Silver Eagle Rallies, Soars Past Kittens

Needing a win to force a tiebreaking championship tilt, Sea Kittens threw the first paw, drew first blood, and jumped to an early 3-0 lead over Silver Eagle at Olbrich Park Wednesday night.  But the reigning league champions shook off the blow and rallied… to the tune of 19 unanswered runs, disemboweling the Kits by double-digits for the fourth consecutive time en route to completing a 10-0 season.  Still, Sea Kittens (8-2 MSCR Kenosha League) walked away winners, the most successful of all the teams that weren’t way out of their league in the league.

On yet another sticky, kinda gross summer night on the rusty red dust of Olbrich playfields, the Cats understood the magnitude of the task before them, but had the memory of that one time they jumped on the Eagle early and held on for the win.  Silver Eagle has not underestimated the Kittens since, and before the game could be heard saying things like “they’re aggressive- you have to get the ball in fast from the outfield, ” and “we’re going to have to hit.”  Such cute, flattering sentiment from the Kenosha League overlords.

That hot minute in the first inning when the Kits drew first blood behind a Puma single and DynamOele homer

In the first inning, the words of warning looked prescient.  The Cats and starting pitcher Joe Hennessy worked around a leadoff infield single to hold Silver Eagle scoreless, ending a string of 15 innings in which the Eagle side had scored against Sea Kittens.  Alex “Polish Puma” Latzka led off the Sea Kitten first with single, and Dan DynamOele crushed a full-count lob to give his team a 2-0 lead.  The blast was Oele’s team-record 15th of the season.  A pair of singles by Mama Cat O’Brien and Slash Grutzik set up the Kitten offense again, Slash dashed home in a flash after a rare Silver Eagle error on a grounder from Hollywood Kristin Brown.

Staked to a 3-0 lead, Hennessy and the Cats promptly gave it back, and then some. And a little more.  the details aren’t important but the goal of not allowing Silver eagle to post a snowman on the scoreboard went unmet this night. Sea Kittens knew this would be a night upon which they would have to hit to keep pace with the high-flying Eagle offense, but unfortunately grounded into nearly as many double plays (2) and they mustered hits (3) over the next three innings. 

But the plucky Sea Kittens played steady defense and Silver Eagle only managed one hit in the next two innings; alas the gift of a walk before that lone hit- a long home run- extended the Eagle advantage to 10-3. Entering the fifth inning, at 10-3 the game remained within theoretical reach, but evidence soon mounted in favor of the alternate hypothesis.  Hennessy struggled to find the plate and developed a case of the walksies, and when he did throw strikes the Eagles pummeled the ball, quickly adding 4 to their total.  The reeling Cats recorded two outs, but Hennessy walked two more batters and was ejected- by himself, for having a very bad and unfun attitude.  Man-Aaron Jossart came in relief and recorded the inning’s final out.

Nothing changed for the Sea Kitten offense, which was quickly dispatched. 

The sweaty and beleaguered Cats trod out to play defense again, in the name of respect and not getting slaughter-ruled, although down 14-3 that had technically already happened  but went unnoticed by the umpire. Turns out Silver Eagle is perfectly capable of scoring bunches of runs even without the benefit of walks, errors, or home runs, and tagged the Cats for 5 more.

Mama Cat O’Brien with a beautiful piece of hitting, going backside for her record 19th hit of the season

Down to final raps and needed seven runs to extend the summer season for another inning, Sea Kittens didn’t go without a mew, and with two out loaded the bases as their fan exhorted the squad to keep battling.  Jossart lashed a hard line drive to left, but the at-em ball found a glove, and with the resounding smack of leather on leather, the spanking was complete.

Salmon Snacks

• Katherine for trying to settle down her reeling pitcher
• Aaron for being ready to pitch in relief
• Stephen to ease his stinging hand
• Jami, to ease her stinging hand
• Dan hit a home run, gets a Salmon Snack, blah blah
• Erin for a solid game at 1B
• Alex for a dazzling play in CF, which may have been in one of Monday night’s Bottomfeeders games, but with 5 games in 4 days these things are kinda blending together. Still snack-worthy.
• Dave, to help him get through the boredom of quarantine
• Kristin for a nice game at 2B
• Stephen went 3-3 and Joe went 2-2

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!

Congrats to Joe for winning the Week 9 Great Fillet for his late-inning, game-breaking grand slam.

Game Notes

• • • Sea Kittens’ team-record streak of 11 consecutive games scoring 10+ runs ended, but it was a heckuva run!
    • It was Sea Kittens’ 4th consecutive double-digit loss to Silver Eagle.  The only other teams to have beaten the Cats by 10+ more than once are Pedro’s (2011) and Stephen Grutzik’s Pitches Be Trippin’ (2019), which is why he’s on the Cats’ side now.
    • The last time Sea Kittens were held scoreless for 5 consecutive innings in a game was June 8, 2016, in a upset loss to Infield Flies.  Like the 2021 squad, the 2016 team had a high octane offense that just went cold for a little bit. It happens.
    • Of the 82 total runs SK allowed this season, Silver Eagle scored 44
    • Of the 38 total runs Silver Eagle allowed in Summer 2021, Sea Kittens scored 16
    • Joe had walked 4 batters in 24 innings coming into the game, and walked 5 in 4 innings. It happens.
    • More tidbits to come in next week’s post, which will be a celebration of the fantastic 2021 Sea Kitten summer season.  WE GOT TO PLAY SOFTBALL!!!