by Ogden Lardner
Bernardston- December 11, 2006 CEIcehouse took to the hill for his team, and despite 7 batters coming to the plate he would only allow one run to score. Ice retired the first 2 hitters, but ran into control problems and issued walks to both G-Spot & Marty. Newcomer Matt & Mike (of the popular Matt & Mike in the morning radio show) both singled resulting in the first run of the game.
The lead would not stand for long, however as the High Life’s dealt Hammer’s perfect ERA a severe blow scoring 3 runs in the bottom of the first. Icehouse proved wise in his drafting, as his number one pick X-Man (3-4, SB) led off with a single followed by another single to Chap. Laz would work a walk to load the bases for the slugger Icehouse. Hammer would settled down and strike Ice out for the first out. Dentello would reach on an error, followed by (I think) a Duke double, before Hammer induced Nails to ground out to end the frame.
3-1 High Life’s after one inning of action.
In the Pepsi 1 2nd, Supe reached on a one out error, stole 2 nd & 3 rd and scored on an Ice balk. Terminator would try to convince (unsuccessfully) the official scorer that he should get the RBI. Four consecutive walks later (Termie, Fluff, Hammer, and Joe) would result in another run to tie the action at 3 apiece.
Hammer would regain his sinkerball form in the bottom half facing the minimum 3 batters and getting them all to groundout.
Dentello took over for Ice in the 3 rd and K’d two batters while giving one single to Ski.
Mon Cap relived Hammer and faced 5 batters, giving up the prerequisite single to X, but escaped unscathed.
Duke would take over for Dentello and continue to keep the One’s from scoring in his 2 inning stint. Utilizing a good fastball and his lollipop curve, he held the One’s hitless, while issuing a harmless walk to the patient Ski.
Rookie Matt used his “vintage” form and was impressive in his inning of work striking out one and causing another player to leave the game as G’dik took the business end of Nail’s shattered bat3rd out off of his pitching hand. Doctor Supe would clean, bandage, and kiss his boo-boo, but it wasn’t enough as G’dik would have to be scratched for the remainder of the game. (Supe felt he did enough bandaging the wound and G’dik would have to find someone else to scratch him.)
The High Lifes hit Fluff hard in the 5th as Mike Olkin would "walk", and after a fielder’s choice, Manmaid, Mediocre, and X would all single (the bastards). Then doing his best Terminator impression, Fluff psyched himself up doing what he calls his “Arnie Move”. Fluff would then get Chap to ground out for the second out. Chap clearly took offense to the “Arnie Move” as the two exchanged words on Chap’s way back to the bench. Cooler heads would prevail as play resumed and Fluff got the next batter out, but not before 3 crucial runs would score.
The Lifes would add to their lead in the following inning against Supe, as Dentello would rip a misplaced 0-2 fastball of the roof of the dome for a single, steal second and score on Duke’s single. The speedster Duke would catch Supe not paying attention to him, and steal second. Supe manned up though, and struck out Nails & Mike Olkin to end the inning.
The Pepsi boys would finally get back on the scoreboard in the 7 th as Chap took over on the hill. Chap would then launch the next salvo in their ongoing feud as he drilled Fluff to open up the inning. Umpire Artie stepped in between Fluff as he headed down the first base line pointing and shouting at Chap.* Hammer would then single, Joe walked, then 3 consecutive fielder’s choices would result in Fluffy crossing the plate.
The One’s added another run the next inning when Mike Davey led off with a single and was followed by three more singles (Ski, (SB), Supe & Termie), and scored to cut the gap 7-5. (The High Lifes would get a gift 1-2-3 DP from Fluff with NO OUTS and a run in, to cripple the Pepsi One bid to take the momentum)
After Ski kept the Life’s in check in the 7 th, and after his 8 th cookie, Terminator took over in the 8 th inning. Termie was battling a groin injury and in showed in his uncharacteristic wildness. He walked Laz, K’d Ice, and looking at the scorebook, how Laz scored is beyond me. It looks like the next 2 batters went down on order, with a comebacker to Termie to end the frame. Suffice it to say that after 8 innings the Ones were now looking at a 3 run deficit.
Dentello would comeback to close out the game in the 9 th sitting down all three batters he faced, the final out came via the strikeout as the Ones comeback hopes were crushed.
Fluff said later in the post game press conference he would have his team ready next week for the 2 nd game of the series, and this time, he vowed, the outcome would be different.
*Actually I was warming up Ski at this point and never saw that happened. I’m pretty sure Chap accidentally hit Fluff and then promptly apologized, but I think my story is better than the truth.
