An 8-game season gives teams little room for error. Having been humiliated 15-10 in its August 5th opener with Nicoya in a game in which the score was never close, The Beat perched on the precipice of another potential early season disaster Saturday afternoon at Jackson #1. In fact, the opponent was the same team that helped ruin its 1999 summer season.

Down 9-3 in the 2nd inning to surprise C-7 leaders Cafe Mars (2-0), starting pitcher Kevin Austin hunkered down and The Beat rediscovered the outfield rover to hold Mars' offense quiet for the final 4 frames. Meanwhile, the persistent Beat offense took advantage of 6 walks off Mars pitcher Dan O'Donnel and 5 errors by shortstop Mike Riter to chip back until the fateful 5-run 5th when it finally took control of the game.

The key to victory was adjustment. The Beat acclimated themselves to a shrunken strike zone by an unknown ump playing God and essentially outsmarted Mars, which never adjusted.

It was perhaps a season saving game. If The Beat, picked by many as a pre-season division favorite, had lost as it looked early, they wouldn't have necessarily been out of it, but it would've been difficult to overcome the psychological barrier of coming back from an 0-2 hole. To heighten the suspense, the division race was wide open. entering the game, each team in the division had sustained a loss including strong competition Nicoya and Renegades (formerly the Hit Men), which had earlier that day slipped to a 1-1-1 record courtesy of a 12-12 tie with the last place Other Guys. All The Beat needed to do was take down Mars, which it had dominated in the spring, to bring the upstart division leaders back to the pack. It wouldn't be easy.

Somewhere on The Beat bench between innings, a frustrated player was overheard to quip that "the ump's strike zone is as small as his dick!"

Indeed, both teams struggled with the unknown ump's miniscule zone and had to groove the ball. In the later innings, Martian batters flailed at Austin's junk and popped out repeatedly as the Beatniks waited out the rattled O'Donnel. Timely hits from Kev and "Cottonmouth King" Mark St. Georges, who had been moved to the top of the order in a controversial lineup rejiggering, punctuated the walks and errors. All in all, The Beat scored 13 runs despite only 8 hits as the middle of the order-Dave Maxion, Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto-uncharacteristically went a combined 1 for 8. Overcoming such obstacles underscored a significant gut check for the hometeam Beat at their charmed venue at Jackson #1 with the wind swirling out to right field.

From the outset, it appeared that Mars would finally solve Austin, who had previously owned them with a 4-0 record and 4.25 ERA. A barrage of singles and a booming triple to right by slugger Dave Lillianstein vaulted Mars to a 3-0 lead before The Beat came to bat.

As part of a reshuffled lineup front-loaded by Beat manager Pete Wenner with hot hitters to score early and often, Austin and St. Georges led off the bottom of the 1st with singles to put runners at 1st and 2nd. Dave Maxion reached on a fielders' choice to put runners at 1st and 3rd and Austin scored the Beat's 1st run on a Moody sac fly. Jim Colletto followed with a tough, booming fly into the wind tunnel in right center that crossed up rover Rodney Brooks and bounced off his glove for an RBI triple. Gunnar, hitting in a surprise appearance in the 6-spot, blooped a trademark single the opposite way into right to tie the score before Brian Arcuri flied to deep left.

In the top of the 2nd, Mars looked poised to blow the game wide open against Austin. It looked depressingly like deja vu in view of the fact that Kev had fallen behind 8-1 in the 2nd the previous week against Nicoya. Six singles sandwiched around a walk made it 8-3 Mars with none out. At that point Gunnar turned to Wenner and suggested moving Pizza Man into the rover position in short right center to attempt the force at 2nd on a single. It was a fine piece of field-generalship by the scrappy catcher, who has a penchant for seeing the whole field as his job description entails. The manager quickly reacted and motioned Weiss into short right center. The crowd could sense the Mars hitters salivating as they looked to hammer the ball over Pizza's head. Thereupon, Desmond and Brooks (Sacrifice) flied consecutively to BJ Bateman in right and Colletto in left center to make it 9-3. Mars proceeded to mount another threat with runners at 1st and 2nd and 2 outs before the 10-hitter Liberatore flied to the medium-deep Pizza Man to end the threat.

Unlike the Nicoya game in which The Beat became quiet and despondent following the fateful 2nd inning, the boys in gray (and yellow in Gunnar's case) came off the field ready to rally back. Greg (Luki) Lukoski, who had surprised the club by appearing when he had expected to miss the game, led off the bottom of the 2nd with a scorching grounder that the shortstop Riter couldn't handle. BJ rolled a grounder up the 2nd baseman Bork's arm to put runners at 1st and 2nd before Weiss walked to load the bases. Rookie EP Javier Urdiales followed by waiting out O'Donnel for a 4-pitch walk to force in the 4th run. An Austin sac fly and Maxion RBI ground out drew the Beat closer at 9-6 before Big Daddy flied deep to right center to end it.

In the top of the third, Special K settled into a groove. Kev walked a batter, but induced outs on fly balls to BJ in right and a sharp grounder up the middle that the pitcher himself speared and threw to the big man at 1st. The Beat chipped back with a run in their half of the 3rd on another Riter miscue, this time an overthrow past 1st on an attempted double play grounder by Lukoski. But the Beatniks again stranded 2 runners and were down 9-7 going into the 4th.

After Austin retired the side in order in the 4th, The Beat smelled Martian blood-that is, if Martians actually bleed.

Weiss reached on yet another error by the hapless Riter. Javier walked and Austin singled before MSG, with a full-throated tennis-player's grunt, lined an opposite-field single to right which fooled the right fielder Liberatore. Pizza Man scored, as did Javier as the ball scooted past the errant outfielder. Tie score.

The Beat went ahead 12-9 on two more boots by Riter at shortstop and a Colletto sac fly. Cafe Mars looked stunned as The Cottonmouth King raged loudly on the Beat bench in "in-your-face style" after scoring on one of the Riter miscues. With Austin dealing, it was lights out in the top of the fifth despite a brief 1-out 1st and 2nd threat. The Beat tacked on an insurance run in the home half of the 5th on an Austin RBI single to score Bateman.

With 4 minutes left, Mars was still alive with the meat of the lineup coming up. The number-3 hitter Lillianstein started by grounding sharply to Moody who took it to the bag himself. After a Stan Fukuda single, O'Donnel and Desmond took aim at the Beat rover two last times, but flied out to the sure-handed BJ in right to end it.

The Beat had won a gut-wrenching thriller by pulling itself off the deck and playing smart softball. Although Austin was awarded the game ball for outstanding efforts on the mound and at the plate (3-3, 2 runs, 2 rbis), it was a total team victory highlighted by executed fundamentals that the team had failed to perform in week 1 against Nicoya-pitching, defense, speed and timely hitting. This was Beat softball at its finest.

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