Scrappy Cats Play on in Playoffs

Go heat up your lunch and settle down with this overdue Sea kittens update.  What you need to know first: the Cats live!  Madison Sport & Social Club Thursday night semifinal game vs. Bat & Boujee (4-2) TONIGHT- June 22- at 6:30 PM on Bowman Field 1.  With a win, Sea Kittens would play Da Hittas in the final at 7:30 PM.  But you may ask yourself, “well, how did they get there?”

And that, smitten Kitten friends, that’s a story of the bad, the ugly, and the just-good-enough.  There was a reprisal of “The Running of the Kristen,”  a whole series of vintage Sea Kitten Innings,  balls that died in the dirt, balls that suddenly leapt in the air, a dramatic home run, and one heckuva memorable walk-off extra-inning win.

Rewind two weeks- the Cats (4-3) lined up against Bat & Boujee in the regular-season finale with second-place in the league and an accompanying first-round playoff bye on the line.  The Boujee crew jumped ahead with a solid 5-run first inning, but Los Gatitos answered and led 6-5 at the end of the second.  In the bottom of the third, Roadrunner Jami Hauer led off with a single, and suddenly found her speed tested as The Puma, Alex Latzka , drove a ball to the right-field fence.  And while we know Roadrunner is safe from Coyote, her fate in a race with the Puma was unknown, commitment to marry notwithstanding.  The pair raced from home, the relay was strong and on-target… she was fast enough; alas, he was not.

“Well, she’s a lot quicker than KJ.”

-manager Joe Hennessy, who participated in the first Running of the Kristen, on the difference between roadrunner and KJ.

As silly and delightful the play was to watch, it was also the last run the Cats scored this game.  Everything henceforth bounced- or didn’t bounce at all, as the case may be- the Boujee way, and they rallied for seven runs in the final three innings to win 12-7.

But hey- no first round bye meant an extra game!  And what a game that was.  Squaring off against #6 seed SP Prairie Dogs (0-7), Sea Kittens entered as the favorite but were without Latzka in center field and shortstop and leading hitter Dan DynamOele. 

With Man-Aaron Jossart and Sunshine Curtis also unavailable, Hennessy scoured the waiver wire, and lured Josh Weber to be the team’s 10th.  That’s Josh Weber of Magnetic Monopoles/Baltimore Factorioles/ Infield Flies fame; the Josh Weber who subbed and went 4-4 the night the Cats ended The Schneid; the Josh Weber who *threw* the ball that gunned down Hennessy & Johnson at the plate in the inaugural Running of the Kristen.  The Josh Weber whose team twice beat the mighty 2016 Sea Kitten squad and denied them a playoff berth.  That guy.

Oele’s absence was noted quickly, as Hennessy fielded two balls at short in the first inning and gingerly short-armed uncatchable gunk to Erin “Mama Cat” O’Brien to help ignite a four-run Prairie Dog fire.  But the Kittens roared back in the bottom of the inning, routing the Dogs for 10 runs and a 10-4 lead at the end of the first.  The Cats promptly gave it all back in the second, as others added their bits to the developing defensive circus.

Sea Kittens surged back ahead 13-10 in the bottom of the second, with Weber, playing his first softball game in six years, punching a two-run go-ahead single up the middle… but were helpless in stopping the Dogs from tallying six more in the top of the third.

“A rusty Weber is still a trusty Weber.  I expected nothing but fire.”

Said Hennessy after the game on his choice to bring in a player six years removed from action for a playoff game.  Josh “Rusty” Weber went 3-4 with two runs scored and three RBI

Undaunted, Sea Kittens rallied again behind hits from O’Brien, Hennessy, Hauer, Chil Hil Dugan and Bradley Sweet Thing Harkins to even the game at 16.  Still the Prairie Dogs could not be contained, and they re-took the advantage in the top of the fourth.  But here the Cats made a play that may have changed the course of the night. With two out and runners on first and second, the SP batter hit a short fly to center field.  The runner on second had not left on contact.  Seeing the situation unfold, Hennessy yelled random names wildly from third base (where he’d moved in an unsuccessful effort to keep teammates safe from his errant throws), finally landing on “AARON!”  Aaron Lomax heard the call and delivered an absolute seed to third, just nipping the runner for an inning-ending out.

But all this fudgery took a lot of time, and the umpire informed both teams the bottom of the fourth would be the game’s final inning, unless tied.  Needing one run and perhaps seeing how things had gone overall, Slash Grutzik took matters into his own hands, blasting a game-tying homer over the left-center fence to tie the game at 17.   For the third time this game the Cats erased a deficit and had another life.

O’Brien ripped a single and advanced to third on a double from Hennessy to put the game winner within 65′ of home with one out.  Need but a dink, a dunk, a ground ball with eyes, or even a sac fly to win…  well, suffice to say it didn’t happen.  There was a swinging strikeout- only the second K in this person’s Sea Kitten career.  And then there was a lineout to shortstop. So then there were extra innings in this extra games the Kittens had endeavored to play.

Hennessy, tired of short-arming his throws to first base, made sure the first one of the extra inning was launched decisively past O’Brien, but improbably the SP runner didn’t advance on the miscue.  That runner eventually managed to make his way home, but the Sea Kitten defense finally righted its ship, and had allowed only the single run to score before a pop-up settled into Grutzik’s glove for the final out of the inning.

