by Pete

The Beat Gets Well On Mars Offense returns in 18-8 rout. Bottom half of the lineup breaks out.

Coming off a tough 7-5 loss to first place Nicoya, the Beat summer season seemed destined to spiral out of control in week 6. Absences multiplied in the two days before gametime. Big names like Donnell "Big Daddy" Moody, Greg "Lukie" Lukoski, Gunnar Rosenquist, Dan Romero and Dennis "OB" O'Brien numbered among the missing. Sensing crisis, Mark "MSG" St. Georges volunteered to drive back from Stockton to make the game in order to avoid a forfeit. An anemic summer offensive attack seemed all but grounded before the game even started.

But team Cafe Mars has proven to be good tonic for the Beatniks over the course of the 2000 season. Riding 4 straight victories over the Martians going back to last summer, there couldn't have been a better opponent for the undermanned Beat squad. As it turned out, several previously slumbering bats up and down the order came alive--especially in the latter half--to propel the resurgent Beat offense. Mike "Pizza Man" Weiss won the game ball with a 4-hit, 3-run, 2 RBI game. BJ Bateman and Jim "The Thrill" Colletto both knocked in 3 runs apiece. Kevin Austin also went 4 for 4 with a double and RBI. Thomas Claude "TC" Wright made his first Beat appearance in over 2 years at catcher and chipped in a 2 for 4, 1 RBI day as did birthday-boy manager Pete Wenner.

It was hot and arid at Jackson #2 at 10am when the two teams took the field. It only got hotter as the game went on. With all the times around the bases, Beat pitcher Austin and the defense should have gotten worn down in the heat, but the combination was deadly to the struggling Martian bats. Kevin once again kept the opposition under 10 runs and the up-the-middle defense of Dave Maxion at shortstop, Brian Arcuri at second, Pizza Man in left center and Jim in right center locked the door repeatedly on potential Mars rallies.

As the visiting team, The Beat struck 1st for 3 runs in the top of the opening frame. Brian started the game with a single and moved to 3rd on Kevin's hit. MSG then lined a hard shot at the 2nd baseman who caught Kev leaning off 1st for a double play. Alertly, Brian inched down the 3rd base line and scored as the 1st baseman froze after the play. With 2 outs, Max singled and Jim reached on an error by the 2nd baseman. Batting 6th for the first time this season, Pizza Man drove in Max with a hard single up the middle and JC scored the 3rd run as Mars threw the ball around.

The Martians chipped back for a run in the bottom of the 1st before the Beat went down in order in the top of the 2nd. Kevin shut down a Mars threat in the home half of the 2nd to keep the margin at 3-1 with the help of Pizza Man's throw to 3rd to nail Rodney Brooks trying to advance to third on a single by Gysels.

Then the Beatniks struck big in the 3rd. Austin led off with a looping opposite field shot down the right field line, which bounced out of play for a ground rule double. The Cottonmouth King plated Kev with an RBI single. Max followed with a single and moved to 2nd on the rover's throwing error as St.Georges scored the 5th run. The Mars defense proceeded at that point to fall apart as it had in the teams' earlier summer matchup.

Colletto singled to drive in Maxion and advanced to second on a throwing error. Pizza Man moved Jim to 3rd with his 2nd hit of the game and scooted to 2nd himself on yet another errant throw. BJ drove in Jim with a sac fly and Wenner drove in the fleet Weiss to make it 8-1. Rookie Javier Urdiales, playing right field for the first time in black & gray, singled and TC Wright drove home BJ, who was pinch-running for the 43-year-old manager to up the score to 9-1. Kevin cashed in Jav with his 2nd hit of the inning to make it 10-1 before MSG grounded into a fielders' choice to end it.

Mars came back with 5 runs of their own in the bottom of the 3rd to make it a game at 10-6, but The Beat tacked on 3 runs in the 4th and 5 in the 5th to put the game out of reach. The solid Beat defense, which had kept the team in the Nicoya game with 2 consecutive plays at the plate, rose to the occasion once again as Arcuri and Maxion formed a vice grip on hard hit grounders. The outfield combination of Bateman, Weiss, Colletto and Urdiales was also flawless.

The game evened The Beat’s record at 3-3 as the team dedicated itself to a winning summer absent a shot at the title which seemed all but doomed after the heartbreaking defeat by Nicoya on September 9. The Beatniks look forward to evening a score with the upstart Other Guys, who stunned the boys in gray with a 12-10 victory on August 19.

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