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Last updated
11-28-09 03:24 PM
 
Sandy's
Phil Hewett
732-925-7997
524 Linden Ave
Woodbridge, New Jersey
07095-3021
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Sunday, June 7
DELUXE BAKERY 15, SANDY’S 10
I was there; I saw with my own eyes as 9 of 12 guys who usually bat .700 or better managed just 10 runs and 17 hits in 7 innings of play. It happens. Sweet 50, probably the best 50+ major team on the east coast and one of the best nationally, managed to score just 6 runs in one of their games today. We started by scoring 5 runs after the first two batters made outs. Eddie, batting third, hit a solo HR. Tony singled. With Phil at the plate, Joe Massimino, the Deluxe 1B, told all to shift left because “Phil is a dead pull hitter”. A couple pitches later I drove a 1 bouncer right between his legs; ha! Usually a steady glove, Joe missed that one – out of shock, he said! John Kalan, Jay, John M and Jeff Conner followed with legitimate singles to get us 4 more runs. We held Deluxe to a single run. Tom led off the 2d with a single but a DP and strikeout – looking – put up a donut that Deluxe was kind enough to match. Russ got on in the third on another error at first (different player) but of the next four batters in the top of our lineup only Eddie managed a hit as we could plate but a single run. That was one more than Deluxe and we had a 6-1 lead, top of the 4th. But consider; just 6 runs in 3 innings! We had no killer instinct. Most of us were too anxious to wait on the ball and were making outs. Then in the 4th Jay got a hit and went to second on John’s single. Jay went about 4 steps off 2b, thinking about going to third but changed his mind and went back. He dropped his head and went back to second not looking. Their LC field saw his head go down and fired to an alert 2B who got the tag on Jay a half step before Jay got on base. On a day without scoring runs we had two other runners make outs because they failed to slide into bases. One overran the base and was tagged out, the other tried to run up to second straight up but had to slow down at the very end and was forced out. Sliding he would have beaten the throw by a couple feet. Huge mental errors on little league stuff. Anyway, after Jay made the 2d out a long fly to RC by Jeff Conner ended the inning. It should be noticed that the tournament balls were dead. That was a major impact to our team as we have so many power hitters with regular balls. Today the balls, Dudley Thunder Heats, were leftovers from last year and were soft. After a couple innings balls were not even reaching the fences. Deluxe finally capitalized on our scoring problems, plating 4 in the bottom of the 4th. We got 2 back in the 5th on Russ’ 2-run double but we had lost the momentum. In the next 2 innings we would become throwing and catching challenged, giving Deluxe a total of 11 outs when they should only have had 6. In the process they scored 10 runs. In between we managed a donut as Tony made his SECOND out in a game (doesn’t happen too often – it is worth noting) and John K smacked a hard grounder directly to the shortstop who converted the DP himself. Now losing 15-8 as we came into the open 7th we got 3 straight singles before petering out with consecutive outs to lose 15-10. Jeff Conner pitched and, to his credit, Jeff did not take out an Uzi and spray the defenders for their lapses in the 5th and 6th. To get all involved he’d have shot 6-7 players! He pitched well enough to win, permitting no more than 7 earned runs.
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