by Pete

The Beat Romps in Spring Opener 9-run outburst in 4th keys 16-8 win over Joey J's

The script couldn’t have been better for an opening day that had been delayed for a week by rain. A hot, sunny, 12.30pm start-time at Jackson #1 with surprisingly little wind. A matchup between the two defending summer Saturday C-league division champs in a newly consolidated division. All the elements were set for a closely fought battle between two defensively oriented teams whose only experience together had been a tense 8-5 Joey’s victory in the spring of 2001.

Then reality intervened.

It was indeed close for half the game as the J's parlayed three 1st inning Beatnik errors into 4 quick runs and The Beat answered back with three tallies of their own sparked by a leadoff Gunnar Rosenquist home run to left field. The Joey’s leftfielder was thoroughly flummoxed by Gunnar’s deep fly, which he initially broke in on, then retreated back too late as the ball rolled past the foul line on Jackson #2.

It was 7-3 Joey's in the bottom of the 3rd before the boys in gray rallied back to make it 7-6 on a two-run homer by Jacque Wilson with Gunnar on, a double by Mark (The Cottonmouth King) St. Georges, and a RBI single by Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody.

Dennis (OB) O’Brien, who like the proverbial Puxautanny Phil, walked on from a long Winter’s nap to relieve Kevin (Special K) Austin in the top of the 3rd with Joey's up 6-3 and get the win, held the Js to a single run in the middle innings as The Beat stormed ahead 15-7 in the home half of the 4th. In dramatic fashion, all of the damage started with 2 outs.

With Brian Arcuri on 3rd, Mike (Pizza Man) Weiss lined a clutch single into center to tie the score at 7-7. The sure-handed shortstop had made a diving stop of a grounder up the middle in the 1st with two runners on that could have possibly blown open the game with Joey’s already up 4-0. No word yet from Austin on when Pizza will get his Rolex watch for keeping the game close.

With Weiss on 1st , Joey’s defense came unraveled and the hit parade began. Gunnar reached on a boot by the 3rd baseman before the left-center fielder overthrew the ball on Jacque’s double to clear the bases and make it 9-7 Beat. Ironically, a good throw would have had Rosenquist for the 3rd out on a bang-bang play. The flood gates then opened as MSG, Big Daddy, Jim (The Thrill) Colletto and Jacq Wilson followed with singles before outfielder Steve Hinkebein doubled, Arcuri singled and Bob (BJ) Bateman reached on a throwing error. When the dust cleared, The Beat had a commanding lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

Kevin, who re-entered to bat for OB in the 4th inning uprising, came on for the final 3 innings to close out the win.

Offensive stars included Gunnar, who won the game ball by going 3 for 4 with a home run, RBI and 3 runs scored, Big Daddy (4 for 4, triple, 3 RBIs and a run), Jacque (2 for 3, home run, double, walk, 3 RBIs and 3 runs), MSG (2 for 3, double, 3 runs) and Brian (3 for 4, RBI, 1 run).

Following the game and the awarding of the game ball, Gunnar told his brethren, “We’ve got the best talent in the league. I want to end this with not only another division championship, but a city (C-league) title as well.” Indeed, the Beat took a strong first step toward fulfilling the lofty goal of The Splendid Stump, continuing their winning ways which started with a summer tournament win in 2001, a summer division title and a tie (as the SF Park Ratts) for the Mission Delores division title in the Winter League under the leadership of Greg (Luki) Lukoski.

Sixteen years and the Beat still goes on…..Tune in next Saturday for another tough challenge from long-time nemesis, The Other Guys at 3pm, Jackson #1.

See the scoresheet in pdf (289k) or
On The BEAT News Archive

---

Please send your comments to: TheBeat@Sonic.net