Sea Kittens Celebrate 2012 Champions

ON THIS DATE-  August 22, 2012

Five years ago today Sea Kittens made its third season of existence a memorable one, winning Buffalo League Championship- the team’s first, and to date, only summer season title.

 THE TEAM

Solid top-to-bottom, the 2012 Cats featured a dynamic duo in Gretchen “G-mama” Hansen (455/471/576, 12 runs scored, 8 RBI) and Erin O’Brien (469/514/688, 11 runs, 9 RBI, 3 triples) and were paced by Josh Ghena’s 0.667 batting average, Joe Hennessy’s 21 RBI, and David Rowe’s 15 runs scored.   Kyle Magyera returned to the diamond after a one-year hiatus and swatted 5 extra-base hits, while Katherine “Goat-roper” Curtis and Kristen Johnson stepped up their games considerably and established career highs in hits.  Rookie Hadley “Boomer” Boehm (13 hits, 8 runs, and 8 RBI) anchored first base for the Kitten defense, while second-year Cats Man-Aaron Jossart (15 hits, 12 runs, 11 RBI and Heidibadger Nelson (286 BA, 333 OBP) enjoyed stellar sophomore campaigns. Jonny Jon Jon Shabidu, Jr. Hansen raked in limited action, batting 0.667 and scoring a remarkable 7 runs in only 3 games. 

On the mound, Tommy Tom Tom Seahorse Shabidu, Jr. Cichosz enjoyed the finest season of his career despite tearing his meniscus partway through the season.  Seahorse won 3 games against a single loss and allowed a paltry 5.92 runs/7 innings pitched.  David Rowe toed the pitching rubber for the first time in his career and matched Seahorse’s 3-1 mark, a solid debut for the pitcher who’d later dial in and become Zen Master, Staff Ace.

 THE SEASON

 Early returns in 2012 were strong for a Sea Kitten squad that had endured its lumps in 2011 (3-7, playing out of its element in Chicago League), as the team raced to a 2-0 record with lopsided wins over TEK Systems (14-2) and Team Leah (21-6) to open the season.  Boomer opened her Kitten with 6 hits in her first 8 at-bats, and collected 6 RBI in the process.  When game three ended with a dramatic 4-run walk-off rally and Seahorse Roar, the season began to have the feel of something special.

Then came The Magnetic Monopoles (later known as Baltimore Factorioles, and then Infield Flies).  Sea Kittens jumped to a 3-1 lead, but the game tightened and entered the fifth inning in a 5-5 deadlock.  Monopoles scraped up two runs against Seahorse, and after Hennessy tripled and scored on an error to bring the Cats within a single run, Monopoles pitcher Mike Wood retired 9 of the final 11 Sea kittens to lock down a 7-6 win. The Cats bounced back with a 14-5 win over JCO Smurfs a week later to finish the first half of the season 4-1, but had to sweat out the battle between TEK Systems and Magnetic Monopoles.  TEK prevailed, and Sea Kittens won the first-half title by head-to-head tiebreaker.  A berth in the Buffalo League Championship game secured, Sea Kittens were bumped up to Pittsburgh for the second half, where the team opened with back-to-back one-run wins over stiffer competition, even rallying from a 10-run 3^rd-inning deficit vs. Harmony Royals.  Two close losses followed, and then came JoBeck’s, who showed the Kittens how the other half lives in a 26-4 beatdown.

 THE RAIN, and THE GAME

Second-half experience behind them, the 6-4 Sea Kittens prepared to face Team Leah, who’d surged through the Buffalo League second half.  Then it rained.  And rained again. And again…for three consecutive weeks the title match was postponed, until it had to be scheduled on the same night as the team’s fall league opener.  The delay also created unanticipated work & vacation conflicts and Hennessy found himself with only 7 regulars available to play August 22.  In came Kris Stepenuck and Juli Wagner, players with experience but no recent swings of the bat, and Sea Kittens fielded a 9-player roster for the first time in their brief history, in the biggest game they’d played to date.

SEA KITTENS CROWNED CHAMPIONS

Who has time for losers?  Harmony Sea Kittens have none, as they are the champions of the world (2012 MSCR Wednesday night east side summer league lowest-level coed rec division).  Squaring off against surprise second-half champ Team Leah (5-8) in the Buffalo League finale, the Kittens (5-1 Buffalo League, 7-4 overall) lost the coin flip (apparently “tails” sometimes does fail) but nothing else on a sublime August evening at Olbrich Park.  Dave Rowe led off the game with a walk, and after a Boomer Boehm smash up the middle was snared by the Leah (short for “Let’s eat a house”) pitcher, Joe Hennessy lofted a fly ball beyond the reach of the right fielder and raced around the bases for his first home run of the season and a 2-0 Kittens advantage.  Kris Stepenuck- filling in for one of 4 absent SK women- singled, as did birthday boy Josh Ghena and Katherine Curtis.  Pitcher Tom Cichosz drew a 3-pitch walk to drive home Stepenuck, and after an out, Man-Aaron Jossart singled home two more to push the lead to 5-0.  Rowe continued the hit parade, and when the dust settled the Kits had a 6-0 lead to protect for 21 outs. Cichosz took the pitching rubber with a torn meniscus and a mission, and kept Leah off balance with at times dazzling control. There was no blood on his sock, but surgery on the knee is impending.  Leah shook off the top of the first and thought they could exploit the Kits’ 3-person outfield (playing with only 9 players for the game) but could not find a weakness.  Stepenuck, playing outfield for the first time in 8 years, snagged a fly to RF from the Leah leadoff man, saying afterwards, “it was just like gliding under floating frisbee at Demetral, except it was little and round.”  One batter later Rowe made a fine play in left on a hit slicing off the bat of a Leah left-hander, and the Cats’ confidence mounted.  A run in the second and 3 in the fourth pushed the Kitten’s lead to 10-1, but there was still a sense of urgency on the part of the cat-like defense.  A brilliant play by CF Aaron Jossart to end the 4^th and another by Rowe to end the 5^th, coupled with Katherine Curtis snagging a wicked one-hopper at 2^nd took any remaining wind out of Leah’s sails.  Five straight Kittens baserunners reaching safely and 5 more runs in the 6^th had the big-boned woman warming her pipes, and everything was done but the details.

Salmon snacks: The bag of salmon snacks was left unattended on the floor and ripped open, but special mention:

• The aforementioned plays by Aaron, Kris, Dave, and Katherine were really fun
• Tom & Juli making a great choice in letting a dribbler dribble foul
• We probably made an error in that game, but I cannot remember it if we did- really fine D!
• Joe homered and had 2 doubles and a sac fly in 5 plate appearances
• Dave, Josh, Katherine, and Aaron had 3 hits each
• Tom, playing what’s probably his last game before knee surgery- had 4 hits and 4 runs scored