Sea Kittens Seize Silver

Sea Kittens wrapped up 2022 with an October 6 Softball Extravaganza, packing in three playoff games to conclude the Madison Sport and Social Club Fall season.  The Cats maximized their softball enjoyment with wins in their first two games to reach the league final, and went home very tired, but with a silver medal for their efforts.

Game 1

Sea Kittens (6-1) opened the evening’s festivities with a first-round playoff matchup with 6th-seeded Beer View Mirrors (4-4), looking to avoid the early-round exits of the Spring & Summer squads.  Joe Hennessy made the start for the Cats- in his 200th game with Los Gatitos del Mar- working on a cool & windy night.  After setting down the Mirrors quickly in the top of the first inning, the offense got to work,  with Alex “Puma” Latzka waiting out a wind-blown leadoff walk and racing home with the game’s first run on a Dan DynamOele double.  Roadrunner Jami Hauer moved Oele to third with a hit and dashed to second on an errant throw, and Hennessy smacked a single to bring them both home for a 3-0 Cat-vantage.

The Mirrors answered, using plate discipline and solid contact to grab back two of those runs in the top of the second.  Sea Kittens responded to the charge and loaded the bases with a trio of one-out walks as the wind gave BVM’s pitcher fits.  Hauer singled home one run but Chil Hil Dugan was cut down trying to advance first-to-third for the inning’s second out.  Hennessy delivered in the moment, knocking a 2-run triple to right-center to extend the Sea Kitten advantage to 6-2, and came home on a single from Mama Cat Erin O’Brien.  Slash Grutzik and TayTay Peltier re-loaded the bases with patient walks, and Sweet Thing Harkins drove a two-run double to the gap to break the game open.

But Beer View Mirrors were not as distant as they appeared despite the 9-2 Kitten lead, and struck back with three runs in the third inning to draw within four runs.  A two-run bomb from DynamOele and another two-out, run-scoring double from Harkins- after a clutch 2-out hit from Peltier to extend the inning- put the Cats more comfortably ahead.  Hennessy’s control settled in the fourth, and DynamOele and Grutzik delivered the daggers in the bottom of the inning- a 3-run jack from Oele and 2-run single from Grutzik to put Sea Kittens up 18-5.

Dan DynamOele launches the first of his two home runs in the Cats’ Fall playoff opener.  It was his first multiple-home run game since the Sea Kittens’ 2021 playoff opener!

Needing but three outs to finish the game, the Cats played a bit on the nonchalant side and BVM assailed them with a 7-run fifth, but it was all for naught as Sea Kittens advanced to the semifinal with an 18-12 victory.

Game 2- Semifinals

All warmed up after their first-round victory the third-seeded Sea Kittens (7-1) turned around immediately to square off with second-seeded Make Signs Not War (6-2) and jumped to a quick 9-0 advantage with an early hitting and fielding clinic.  Latzka and DynamOele each doubled twice and Roadrunner drove in three runs in the the game’s first two innings.  Zen Master David Rowe took over pitching duties in Game 2, and was backed by solid defense- particularly from Dugan in left field in the early going.

The Kits’ offensive magic started to fade as the game progressed- perhaps the first signs that the Cats’ swim endurance test was nearing conclusion- and MSNW drew closer, pulling within 11-6 at the end of six innings as the Cats only scratched home two runs in four innings, twice leaving the bases loaded in that span.  Thankfully the Kitten defense was up to the task of backing Rowe, with Harkins-Oele-Hennessy cutting down a runner at third base in the fourth inning and once again Dugan making a stellar grab to end the MSNW 5th inning.

Feeling a little heat, the Sea Kitten offense rose to the occasion in the game’s final inning.  O’Brien opening the frame with her fourth hit of the game and advanced to second on a Sweet Thing single, but two outs followed.  Laura Red Shoes Hewitt dug in a delivered a huge run-scoring single to breathe life into the dormant Kitten offense.  Latzka doubled, Hennessy tripled, Dugan singled, and the Cats had made their kill bite with a 5-run inning.  MSNW had no answer, and Sea Kittens advanced to their second consecutive Fall League Championship game with a 16-6 win.

