Beat Comes from Behind to Tie Flor de Cana 9-9

Beat holds on to second place in bye week as Rum Drinkers edge Ballers 4-3 on August 21 to stay in first

The upstarts that nobody took seriously prior to the season sat undefeated and perched in first place by a game over The Beat at the summer halfway point. In a stacked “high C” league division consisting of 4 established C-league powerhouses; it was the 5th team, the surprising Flor de Cana, on top of the league. Flor de Cana, a blend of long-time Saturday softballers from winning Latin teams like Nicoya, Cool Dudes and others, was called Dominic’s Club in the spring and finished in a 2nd place tie with a mediocre 4-4 mark. They were badly beaten 14-4 and 36-6 by defending champs Il Pirata and didn’t pose much concern. But that was then; this is now.

After scoring 3 runs in the 1st inning last Saturday, the SF Ballers were completely shut down by the league leaders, who squeaked out a 4-3 win to increase their slender lead over the idle 2nd place Beat. The Ballers fell to 1-2 and 4th place. In 3rd place, Il Pirata nipped the cellar dwelling Ronin--now 0-3--to even its record at 2-2 after an 0-2 start. The boys in gray had easily beaten Ronin 17-6 on August 7 to mark the only game this season the team had scored in double figures.

Like the rest of the league, The Beat bats were largely quiet as the team logged just a .425 team average with minimal power over the first 4 games. By comparison, the mighty Il Pirata, which had torn up C-6 in the spring with 16 homeruns and a .497 team average, is currently batting .401 overall with only 1 round tripper. Games with final scores in the single digits have been the norm in this tough division thus far.

Rewind to Flor de Cana vs. The Beat
In game 4 on August 14 under gloomy 3 o’clock skies at Jackson #2, the Beat fought back from a 9-4 4th inning deficit to tie the game, capped off by a 2-out, 2 RBI single with the bases loaded by manager/EP Pete Wenner (3 for 3 and 3 RBI on the day).

It was almost like Old Timers Day redux as the aging Wenner and Dennis (OB) O’Brien led a selected mix of personnel from across Beat eras. With Kevin (Special K) Austin in Lake Tahoe for the weekend, the beatniks called on the wily veteran to gut out his 52-year-old aches and pains and take the mound for 7 improbable innings. It had been more than 2 years since OB, now a cagey reliever who had gone 3 innings in the Ronin game, had last performed this trick. OB delivered by pitching a solid game allowing just 7 earned runs on 10 hits and 3 walks. He overcame 2 shaky defensive innings including a 4-0 1st inning hole to keep the team in the game by holding Flor de Cana scoreless the final 3 innings while The Beat scratched their way back into the game.

Flor de Cana’s pitcher Horacio Lopez was one tough customer. He featured a tricky looking curve with a high arc that broke away from the batter to keep the Beat off balance for the better part of the game. Moreover, his tight defense committed just 1 error continuing a trend the rest of the league had seen all during the 1st half.

Rookie sensation Terry Hempleman paced the Beat offense from the #2 spot with a 3 for 4 performance that included a home run, double and 4 RBIs. The fleet-footed Terry, who almost ran up Jacq (The Rock) Wilson’s back on the round tripper, was advanced in the order in place of Gunnar Rosenquist, who was delayed on the Bay Bridge until the middle of the game. This caused the Beatniks to go with a 10-man lineup and set up a dramatic turn of events in the late innings as the scrappy G-man finally arrived to pinch hit for OB, not once but twice due to a league rule that allows a pinch hitter to re-enter.

Life in the second half
The tie saved the season for now because if the Beat had lost, the combination of having to run the table and wait for Flor de Cana to get beaten twice would've been a tall order. They probably still have to sweep their remaining games, but the possibility of a meaningful finale with Flor de Cana on 9/25 still looms. If not for a 4-base outfield error with 2 outs in the Flor de Cana 4th that made it 9-4, the gray & black could have won in its final at bat. The erroneous play looked like a back breaker at the time because on the previous play with the bases also loaded, Wenner fielded a sharp grounder and went home to get the 2nd out on a nifty play by Greg (Lucky Luki) Lukoski to hold onto a short hop throw. It was a close call as the runner appeared to have beaten the throw by a hair.

The Beat then proceeded to leave 2 runners on in the 4th and 5th and were looking pretty flat as the 6th inning rolled around.

With 2 out in the bottom of the 6th, Gunnar pinch hit for OB and lined a clean single down the left field line to load the bags for Jacq who singled in our 5th run. Then Hempleman, with the bases still loaded, lined a base hit up the middle to score 2 runs and get the Beat within striking distance at 9-7.

OB pitched out of a jam in the 7th to give his team a shot. Big Daddy led off with a hard grounder that ate up the shortstop and the beatniks pinch ran Mark (MSG) St. Georges for Donnell. Jim (the Thrill) Colletto flew out and Jacque (Q) Wilson dunked a pitch off the end of the bat that just fell in to put runners at 1st and 2nd. Armando Lopez (4 for 4) singled to load em up, but Luki flew out to right. It was hit so shallow that MSG couldn't score. With the outfield playing in, Wenner somehow hit a sinking liner over short that the left center fielder was slow getting to, which allowed Jacque to score the tie run. Gunnar re-entered for his 2nd cameo appearance and hit a chopper that looked like it might skip through, but the 2nd baseman fielded it and forced Wenner to end the game.

It looked for a minute like the blues were going to let the teams go to extra innings, but they didn't. In the spring of 2003, a 3pm game between Ronin and Finnegan’s was extended to extra innings so there was relief among the Beatniks who were now running on fumes. It may have been tempting the Gods to come out for another inning and would have been a bitter pill for the boys in gray to have lost after tying it up in such dramatic fashion. In the past, ties have been very lucky for The Beat as they positively affected division titles in 1991, 1994 and 2001.

In the end, the Beat had come back to complete an exhilarating day that clearly buoyed the ball club. The summer schedule resumes on 8/28 when the SF Ballers host the Beat at 1.45pm on Jackson #2.

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