Another Day in Paradise

 


New Lenox, IL - There have been some interesting games played at the Lions Den over the years but likely none more bizarre than the tilt between High Voltage and Paradise Bay on Tuesday evening.  The two highest scoring teams in the league heading into the game could only muster a total of 19 runs in 10 innings of play.  The league apparently has play until someone wins clause or this game would have ended in a tie after 8 innings with the score tied at 8.  The Volts took a quick 4-0 lead and held that advantage until adding a run in the 3rd inning to go up by five.  PB scored their first run on a solo homerun to cut the lead to 5-1 after three innings. The Volts went scoreless in the 4th while PB cut the lead to 5-3 on shortstop Moron's homerun.  The Volts scored twice in the 5th to reassert their lead at 7-3 only to have PB come back and tie the game at 7 with a Martin blast over the left-center field fence.  PB was out of homeruns and the Volts had yet to hit one of their own, so the future looked bright.  After both teams went scoreless in the 6th inning, Noah led off the 7th with a towering homerun to left-center that barely beat the jetstream racing in all evening. The Volts had a chance to nail down the win in the bottom of the 7th inning by retiring the first two batters until Jerry Bats singled to extend the game and was followed with a two out Troy RBI to tie the game.   With the game in the balance, Ryno got Martin to pop out to right field to send the game to extras.  Both teams went scoreless in the 8th with PB making some noise by putting runners on first and second with one out only to end the rally with a homerun out and a fielders choice.  The Volts once again took the lead by scoring a run in the top half of the 9th inning.  PB led off the inning with a single and pushed a run across with one out to tie the game. With runners on first and second and two outs, Ryno intentionally walked a guy called Tony to put the winning run on third for Moron.  An overexcited Moron quickly chopped a grounder to third for Noah to make the scoop and end the inning by stepping on the bag for a force out.  The Volts could not score in their half of the 10th inning and would eventually lose when PB strung together a couple of walks and a game winning single by Kramer.  Both teams are now tied with a 4-3 record and seem destined to meet in the playoffs as is the usual for both these teams.  High Voltage has a bye next week and returns to action on July 9th at 6:30PM against the Scrappers.  It's Bring Old Fireworks to the Game Night.  Bring in all of your used up fireworks and admission is free.

Noteables:

Quote of the Night - Dave Sutor after the last out was made; "What they need to do to win the game is hit more balls in the air.  That's it.  More balls in the air.  They didn't do that enough".

Pissed Off - This young fan looks on in disdain as the Volts go on to lose against the unlikeable Paradise Bay.  When asked what he thought of the Volts performance, Chuckie shot back; "I could have gotten on base tonight.  These guys bore me".










Gamesmanship - The ball got rolling early when the Volts took the first base dugout at the start of the evening.  The third base dugout was a watery and muddy mess.  The Gazette has not seen a rivalry like this since The Battle of Pulaski when the Wolniak Wonders played the Modell Marauders regularly at Strohacker Park in the 80's. Good luck untangling that one.







Zstrodamus - Zlogar hands in the sign up sheet and is seen telling the park district worker; "Hey we are going to play 10 innings tonight and pop out 18 times.  We are going to hit into a double play and strike out once.  Maybe two guys will barrel line drive outs but the other seven outs will be grounders.  Also, Paradise Bay is going to do what they always do...............hit at least 6 home runs.  You think we got a chance?".







Outfanned - Volts lost the game and the Volt fans lost the count as Paradise Bay faithful came out in numbers and volume.  There was a lot of hooting and hollering from the other side of the diamond.










 
New Recruits - Even the Frat Boys from Frankfort tried to help out the High Voltage crowd number by standing in support with the usual suspects of loyal fans.











Hello!!! - Chuckie continues his unhappiness and his pleas fall on deaf and laughing ears as he shouted; "I want my money back.  This team is garbage.  I want that hour and twenty minutes of my life back".



















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

High Voltage Summer 2024 Champions!

Image
  New Lenox, IL - It's been a long time coming for the team that started in this league in 2015.  Dozens of players and non-players who were called into action have taken at-bats for the Master Batters, Gnaturals, and High Voltage. Last night was the night that everything came together and High Voltage got over the hump to win its first championship in the team's 19th season. The first game of the evening pitted the #3 seeded Volts against last year's Summer League champions #2 seeded Chuck's.  The game was nip and tuck all game long until Chuck's rolled a five-spot in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 15-12 lead over the Volts.  High Voltage has seen this movie many times in the past and has gone out quietly to end the season without ever having gotten a chance to play in the finals.  This year seemed no exception with the Volts making two outs in the first three batters in the top of their final inning.  The tide changed with a runner on first whe...
Read more

Dog Days of Summer

Image
  New Lenox, IL -  Some rando thoughts on things in no particular order.  Thanks to Jack for the title. By The Numbers - High Voltage was the class of the field heading into the playoffs but bad luck or fate had the team finishing in third place during the regular season.  Everything panned out like it should by the numbers except the Ivy win over BJ.  It does make sense when we all know, if you've ever read a playoff edition of the Gazette, that BJ struggles in its first playoff game.  Don't know why that is but they've underperformed their record nearly every "first playoff game" and in fact have lost some upsets in the process.  HV ended up with the most wins at 10, tied for the least losses at 3,best winning percentage at .769, most runs scored per game 15.31, and fewest runs allowed per game 7.77.  Folks, when you are statistically ahead at the end of the year in each category, you should be holding the championship trophy,  In this cas...
Read more

Volts Slice Up Beggars

Image
New Lenox, IL - The first round of the playoffs saw High Voltage taking on Beggars in a rematch of last week's game that ended with the Volts winning a 13-3 run rule shortened game. The weather was hot and emotions were high on "Pink Out" night in support of the real captain of the Schoenhofen ship, Kathy.  Beggars started out the game auspiciously with a leadoff walk but the Volt defense, which has been the stingiest unit in the Summer league, continued its brilliance with a nifty fielders choice to record the first out of the game and snuffed out the inning with a 5-6-3 double play.  High Voltage started the scoring when Stapes knocked in Jay on a SAC fly, and was followed by a Sutes solo homerun to cap off the inning ahead 2-0.  Beggars clawed back into the game by scoring two runs in their half of the second inning.  Volts came roaring back when Jake led off the bottom of the inning with a legged out double and was knocked home on a Noah triple.  Jeff follo...
Read more