Once again needing one to continue and two to win, the Cats got to work.  Harkins clubbed a triple to left-center and Dugan calmly delivered a game-tying hit and Weber singled to put runners on first and second.  Dugan was erased on a  fielder’s choice, but Zen Master Rowe – no stranger to this situation- punched the Cats’ ticket to the semifinal with a single to left that brought Weber home for a walk-off, 19-18 Sea Kitten win.

Zen Master Rowe’s walk-off hit.

Salmon Snacks- two weeks’ worth here!

• Man-Aaron, Dan, Dave, Stephen, Joe, and Josh all had three-hit games in the past two weeks
• But Brad went 4-4 in the playoff game with a 2B & 3B
• Hilary was on base 4x, too, with two walks and two hits- including the game-tying hit in extra innings
• Stephen for the game-tying homer
• Dave for the walk-off winner
• Josh for subbing!
• Joe & AaLo for the inning-ending play at 3B
• Laura picked up her first hit of the season and had RBI in back-to-back games
• Erin for back-to-back two-hit games and surviving without Dan at SS
• Joe and Aaron quietly eating theirs in gratitude for their teammate’s efforts

Sea Kittens Great Fillet of the Game

We’ll be back next week with Great Fillet voting!    

Next Up

The Cats (4-3) get a rematch with Bat & Boujee (4-2) in a semifinal tilt Thursday June 22 on Bowman Field 1.  The teams split the two head-to-head matchups played in 2022 & 2023.   Sea Kittens will be without last week’s hero, Zen Master Rowe, and Joe Hennessy will step in to make only his 4th career playoff start on the pitching bump.  Hennessy is 2-1 in his previous playoff starts, but will have to shake the memory of the last one- a 5-walk, innumerable-home run beating in the 2023 Fall championship game.  Da Hittas (7-0) secured a spot in the final with a 16-6 win over Bush Lattes last week, and will await the winner of the Kitten-Boujee game in the 7:30 PM championship.

Game Notes

• Sea Kittens’ 19 runs on June 15 were more than their three previous games combined
• The walk-off win was the 6th in team history.  Really should’ve been the 7th, but Umpire dave disallowed Mr. Rowe’s first game-winning hit last year…  (still salty)
• The Sea Kitten Walk-Off Wall of Fame:
  • Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu Cichosz, Jr.
  • Man-Aaron Jossart
  • Karlin “Clutch” Younger
  • Ross Frey
  • Alex Puma Latzka
  • David Zen Master Rowe
• It was the first walk-off win since Sept 6, 2017- in that one the Boo Rabbit- Helen Bradley- had the pleasure of being mercilessly chased home by Latzka.
• The Cats are now 8-4 all-time in post-season play.
• 18 runs is the most Sea Kittens have ever allowed in a win- twice previously (in 7-inning Harmony Tourney games) Sea kittens had allowed 16 and won.- in 2018 beating Andrea’s team 18-16 and in 2021 topping Harmony Dogs 19-16. 
• The Cats had been 0-25 when allowing 18+ runs, but are now 36-0 when scoring 18 or more.
• Sea Kittens held Bat & Boujee scoreless for three consecutive innings, and are 88-31-1 all-time when keeping an opponent off the board in three straight innings, but the Cats have lost 3 straight games in which they’ve do so in Spring 2023.
• The game against B&B was also only the 5th time a Sea Kitten team lost when hitting 7 or more extra-base hits (46-5)
• The 19-18 game matched the 5th-highest combined scoring game in team history.
• Brad & Man-Aaron scored their 100th career runs, becoming the 7th & 8th players to do so.

Highest-scoring Sea Kitten Games

Most combined runs

Game	H/A	League	Date		Runs	Opponent	Runs	Field	W/L	Total Runs
116	A	MSCR	10/5/2016	Sea Kittens	34	Steal Your Base	11	Olbrich 1- 275	W	45
180	A	Harmony Tourney	8/22/2021	Sea Kittens	15	Harmony Royals	29	Olbrich 3	L	44
189	A	MSSC-Championship	10/26/2021	Sea Kittens	16	Excalibur	28	Bowman 1	L	44
173	A	MSCR	6/23/2021	Sea Kittens	13	Silver Eagle	25	Olbrich 3	L	38
11	A	MSCR	8/26/2010	Sea Kittens	30	Bombers-2	7	Olbrich 1	W	37
78	H	Harmony Tourney	8/17/2014	Sea Kittens	13	Harmony Dogs	24	Olbrich 1- 275	L	37
154	A	MSCR	10/17/2018	Sea Kittens	16	Wilson's Coolers	21	Olbrich 1- 275	L	37
213	A	MSSC-Championship	10/6/2022	Sea Kittens	8	Fingers Don't Lose	29	Bowman 1	L	37
220	H	MSSC-playoffs	6/15/2023	Sea Kittens	19	SP Prairie Dogs	18	Bowman 1	W	37
115	H	MSCR	9/28/2016	Sea Kittens	16	Foul Balls (Soft's Balls)	19	Olbrich 1- 275	L	35
149	A	Harmony Tourney	8/19/2018	Sea Kittens	19	Andrea's Team	16	Olbrich 3	W	35
179	A	Harmony Tourney	8/22/2021	Sea Kittens	19	Harmony Dogs	16	Olbrich 3	W	35