O’Brien grabbed the camera, and managed to record the only out Hennessy produced with his bat since September 1. 😛

Game 3- Championship

Sea Kittens (7-2) lined up across Fingers Don’t Lose (9-0) for the Fall League Final.  Sea Kittens lost 29-8. The end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salmon Snacks

• Gretchen because we love you and are still thinking of you!
• Everybody gets multiple snack for playing three games in a night
• Hilary saved our bacon serval times with her left-field glove in Game 2
• Stephen for taking that shin-splitter in Game 2 OW!
• Jami went 8-9 with a sacrifice fly & a walk in the three games
• Dan went 9-11 with 5 2B, 2 HR, and 12 RBI
• Joe was 11-12 with 3 2B,  2 3B, 8 runs scored, and 8 RBI
• Laura ended her season with a 3-game hitting streak
• Dave for his great game on the mound in tough conditions in Game 2
• Alex for a nice game 1 catch and especially for emphatically declaring us done in Game 3
• Erin for making a little adjustment after game 1 & subsequently ripping 4 hits in game 2
• Taylor for her patience at the plate, especially in Game 1- walks in her first two plate appearances, waiting for good pitches (and then getting a hit in AB #3)
• Brad for going 7-11 with 3 2B- twice with the bases loaded and two out in Game 1
• Brad-Dan-Joe for their outfield-to-third base putout in the 4th inning of Game 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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!  Alex gets the pin this week, for stopping things when he did.

Next Up

Winter.   Maybe Los Gatitos will roll this winter? The idea of the team was born in a bowling alley, after all…  Spring softball will begin in April 2023!

Game Notes

Let’s get the Game 3 superlatives (negpurlatives?) out of the way…

• 29 runs is the most runs Sea Kittens have ever allowed in a single game
• It was the second-worst SK loss ever- 21 runs was just shy of the 26-4 whomping JoBeck’s applied 7/25/2012. And unlike that game, nobody tried to carry away our second basewoman)
• Second-most first-inning runs allowed (13); the Cats allowed 14 to Andrea’s Team 8/19/2019- but went on to win that game!
• Only the 10th time in more than 1,250 innings that the Cats allowed 10+ runs in an inning
• Only 3rd time Sea Kittens have lost by 20+ runs (aforementioned JoBeck’s game , and Jade Monkey 25-5 on 8/10/2011); by contrast Sea Kittens have won by 20+ runs 11 times

Now the Good stuff!

• Sea Kittens won more games in 2022 (18) than ever before, and finished with their second-best win percentage for a calendar year- 0.771, just a tick behind 2018’s 0.778.  (And if not for the tie that wasn’t a tie… 0.792).
• We collectively stepped to the plate 975 times- way more than our previous high (804) in 2016.  More games played = more Sea Kitten fun.
  • And even with that huge sample size, Sea Kittens posted their highest team batting average (0.559) and on-base percentage ever (0.585)
• Erin made her 700th career plate appearance during Game 2.
• Alex made his 300th career plate appearance in his final at-bat of Game 1
• Jami made her 300th career plate appearance in her 1st at-bat of Game 3.
  • Isn’t that cute?
• In the Fall season, Jami smashed the record for highest batting average ever posted by one of the Sea Kitten women:  0.762!!!  Erin hit 0.632 in Summer, 2015.  Jami was 16-21 this fall, and also:
  • Set a record for runs scored in a season (14); Gretchen and Erin shared the old record of 12
  • Became the second woman to collect 10 or more RBI in a season, joining Erin in that exclusive club.
  • Had a stretch in which she went 11-11, with a walk and sacrifice fly.

 

 

 

 

• Joe finished the Fall season on a 22-23 tear, with only a 4th-inning Game 2 groundout  standing between him & Alex’s recently-established record.
• Joe tied Alex’s team record of 5 triples in a season.
• Stephen passed Boomer Boehm and tied Clutch Younger on the all-time games-played list- his 36 games place him 20th.
• Taylor- who became the Cats’ 100th player in her debut- became only the 50th person with 6 or more games played.
• Dan mashed 11 doubles this fall- 2nd-most ever (he and Mercury Stevens share the record of 12); he also posted the 3rd-highest single-season RBI total (31) and he & Joe tied the 6th-best hit total (27).  For the third time in his career, he amassed 20+ RBI and 20+ runs scored in a single season- he’s the only person in the 20/20 club.