Gnaturals Win Inaugural Game

New Lenox, IL - 1st game of the Fall league.  It was a warm night at The Field of Dreams.  The sky was pink with puffy gray clouds.  With the fresh scent of line chalk and bug spray in the air, the Gnaturals began the season scrambling early to assemble a full team for their inaugural game as a pesky insect. At the outset, Judson University Baseball standout, Wade Davis, was a post time scratch and was quickly replaced in the lineup by Thomas "Squints" Stapleton......and thus a star was born.

Last evening's opponents, the newly named Demon Deacons, followed suit of their rival in sporting a new title as they are formerly known as The Green Team.  The game started with the Gnats building a large lead on the strength of a nine run first inning.  In keeping old MB tradition, the Gnats offense stalled to let the Demons back into the game.  With the time limit looming from a slow game pace, the Gnats tacked on six runs in the 4th inning and added another in their last at-bat in the 5th to take a commanding lead.  The Deacons scored a couple of harmless runs in the bottom half of the 5th before the final out was sent up the elevator shaft and into the waiting glove of the newly acquired Gnat, Tom (or "Wade" as he is now called).  The final score of the opener was Gnaturals 17, Demon Deacons 10.  August 24th is a rare bye as nine teams are now in the Tuesday night league.  Next game is Tuesday, August 31st against the summer league champions, Tri-Star.  The two teams split the season series this past summer.

Noteables:

Two New - "Wade" was not the only person in the family making a debut on Tuesday.  His mother, Sue, wrote the first three sentences of this game review while the Gazette staff was setting up the GoPro.

1.000 - "Wade's" career fielding average with the late inning putout.

Five - 1st inning walks by Gnats batters.

Four - Hits in four at-bats for Koz.  

Kozleton - Koz made a running catch in the final inning with one out and threw a pellet to leton who couldn't find the bag to double up the runner.

One Man's Trash - The missed bag by Stapes set up the heroics of brother "Wade" to end the game.

Unsung Newbie - Andrew put in a solid performance three hits and a walk in four plate appearances for a total of three runs batted in.

Act Like You've Been There - Pratl played left field in place of El Capitan' and filled in quite well.  Sure, there were no hoppy catches or gratuitous dives but the job was workmanlike and efficient.

Rawhide - Rollin' rollin' rollin' in the dirt was Ken who made a valiant diving stop of a Demon ground ball. No out was recorded for the effort but Ken was able to record the look of a dusty rosin bag as a result.

Three - Victories for Ryno this year in three starts.

1.5% - Whitehouse drew his 3rd lifetime walk against the Demons in his 200th lifetime plate appearance.

Overheard - Gazette reporter to Ken; "Ken, you better get a runner for "Wade", he doesn't know the game.  Koz quickly interjected; "He matches the team profile.  He'll fit right in".

Pinball Wizard - Ryno hit a less than ankle-high fastball straight into the air to the Demon catcher, who dropped the 3rd strike foul ball.  How do you think he does it?

Feels Like the First Time - After the game, Jeff said that this was the first time he's ever struck out...in reference to his 3rd inning two-strike foul ball.   Cap'n Jack will have something to say about that if the mountain of facts that the scorebooks uncover say so.  Jack?

Warning Track Power - It was clear that Zlogar and Whitehouse were gunning for home runs.  both nearly succeed with Zlogar whacking a triple off the outfield fence in the final inning.  One at-bat later. Whitehouse hit one just as far but the beleaguered outfielder was already at the fence from the previous play to catch it for the out.

Two - RBI's that "Wade" got home in his four plate appearances.

One - The amount of lifetime baseball or softball games that "Wade" has played in.

Zero - Watts.  The newly installed scoreboard is fresh looking with pretty white paint and is as reliable as its predecessor.

Game Ball - "Wade"!!!