by Pete

The Beat Runs All Over Ronin 18-7, Takes First Place With slugging percentage down, Beatniks rely on singles, speed and opportunism to crush Ronin; Team advances to 4-1 on season and ½ game lead over Ronin; season series now even; Pitching and defense stellar

The Beat players didn’t openly talk much about its 11-8 opening season loss to Ronin, but ever since, anticipation of the rematch on April 26 loomed largely in their collective mindset as the team crossed the season midpoint. Players and management discussed it in cyberspace. But rather than falling into the kind of identity crisis and collapse the reigning division champs experienced in the spring of 2002 after a tough early loss to The Other Guys, this year’s model is different. By reeling off three straight wins over Finnegans (10-6), Straight out of the Hood (8-5) and the Rhinos (18-9) following the Ronin loss, The Beat built considerable momentum before the return engagement. With Ronin at 3-0 coming off a big win over Straight Out of the Hood and a half game ahead, this game was billed by some wags as a marquee match up.

For The Beat, the question remained as to whether or not the season would, for all intents and purposes, end early. Two defeats by a first place Ronin might well have been the final nail in the coffin with only 3 games left on the schedule. Thus is the curse of an 8-game season. But by evening the season series and barring a total collapse, The Beat heightened the probability of an exciting pennant race with Ronin for the rest of the spring.

In moving to 4-1, The Beat appears to be on a roll having now won 13 of their last 14 regular season games dating back to May 18, 2002.

Jacq Wilson went 4 for 5 against Ronin and made a great diving catch in right center field in the 3rd inning with a 7-2 Beat lead. Jacq’s grab, which was reminiscent of Ron Swoboda’s memorable horizontal catch in the 1969 World Series, easily ranks among the most dazzling in Beat history and set the tone for the game. "From the first moment it was hit, I knew that I was going to have to go all out to catch it," said Jacq. "When the ball landed safely in my glove it was such a good feeling. For one more day, my youth was preserved." Jacq was awarded the game ball in the post game festivities. Rookie Armando (Don’t call me A-Lo) Lopez was another offensive catalyst going 4 for 4 with 3 runs scored and 2 RBIs the week after winning his first game ball as a Beatnik in the big victory over the Rhinos. Mark (MSG) St. Georges was 3 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

Regardless of the welcome second straight week of prolific offense, the Beat pitching and defense was key to the game, as predicted. Kevin (Special K) Austin continued to build on a strong spring performance (4-1, 5.60 ERA) by allowing only 2 earned runs and spaced out 12 hits and a walk in 5 innings for the win. Austin was relieved by the ever-wily Dennis (OB) O’Brien who put in 2 innings of work after a 3-week layoff (including bye).

Despite 5 errors, the boys in gray were able to maintain composure and minimize the damage of big innings. The fact that Jacq the Rock and Mondo both laid their bodies on the line with spectacular diving catches early in the game must’ve had the Ronin batters scratching their heads at what they’d have to do to get hits. In fact, it’s been like that for the past 3 games as the Wilson brothers Jacq and Jacque, Armando and Jim (The Thrill) Colletto have formed a brick wall in the outfield.

2003 Spring Standings Team W L PCT Pts GB The BEAT 4 1 .800 8 – Ronin 3 1 .750 6 .5 The Hood 2 2 .500 4 1.5 Finnegans 1 3 .250 2 2.5 Rhinos 0 3 .000 0 3

What happened to the wind?
The Beat was the visiting team on Jackson #2 with its notorious launching pad effect to left stilled by a mild breeze blowing in toward home plate. A 2-on, 2-out threat by the Beat in the 1st was wiped out when Ronin hurler Archer Eller induced cleanup hitter Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and JC to fly out. Ronin capitalized on 2 infield errors in their half of the first to take a 1-0 lead. Fabled cleanup hitter Joe Tang followed one infield miscue by doubling deep to right over Colletto to plate an unearned run. With Brady Muir on 2nd courtesy of the second error, Joe Monteleone scalded a hard grounder off Austin’s glove that bounced in the direction of Donnell. Austin, who suffered a deep thigh bruise from a line drive the previous week, got to the ball in time to flip to Donnell for the final out, but strained the thigh in the process. “I was in a pain haze for the rest of the game because I had to push off of that leg on every pitch,” said Kev after the game. “I'm having trouble remembering what happened in the game, but I know I had fun.” Apparently so did everybody else on The Beat including the manager’s parents Bill and Lila Wenner, who came all the way from Western Maryland for the game.

The Beat scored 3 runs in the top of the 2nd on singles by Mondo, Greg (Luki) Lukoski, Kevin and Jacq to make it 3-1. Ronin managed a run on 3 singles in their half of the 2nd but could have had more if not for the death-defying catches by Lopez and Wilson. Keeping Ronin from big innings in the 1st and 2nd turned the game their way.

The gray and black broke it open in the 3rd on singles by MSG, Colletto, Mondo and Mike (Butts) Buttafuso. A bizarre turn of events on the throw in from right field on Butts’s hit led to 3 runs to increase the Beat lead to 7-2. With runners on first and second, the rover “Won’t you come home” Bill Bailey bobbled Buttsy’s single allowing him to advance to 2nd base. The relay throw somehow got by the shortstop Michael Conlan and died on the infield. Nobody rushed to pick it up. Seeing this, Lopez alertly ran home and as Butts approached 3rd base, Wenner waved him home to score ahead of the throw. Although this is the “official” sequence of events, nobody including this writer can recall for sure what really happened.

Bolstered by a 5-run lead, Special K started to cruise holding Ronin scoreless on 1 hit in the 3rd. But as it had done in previous weeks, The Beat offense stalled in the 4th on 3 infield groundouts. Ronin made it 7-3 in the 4th as Kevin managed to pitch around the 3rd infield error.

Don’t make that 3rd out
Perhaps inspired by the new rule that the maker of the 3rd out in the 5th has to buy the beer for the following game, The Beat put it away for all intents and purposes in the 5th when it scored 5 runs on 2 walks and 4 singles including 2-run hits by Luki and Austin to make it 12-3 (for the record, yours truly made the 3rd out in the 5th). Ronin closed to 12-5 in the home half of the 5th to end Austin’s day, but the Beatniks scratched out 3 more runs to make it 15-5 in the 6th on RBI singles by Big Daddy, Jethro (JC) and Butts. Brian (The Rifleman) Arcuri bailed OB out of the 6th with a runner on by making a heads up flip to 2nd for the final out of the inning.

Down 18-5 in the 7th, Ronin mounted a final threat with 4 consecutive singles to open the inning. But MSG played the pivot man on all 3 outs to get OB out of the jam and preserve the 18-7 victory.

As the boys in gray repaired to the sidelines to sip post game beers courtesy of Jacque Wilson, the 5th inning Rhinos’ game outmaking culprit, the team watched Straight out of the Hood (2-2) rally to defeat its next opponent Finnegans Wake in a thrilling 13-12 comeback win. With a well-deserved week off from practice, The Beat hopes to keep the Rain Gods at bay next Saturday and meet 1-3 Finnegans at 3pm on Jackson #1.

See the scoresheet in pdf (450k) or
On The BEAT News Archive

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