by Pete

The Beat Downs Finnegan's 9-6 in Windy Holiday Make-up Game Team overcomes absences of key players to stay in first; 6th consecutive win raises Beat record to 6-1; Ronin game mystery probed.

The Beat averted the latest Memorial Day makeup game scheduling fiasco by surviving a feverish comeback by Finnegan’s which brought the tying run to the plate with 2 out in the top of the 7th inning. With the Beatniks having dominated up until that point, feisty Finnegan’s took advantage of the makeshift Beat defense to close to within 3 runs with 2 runners aboard courtesy of veteran Pete Wenner’s dropped throw at 1st base. That should have been the final out of the afternoon. Undaunted, pitcher Kevin (Special K) Austin, who spun his 2nd straight 6-hit masterpiece and held Finnegan’s to 1 earned run and a .198 team batting average, kept his poise and retired cleanup hitter Trevor Williams on a grounder to 2nd baseman Mike (Butts) Buttafuso to finally end the windswept game.

In a contest that ended closer than it should have, the boys in gray remained in first place by an unknown margin as the Ronin/Rhinos game, which had been re-scheduled for 10am that day, mysteriously didn’t happen. At the end of the afternoon, no one in the Jackson front office could explain why.

2003 Spring Standings Team W L PCT Pts GB The BEAT 6 1 .857 12 – Ronin 4 1 .800 8 1 The Hood 3 3 .500 6 2.5 Finnegans 2 5 .286 4 4 Rhinos 0 5 .000 0 5

The Memorial Day weekend scramble
After being notified in mid-month that the May 3rd rainout would be played with as many as 5 Beat regulars on pre-arranged holidays (Jacque Wilson graciously changed his plans), management spent the better part of last week scuffling to ensure it had a competitive team on the field. With the Beatniks facing a late afternoon tilt in the usual windy Arctic conditions, outfield defense was the primary concern, especially after Mark Briscoe injured his knee in a household accident on May 16th and was restricted to designated hitter.

With regulars Jacq Wilson, Mark (MSG) St. Georges, Armando Lopez, Greg (Luki) Lukoski, and veteran reliever Dennis (OB) O’Brien all out, it was back to the future on The Beat infield with Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody at 3rd base and Manager and EP Pete Wenner at the other corner. Wenner (2 for 3, double, 2 runs scored by courtesy runners) filled in capably for Mark (MSG) St. Georges in the #3 spot in the order.

Patience and poise were the keys to the latest Beat win, its 15th in the last 16 regular season games. The team drew 5 walks, of which 2 eventually crossed the plate. In scattering 6 hits and allowing just 1 free pass, Austin overcame 7 Beat errors as Finnegan’s stranded 8 runners overall. The latest reincarnation of Larry (Steve) Avery, a speedster with Wilson-like speed, created the biggest buzz as he sparked the Beat offense with a 2-run home run and a solid 2 for 3 day. Big Daddy went 3 for 3 with 2 rbis and Jacque Wilson, subbing for his brother in the leadoff spot was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored and an RBI.

The first 6 innings were a breeze
The boys in gray sprinted out to a 9-2 lead after 4 innings, but stopped hitting for the latter part of the game against Finnegan’s starter Steve DeLuco, who had faltered in the late innings the previous week in a bitter 10-9 comeback loss to 2nd place Ronin. With Finnegan’s having blown leads of 8-1 and 9-5 against Ronin last week, The Beat anticipated a demoralized opponent and appeared to have been correct in the early going. However, Finnegan’s would come back from the dead in the 7th and try to do the same thing to The Beat that Ronin had done to them.

Finnegan’s struck first in the opening frame taking a 1-0 lead as Williams’s fielder’s choice brought home the 1st run of the game after 2 errors on grounders by Chris Conway and Ken Murai. With 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Greg Brod hitting a sinking liner to left center that Paul Sanders charged in on, making a fine sliding shoestring catch to save at least a run and possibly more.

The Beat struck back with 1 of their own in the home half of the 1st when, with 2-out, Wenner doubled to left center. Pete appeared to be a duck at 2nd on the relay throw from rover Torrey Sullivan, but he kicked the tag out of 2nd baseman Williams’s glove to keep the inning alive. Running for Pete, Kevin Austin motored in from 2nd to score on Big Daddy’s smash single to center.

The game stayed knotted at 1-1 until the bottom of the 3rd when The Beat struck for 4 runs. With Brian (The Rifleman) Arcuri on 1st base due to a DeLuco walk, Steve cranked a flat pitch over the head of right center fielder Roldan Penagos for a 2-run homer. As he zipped around the bases, Steve almost ran up Brian’s back as the throw bounced towards the plate. Jacque followed with an infield single and sped all the way to 3rd as the throw from shortstop Gino Marini bounced away from the 1st baseman Brod. An RBI-single by Moody and an error on the relay throw from 3rd baseman Mark Doucette made it 5-1 Beat.

Finnegan’s got a run back in the top of the 4th on a line drive home run onto 17th Street by the big left fielder Murai, who would become embroiled in controversy later in the game. Williams followed with a double, but Austin retired the next 3 batters and stranded Trevor at 3rd.

The Beat scored 4 more in the 4th to make it 9-2 on a walk to Briscoe and singles by Paul, Steve and Jacque. Aggressive as ever, Jacque the Jet stole a run; surprising Finnegan’s by running right behind Steve on Kevin’s sac fly. Finnegan’s didn’t look sure of what had just hit them.

Finnegan’s chipped back with a run in the 5th to make it 9-3 as the Beat offense stalled. In the bottom of the 5th, a clean slide by Big Daddy to break up a double play led to some brief words between the 2 teams. The situation escalated in the top of the 6th when Brian rifled a throw into Murai’s back after the number 3 hitter rounded the bag too far on a leadoff single. Murai then slid hard into Butts at 2nd on Williams’s grounder to 3rd to break up the double play. Some more words were exchanged and as the Beat came in to bat in the 6th, the boys in gray were warned by the home plate umpire to knock it off. This was the first of 3 warnings from the blues to both teams to settle down. The game became intense and was about to get more so.

Near chaos in the 7th
Leading off the 7th, DeLuco grounded out to Arcuri. Following an error on Butts to put Doucette on 1st, Sullivan hit a fielder’s choice to Brian to help the boys in gray breath easier with the number 10 batter coming to the plate in Gino Mariani. However, Gino started a hit parade as Penagos and Conway followed with singles, the latter scoring 2-runs to make it 9-5. Murai then hit a hard grounder to Arcuri who had a play on the runner steaming to 2nd, but instead threw high to Wenner at 1st. Pete mishandled the throw as Murai ran hard over his foot and a run scored to cut the Beat lead to 3 with the tying run coming up in the cleanup hitter Williams.

Kevin worked the count on Williams before getting him to ground harmlessly to Butts who threw to Pete at 1st to end it. For his gritty effort, Austin pocketed the game ball, and The Beat dodged a big bullet to stay atop division C-7 at 6-1.

The Beat moves over to Jackson #2 on May 31 to finish out the spring season against the 0-5 Rhinos with a chance to clinch a 1st place tie with Ronin, which still has 3 games left on the schedule.

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On The BEAT News Archive

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