Softball Chronicles

There was Sunshine in Silverknowes (not a Proclaimers hit, but it should be) tonight for the start of our first game against new team - the MoreNuts. These guys are the offshoot of the DohNuts who are currently riding high in the Premier Division. Should we be worried? Regardless, the cadets showed up in style, and numbers for a change. The full 10 count was:

• Alison (3rd)
• Mutchy (Pitcher)
• Fiona (2nd)
• John (outfield)
• Louise (1st)
• Sherm (short-stop)
• Kirsty (catcher)
• Graham (outfield)
• Karen (rightfield)
• Gavin (leftfield)

Having done so well with only 9 for the first three games, would having 10 for Cadets and only 9 Nuts unsettle us? Only one way to find out.

We were out in the field first and despite Louise being nervous on her first shot at first base, she got three out there and only 1 person made it past her to get round for 1 run. So we came up to bat and first up was Alison, who started us off well with a good smack at the ball. She was followed by almost the whole team round the diamond at some point. Fiona didn't make it on this time and was out at 1st and Kirsty also had to race the ball to 1st and was out. When it came round to Alison again, we had 6 home before she was also out at 1st, but we 6-1 to the good!

Into the second and the MoreNuts Auto Out started out, which was swiftly followed by their first batter striking out. An out at 1st for their next batter meant that we had shut them out. Still 6-1 to the good, we looked to capitalise. We managed to get another 2 home despite our batting suffering from some really rough pitching, so that John and Kirsty were out at 1st and Graham struck out.

We rolled onto the 3rd, 8-1 up and looking comfortable. Perhaps too comfortable as Sherm started dropping balls right between his legs. He made up for it with a sharp double play where he tagged the runner going to 3rd before hearing Fiona's call and passing back for the out at 2nd. I knew last weeks double play wasn't a fluke - another next week would be nice? Fiona got another out at 2nd to keep the MoreNuts to one run, so bottom of the third and we were still 8-2 up.

Not a great start to our batting with me struggling to beat the ball to first (and trying not to swear loud enough that the umpire could hear). John fell foul of the strange pitching again and the even stranger umpiring when a ball clear over 2nd was called in-field fly. Regardless, we got another 3 home before Louise was also the subject of strange umpiring and though her run to 1st was blocked, she was still called out. 11-2 and everything was rosy going into the fourth innings.

The fourth innings started off well for us again (not so good for the 9 man MoreNuts) as they had another Auto out and their next batter struck out. They did make up for it with the next few batters though, with a home run eventually bringing 3 home. So we came in to bat with Sherm up first and he was obviously fed up with this pitching, so promptly but the ball over the heads of the outfielders to stroll home for the first home run of the game! We then pushed another few round with Graham creaming one before Gavin struck out and I made the worst slide into 2nd and was never gonna make it in on that! Back to the top of the order and another three runs brought our total to 5 before John was vicously tagged on his way to 1st - the first assault of the evening but more was to come as we went into the 5th, 16-5 up.

We were looking for another good catch which Sherm did get, but it was the second assault of the evening (there's a theme developing here Sherm!) and John got a knee into the stomach for trying to help. Lesson of the evening - call it! Thankfully only another one runner made it through before a catch by Gavin and an out at 1st brought us to the bottom of the 6th and kept us 16-6 up. So we got a lovely hit by Louise to start us off and we kept moving things round gradually so that we had 3 home when Louise was out at 3rd. Alison struck out but then Stephen got the next home run of the night to bring 3 more home and we were 22-6 up when Fiona was caught for the end of the innings.

And with us 18 points ahead going into the 6th, the mercy rule kicked in and we had won! Our first mercy ruling of the season and the best bit, it was in our favour!

That's us 3 wins from 4, an excellent start. We need to keep things going though and that's hard over the next few weeks as we have the Capitals and the Vultures up on the 4th and 9th of June. Stephen is away for most of June and Louise and I are away for the first week in June (and we don't know if Sherm has managed to do any serious damage to John), so we need a good turn out, especially as we are facing numbers 1 and 2 in the league. Let Alison know if you can make it