Trailing 9-4 with three outs lefts in the game and the Beat offense had yet to arrive scoring only 4 runs on 7 hits in the first 6 innings. It looked bad for our heroes but as heroes do, the Beat flashed some of that 2-out lightning they've caught this year and stole this game from the SF Ballers. The win extended the first place Beat's summer undefeated run to three games. Word from the guys after was "this was one of the best Beat games ever!" That wouldn't have been the case if it had ended after six.

The Beat led off the first with a walk to Jacq Wilson (1-3, run, BB, RBI) but a quick pop to left and an inning ending double play put the team down 1-2-3. Not a good start, but it was early. The Ballers led off the first with a solid single by Jenkins; an overrun in left advanced the runner. Williams grounded past Mondo's 'olé' backhand at third to score the first run before the Ballers were retired on consecutive flies to left; the last one a deep fly over Tim's head that he ran down with a backhanded snow cone to end the inning.  

The Beat hit the board in the second starting with a one out single by Tim Smith (4-4, 2 runs, RBI). Big Daddy Moody (1-4, 2 runs, 2 RBI) launched a fly to right-center but the two fielders converged and the ball found grass for an E9. Mondo (1-4, 2 runs, RBI) singled in Tim and advanced on an errant throw from right that scored Moody. Brian (3-4, run, 2 RBI) singled in Mondo and the Beat took a 3-1 lead. The Ballers struck back quickly in the second when shortstop Navarez led off by crushing a knuckle ball way over the fence in right and onto 17th street bouncing inches in front of a passing car. Not such bad news for the Beat; Navarez shot his wad early wasting the 1-homer rule on a bases empty bang. D-Rey wrapped up the rest of that inning with two assists and a putout at short. Beat 3, Ballers 2.

Gunnar (1-2, BB, run) led off the third with a single but a fielder's choice and high fly to the outfield put up two quick outs. Mark St.Georges (1-4, 2 runs) drilled a liner down the third baseline but third baseman Kote made the first of many outstanding plays of the day to end the inning. The Beat was still up 3-2 but the thing about low-scoring softballs games...they rarely stay that way.

The second time through the lineup the Ballers had figured out the Austin knuckler and opened the third inning with six consecutive hits including a double and triple putting them up quickly 7-3. Homer man Navarez, forced to keep the ball in the park, hit a Bondsian fly to left. The hangtime on that thing would have put Reggie Roby to shame, but Tim came down with the ball and nailed Gilletoe trying to advance from first to second for a double play. Another single and triple upped the score to 8-3 before Juarez popped up high to D-Rey at short.

Jacque Wilson (1-3, run, RBI, walk) led off the 4th with a walk. Tim singled advancing Q to second, then Big Daddy drove a ground shot past the pitcher and up the middle. Q, with barely a foot off the bag at second, was winged for an out taking a sure hit from the Big Man and prompting D to note on the scoresheet "Q is a bitch!" The Beat then proceeded to flame out on offense and once again took the field still down 8-3. Entering the third time through the lineup for the Ballers, Austin switched to the backspin and retired the side in order on 3 pop-ups to the left side (3 of the last 4 outs were pops to Drey at short who made excellent plays considering he was staring straight into the sun). Unfortunately by now the Beat offense had decided it was nap time. D-Rey (1-4, run, RBI) reached on a 1-out error at second but G-Man grounded to short for a 6u-3 double play earning him double beer bitch honors for the week in another 1-2-3 inning. 

The Ballers tacked on one more in the bottom of the fifth on another single/triple combo increasing their lead to 9-3. The Beat responded this time opening the sixth on a single by Jacq. Two fielder's choices almost blew the threat but an error in left on Q's fly advanced MSG to third and he scored on Tim's third single of the game to cut the lead to five.

Faga led off the bottom of the Baller's sixth with a single but Juarez hit a 1-hopper back to the mound and Austin, D-Rey, and JC combined on a sweet double play. This was the fourth DP of the game (two by each team). Another comebacker by Jenkins ended the inning.

