by Pete

The Beat Walks to 19-11 win 14 of 17 walks score against 3 wild Loose Cannon pitchers; 6 clutch hits and 2 sacrifice flies plate 14 of 19 runs; O’Brien and defense sharp

The Beat increased its undefeated summer season record to 5-0 and its magic number to 1 in a 19-11 romp over the Loose Cannons at Jackson #1 on September 7. With a game plan focused on patience due to demonstrated Cannons’ wildness in its past 3 meetings since the spring season, the Beatniks exhibited maturity in not giving in to swinging at bad pitches as a DD-team might have done.

2002 Summer Standings through September 7, 2002 Team W L T PCT Pts GB The BEAT 5 0 0 1.000 10 – The Other Guys 2 2 0 .500 4 2.5 Loose Cannons 2 3 0 .400 4 3 Rhinos 2 3 0 .400 4 3 Nine Inch Snails 1 4 0 .200 2 4

Despite the monotony of repeated bases on balls and only 6 hits by the victorious Beat, the game contained some revealing moments for the C-6 division leaders. All of the hits proved timely and the Beat pitching and defense were once again efficient in getting key outs when needed. For the 3rd time this summer, a Beat pitcher was awarded the game ball--this one went to Dennis (OB) O’Brien. The Beat added a win built on a regimen of plate discipline to a whatever-it-takes collection of slugfests (against the Loose Cannons and Nine Inch Snails in games 1 and 4) and defensive battles (vs. the Other Guys in game 2 and the Rhinos in game 3.) The latest Beat victory upped the team’s division lead to 2 ˝ games with 3 left to play and set up another meaningful showdown with the Other Guys almost 1 year to the day after the Beat parlayed a 5-2 win over the OGs to its 1st C-league division title in September, 2001.

It looked competitive early

The free-swinging Loose Cannons built a 3-0 1st inning lead against the division leaders. Following a pair of singles with one out, the cleanup hitter Hung Luong hit a routine looking fly that fell in between Jacque and Jacq Wilson in right-center field leading to 2 runs. A sacrifice fly by David Yeung made 3-0. Two more singles and an infield error loaded the bases before OB got Raymond Chan to fly out to Jacque to end the threat.

Leading off the bottom of the 1st, Jacq Wilson, Kevin Austin (starting 2nd base) and Mark St. Georges waited out starting pitcher Kenneth Wu for 3 straight walks to load the bases. Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody cranked a deep fly to right center that easily scored Jacq the Rock and advanced Special K to 3rd. Jim (the Thrill) Colletto followed with another deep fly that scored Austin and moved MSG into scoring position. Jacque added a clutch single to plate MSG and tie the score at 3-3. Over the past 2 years, The Beat is now 11-1 in games in which the 1st inning ends with them either tied or in the lead.

After OB got 2 quick outs to start the 2nd, 2-hitter Wayne Lok doubled and Danny Lam cracked a 2-run inside the park homer to make it 5-3. Luong ended the inning by popping to Moody on a troublesome pop foul that Big Daddy momentarily lost in the sun. That was the last lead the Loose Cannons would have over The Beat in game 5 of the summer.

In the bottom of the 2nd, no less than 3 Cannons’ pitchers walked in 3 straight runs with the bases loaded before Donnell hit his 2nd straight sac fly to make it 7-5 Beat. Another walk to Colletto and an RBI-single by Jacque made it 8-5 before Steve Hinkebein blooped a big 2-out, 2-run single to open up the Beat lead to 10-5, which is where the inning ended. That round number seemed to make a psychological difference to both teams.

OB pitched a scoreless 3rd aided by a diving catch by Jacq in short right field to start the inning. A strikeout of Raymond Seto and a Wu fielders’ choice to Brain Arcuri at shortstop erased a 1-out single by Edmund Wong.

Beatniks blow it open

The manager had a big decision to make in the bottom of the 3rd regarding the lineup and a possible pitching change. OB was undoubtedly cruising, but it was 45 minutes into a 70-minute game and the Cannons had demonstrated offensive explosiveness having scored 25 and 16 runs respectively against the Rhinos and 9-Inch Snails. Javier Urdiales was waiting in the wings with a loud rally tom-tom and a hot bat coming off a key pinch hit in week 4.

Once again, the walks continued with consecutive lead-off walks to Wenner (who yanked himself for a pinch runner) and Lukoski. At this point, Wenner announced Jav to the home plate blue to bat for OB. Working the count to 3-2, Jav tomahawked a double down the left-field line to make it 11-5. Another walk to Jacq before Kevin lined a 2-run single to increase the lead to 13-5. After a succession of walks and 2 fielders’ choices, Arcuri and Wenner logged back-to-back 2-RBI hits to blow the game open at 19-5.

Wholesale changes were made on the infield in the top of the 4th as Big Daddy moved from 1st to 3rd and MSG from 3rd to 2nd. Javier went behind the plate and for the first time since the spring due to a foot injury, Greg Lukoski was placed in left. Jim Colletto moved to 1st base. Kevin Austin came in to pitch and was touched for 3 runs on a 2-run triple by Lok down the right field line and a RBI-single by Lam. But Kev induced Hung Luong to fly out to right center and struck out Fung to end the inning at 19-8.

The Beat failed to score in the 4th to set up what little drama there would be in the game with time running out.

Wong led off with a single, but Seto lined to Colletto for the 1st out. Kenneth Wu hit a hard grounder up the middle but miraculously, MSG snagged the ball toward the hole and flipped to Arcuri for the 2nd out. It was a big play.

Chan and Harrison Che followed with run scoring hits and both moved into scoring position as Jacque just missed getting Wu at the plate on a hard throw that got past Javier. The leadoff hitter Brett Dyer then scorched another single to right center that scored Chan and Che. Jacque heaved an accurate throw to the plate that Kevin cut off and flipped off balance to the charging Brian Arcuri at second as Dyer got caught up halfway between 1st and 2nd. Brian gunned a throw to Jim at 1st, where the tag was applied for the final out. The Beat breathed a collective sigh of relief and marched off with its 6th straight victory and 3rd over the Loose Cannons since May 18th. 

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