The Beat Takes Back First with 8-4 win over Finnegan’s

White knuckle pitchers’ duel ends when Finnegan’s defense falls apart in 6-run Beat 5th;
Beatniks move into sole possession of C-6 division lead

As veteran Donnell Moody remarked after the game, “it was a win, but it wasn’t pretty.”

Big Daddy was right on both counts. However a win is a win and The Beat has come to expect the same kind of tight, low-scoring games from Finnegan’s A+B that it usually does from the Other Guys. So with its opening game loss to Finnegan’s avenged for the time being, the boys in gray move on to tackle the rest of the division, continuing next week with the winless Solid Smack (aka the Nine Inch Snails), which had the Beatniks (4-1) on the ropes before they escaped with a nail biting 11-9 victory on August 2.

Now in sole possession of first place by a game over Finnegan’s and the OGs (both 3-2), which experienced a sudden death comeback over the Loose Cannons, The Beat embarks on a 2nd half journey reminiscent of the spring season when it routed Ronin to go 4-1 at the same juncture.

What Happened to the Beat Offense?
Two Finnegan’s pitchers held the boys in gray to just 2 runs over 4 innings before their defense inexplicably broke down in the bottom of the 5th. That inning, The Beat opportunistically scored 6 times courtesy of 4 Finnegan’s errors, 2 on wild throws.

For the Beat, Kevin (Special K) Austin struck out a season-high 3 and lowered his ERA to a tidy 4.43 for the summer (4.38 for 2003 overall). Kev held Finnegan’s at bay, extending his streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 16 before Finnegan’s finally pushed their only earned run across in the top of the 7th. Austin added his kudos after the game, "I've been saying it all year, we've got the best damn defense I've ever seen on a softball field!"

Once again, the outfield and up-the middle defense was a brick wall that made several big plays in foul territory and with runners on base. Jacque Wilson returned to the tough left field corner at Jackson #2 for the first time this season, contributing a fine diving catch down the line for the first out of the 3rd inning. Mark Briscoe won the game ball for making 5 putouts including a sensational diving catch in left-center to save a 2-run homer when it was 3-2 Finnegan’s in the 4th. Mike (Butz) Buttafuso reached up and snared a sharp line drive to his right that was actually behind him when he caught it with runners on 1st and 2nd to end the 5th.

2003 Summer Standings

Team W L PCT Pts GB

The BEAT 4 1 .800 8 –

Finnegan's 3 2 .600 6 1

The Other Guys 3 2 .600 4 1

Loose Cannons 2 3 .400 4 2

Solid Smack 0 4 .000 0 3.5

The Beat offense mustered only 12 hits, but aggressive base running by Greg (Lucky Luki) Lukoski and clutch hits by Butz and Big D in the 5th gave Kev some breathing room to clinch the win.

A Late Start
Due to a big comeback by the Other Guys to nip the Loose Cannons in the 10 o’clock game, the Finnegan’s/Beat tilt started 10 minutes late. The managers were a tad concerned about getting in the requisite 70 minutes, but the game proceeded rapidly.

Austin retired the first 2 Finnegan’s hitters on 4 pitches, but Ken Murai lined a single up the middle and cleanup hitter Mark Rau short-hopped a ball to 3rd that ate up the Cottonmouth King Mark St. Georges to put runners on 1st and 2nd. Chris Nussbaum blooped another hit to short right that looked like a sure double, but Jim (the Thrill) Colletto jumped on it quickly and fired a strike to shortstop Brian Arcuri, who applied the tag for the 3rd out after the 1st run had scored.

The Beat scratched out a run of their own to tie it in the bottom of the 1st on an RBI single by Colletto, but stranded runners at 1st and 2nd to foreshadow another pitchers’ duel by the 2 front running teams.

In one of his finest performances in the course of a great season, Special K sandwiched 2 strikeouts around a Steve DeLuco liner to MSG to keep Finnegan’s tied at 1.

The Beatnik 2nd was out of the ordinary to say the least. Brian led off with a line single over shortstop and advanced to 3rd on Jacque’s ensuing base hit. The pitcher DeLuco snared Armando Lopez’s hard grounder up the middle and held Brian at 3rd before throwing to 1st for the out. Jacque took 2nd on the play.

Then it got weird. Luki hit a fly ball to right that scored Brian. As the throw came into the plate, it trickled away from the catcher Torrey Sullivan. The aggressive Jacque, who later admitted to forgetting the knee injury that had slowed him down a step, saw an opportunity and headed home to the surprise of manager Pete Wenner who was coaching 3rd. Wilson almost made it but DeLuco, backing up the play, alertly picked up the ball and made a head-first dive toward the plate. Jacque slid in cleanly, but cleated DeLuco in the head in the collision. The Finnegan’s pitcher/manager lay writhing at home plate but still managed to hold onto the ball for the final out of the inning.

It was a scary couple of minutes, but DeLuco got up and walked off the field to scattered applause. After sitting out the rest of the game, he was fine. Fortunately for The Beat and Jacque, it wasn’t his bad knee that hit DeLuco in the head. But unfortunately at the time, the boys in gray were held to 1 run and clung to a thin 2-1 lead.

Kev got 2 quick outs to start the 3rd including Jacque’s diving catch of Gino Marliani’s foul ball down the left field line. However an error and an overthrow put Mike Kelly and Roldan Penagos at 2nd and 3rd before the #3 hitter Murai singled in both runners to make it 3-2 Finnegan’s. Kevin then got Rau to fly to Jacque in left to end the uprising.

Both teams went down relatively quietly save for the amazing Briscoe catch in the 4th and the 1-6-3 double play that followed until the bottom of the 5th when Beat took advantage of Finnegan’s defensive implosion.

Luki reached on an error by Finnegan’s shortstop Marliani who ended up having a rough inning. Special K followed with a single to left and Lukoski slid head first inside the 3rd base bag to just beat the throw. Jacq (The Rock) Wilson (3 for 4, run, RBI) lofted a single up the middle on a 3-2 pitch to score Luki that looked like a tennis serve. It was a fine piece of hitting and tied the score at 3-3. Butz followed with another base hit to right to make it 4-3 Beat. Still with none out, MSG grounded a hard smash to the 3rd baseman Kelly who threw the ball over 1st for another run. Two more errors by Marliani, including a high throw on an easy double play ball that might have ended the inning on Briscoe’s grounder and it was 8-3 Beat.

Things quieted down in the 6th inning as the Beat increased its total left-on-base to 9 on the day.

Finnegan’s led off the 7th with back-to-back singles by Chris Conway and Lee McVeigh. With 1 out, Trevor Williams broke Special K’s unearned run streak with a base hit up the middle to score Conway and make it 8-4. On that, Austin switched from the curveball that had dazzled Finnegan’s all day to a knuckler for the bottom of the order and got Sullivan and Marliani to fly to Briscoe in left (he moved there in the 6th in place of the ailing Jacque) to end it.

The Beat was back in first place for the first time this summer. Solid Smack awaits on September 13 at 12.30pm back at windswept Jackson #1, the place The Beat calls home.

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