kitten
• A week after notching career RBI #100, Alex scored career run #100, becoming the 6th person to score 100 or more for the Cats
• Sea Kittens are now 8-24 with 5 2B, 9 runs, 10 RBI, 3BB, and a sacrifice fly in seven overall birthday performances
• Should note that last week Joe B became the 8th person to have a multi- home run game for Sea Kittens