So here we are again. Top of the 7th. The Beat has put on a piss-poor performance on offense; three runs on 5 hits thru 5, 4 runs on 7 hits thru 6. No extra base hits and only two runs earned. Five run deficit and three outs to go. 

As the Worm Turns
Just as I was about to mention how nice it was to get a couple 1-hoppers to the mound to end the 6th, the Beat led the 7th with . . . a 1-hopper to the mound. Still five runs back and two outs to go. Brian started the action with a single to right. Austin (2-4, run, RBI) hit a sharp grounder in Brian's path that ate up the first baseman advancing Brian to third. D-Rey came through with a grounder to the hole in short driving in Lightning. Navarez recovered the ball and tried to make a play at second as Kev was taking out the legs of the second baseman. The throw went high and into right scoring K from first and advancing D-Rey to third. G-Man coaxed a walk then Jacq grounded sharply down the third baseline. Kote made another excellent play at third forcing G at second but Drey scored on the play.

The Beat is now down 9-7 with a runner on first and two outs. Colletto (1-4), MSG, and Q all tagged their first hits of the day to tie the game at 9. Tim singled to left and Kote (a fucking vacuum on the left side all day) threw the ball away scoring MSG for the go-ahead run. Big Daddy tagged his first hit of the day, a 2-run single upping the score to 12-9. Mondo, Brian, and Kev singled extending the lead to 14-9 and when the final out was tallied, the Beat had dropped a 10-spot right on the Ballers heads turning a 5-run deficit into a 5-run lead. The Beat caught lightning in a bottle with eight consecutive 2-out hits. Now all that was left was to hold that lead with the heart of the Ballers order coming up for the 4th time.

Diaz singled to lead off the bottom of the 7th. Williams then grounded to Jim at first who thought he'd try kicking it to second for the force but that didn't work. Austin thought it might make it interesting if he walked the bases loaded. Gilletoe singled driving in two and moving Faga to third. With the margin cut to three, the Ballers have runners at the corners, no outs and here comes Navarez, 2 for 3 with a homer and a triple representing the tying run. Navarez went deep in the count then took a high backspin and skied it to left. Big Tim reeled it in for the first out and Faga never left third. Next Kote comes up and drives a liner to the gap in left center. Jacque raced out of nowhere and went horizontal making the play of the decade! If the ball gets past him and rolls it was at least two runs and could have potentially tied the game with only one out. Faga, as shocked as everyone on the diamond, was glue to third. Two down, two on and Faga (the other Faga) drove a hard fly to Tim in left who put this game in the books. The Beat dodged a big bullet and made their banner 7th hold up for a 14-11 final.

The big win extended the Beat's unbeaten summer season to 3-0. In fact, since losing the first two games in the spring, the Beat has won 8 of the last 9 league games, many with the same 2-out heroics displayed today. The team again played excellent defense with only two errors (though Mondo made every effort to try to add to that ;-). D-Rey (4 putouts, 3 assists) and Tim (6 putouts and 1 assist) locked down the left side despite staring into the sun all day. Jacque took home his second straight game ball with the Web Gem of the day, saving the game in the bottom of the seventh with his diving grab of Kote's liner. Honorable mention goes to Tim for going 4 for 4 (though the team did little to give him RBI ops) and the aforementioned 7 outs in left. G-Man is the beer bitch du-jour with his back breaking double play to end a fifth inning in which we didn't have shit going anyway.

Next up...the big game of the year. The Beat (3-0) takes on Flor de Cana de la Libertad (3-1) at 11:15am at Jackson #2 in hopes of retaining sole possession of first.

In Other Games
Flor came from a 6-run deficit in the 7th inning to defeat the Onsters 17-16. Flor scattered a number of hits around three Hsu errors in the 7th to steal that one.

Monte Carlo did the same to Il Pirata. Down 11-5 in the bottom of the 7th, the Vic-less Monte's rallied back to a 13-11 victory.

With Ronin and Il Pirata out of the playoff chase with 3 losses each, Monte Carlo and the perennial favorites Flor have to get through the Beat to win this division now. Flor comes to town next week but the Beat must wait until the season finale to see Vic and the gang.