Rabbit Bradley hit her first Sea Kitten homer run in the cats’ 25-8 rout of Steal Your Base.
Sea Kittens 25, Steal Your Base 8
The Harmony Sea Kittens (4-0) continued their recent dominance of Steal Your Base (0-3), cruising to a 25-8 victory powered by three Erin “Mama Cat” O’Brien doubles and a Helen “Rabbit” Bradley home run.
After pitcher David “Zen Master” Rowe drew a 3-pitch walk to open the game, Joe Hennessy knocked a one-out single and Mama Cat followed with her first double, staking the Cats a 1-0 lead. When the Polish Puma- Alex Latzka- laced a two-out, two-run double, Sea Kittens took a 3-0 lead and looked to be on track to repeat the dominance that’s seen the team outscore SYB 98-16 in the teams’ last four matchups.
That certainty changed for a moment in the bottom of the first inning. Steal Your Base hitters effectively sprayed the ball around the field and took advantage of rare walks from the Zen Master to gain a 4-3 advantage- damage that could have been greater as the inning ended with the bases loaded.
Perhaps awakened by the SYB threat, the Cats struck back with a four-run second paced by runs batted in from Boom Boom Magyera and Pirate-Erin Rodell and capped by a blistering home run over the left field fence off Hennessy’s bat. “I hit it really hard,” Hennessy said poetically of the home run.
Zen Master Rowe contributes to his own cause with a second-inning single. Rowe finished 3-3 with 4 runs scored.
Again staked to an advantage, Rowe was greeting by a double, but Mama Cat and shortstop Dynamo Dan Oele put on a defensive clinic for the remainder of the inning, leaving the runner on second and the Sea kitten lead intact. The Cats added a run to their lead in the third, and took a 9-5 advantage to the fourth inning- a comfortable but by no means insurmountable lead.
As was the case in the teams’ summer league matchup, the Sea Kitten offense erupted in a single inning to salt away the game. After Zen Master opened the inning with a double, eight consecutive one -out hits produced nine runs, the highlight a three-run inside the park home run by The Rabbit. With the hit parade putting SYB on its heels and two runners on base, Bradley stepped into the left-hand batters’ box. Her drive to straight-away right field caught the Baser’s right fielder flat-footed and too shallow. Bradley hopped from the box and was thinking three by the time she hit first. The ball eluded the SYB right center fielder racing in for backup, and Bradley easily dashed across the plate ahead of a desperate throw as Sea Kittens danced and hollered wildly in the dugout.
The Cats went on to add four more tallies in the inning and O’Brien caught the SYB left fielders too shallow for the third time- and her third double- in the game. Inexplicably, the Sea Kitten women were unable to teach the SYB outfield the meaning of “respect.”
Helen became the second Sea Kitten woman to homer- 5 years and a day after Gretchen Hansen hit a 3-run inside-the-parker in a 13-11 loss to Magnetic Monopoles- in a game that’s also remembered as the inaugural “Running of the Kristen”
Erin became the first Sea Kitten woman to hit 3 doubles in a game, and only the 5th player to accomplish the feat:
Erin 9/13/2017 vs. Steal Your Base
Dan 8/20/2017 vs. Harmony Relics (Harmony Tournament)
Joe 10/19/2016 vs. Infield Flies
Andy “Mercury” Stevens 7/27/2016 vs. Steal Your Base
Detroit Josh Ghena 5/23/2012 vs. South Side Badgers… yep- the game also remembered for The Seahorse Roar
Erin has established a new record for RBI in a fall season by a SK woman (9) with two games to play, topping the mark she set in 2010 and matched in 2013– but Helen is not far behind with 6! Erin’s 9 also matches the all-time high for any season by a SKW, matching the mark she established in summer 2010 and was matched by Gretchen in summer 2012 (both 10-game seasons)
Erin also established a new mark for doubles in a season for Sea Kitten women, topping the 4 she hit in Fall, 2013
The Kits’ 13-run fourth inning was the team’s third-highest scoring inning ever and marked the 6th time the team ever scored more than 10 in an inning. Steal you Base has been the unfortunate victim of the three biggest Kitten uprisings:
15 in the 6th SYB 7/5/2017
14 in the 2nd SYB 10/5/2016
13 in the 4th SYB 9/13/2017
Sea Kittens scored 25 runs for the 6th time in their 132-game history- and for the third time against Steal Your Base (whom I’ll also note are one of only 8 teams to ever score 20 or more vs Sea Kittens)
Sea Kittens have scored more than 10 runs in four straight games for only the fourth time in team history:
the summer 2017 squad accomplished the feat during its 4-game winning streak,
the summer & fall 2016 teams combined for 5 straight 10+ run games.
and the fall 2011 and summer 2012 teams also combined for 10+ runs in five consecutive games.
NEXT UP- Sea Kittens (4-0) at Soft Ballers (1-2)
Sea Kittens return to the Winona League grind at 7:15 PM September 20, squaring off with Soft Ballers. Not to be confused with Soft’s Balls, the Ballers have played a tough 3-game schedule, losing to 11-4 to unbeaten Pitches be Trippin’ and 16-15 to Affordable HVAC via a 3-run walk-off homer. Soft Ballers scored 17 in its win over KL Engineering, so clearly the Sea Kitten offense will have to be firing on all cylinders.
Salmon Snacks
Helen for the homer, and for snatching yet another line drive at third base before it could punch its ticket to left field Overheard on the SYB bench after that play:
“Meow! Now that’s a good kitty.”
Erin-O for her 3-double outburst and flawless game at 1B
Joe, Brad, Erin-O, Dave and Alex combined to go 19-for-19 with a walk, a sacrifice fly, 7 doubles, a HR, 17 runs scored, and 15 RBI
Dan & Erin for that slick SS-1B combination to hold SYB scoreless in the 2nd
Erin R for making her first putout at home plate on a tough bases-loaded dribbler
Jami for a super solid game at 2B- the first time she’d played a full game at the position
As was the case in the teams’ summer league matchup, the Sea Kitten offense erupted in a single inning to salt away the game. After Zen Master opened the inning with a double, eight consecutive one -out hits produced nine runs, the highlight a three-run inside the park home run by The Rabbit. With the hit parade putting SYB on its heels and two runners on base, Bradley stepped into the left-hand batters’ box. Her drive to straight-away right field caught the Baser’s right fielder flat-footed and too shallow. Bradley hopped from the box and was thinking three by the time she hit first. The ball eluded the SYB right center fielder racing in for backup, and Bradley easily dashed across the plate ahead of a desperate throw as Sea Kittens danced and hollered wildly in the dugout.
The Cats went on to add four more tallies in the inning and O’Brien caught the SYB left fielders too shallow for the third time- and her third double- in the game. Inexplicably, the Sea Kitten women were unable to teach the SYB outfield the meaning of “respect.”
