The On Deck Circle

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It was a hot weekend for the Slammin’ Hoes in only one sense of the word. Yes, on a Saturday where the Humidex crossed 43 degrees, the boys in red and black sleeveless (and a lot of Under Armour, you KNOW!) went ice cold at the plate…for four straight games. Starting with their second straight 8-am Saturday game, the Hoes were forced by a bad draw to play four games in just seven hours in the scorching heat. On a day when fly balls were dying in the air, the boys couldn’t find their regular rhythm of line drives and seeing eye hits. Instead, the Hoes settled for just 7.5 runs per game. Hey, at least the defense showed up (most of the time).

Game 1 – 10-8 Win v. Mudcats - So maybe things weren’t so bad, you, the devoted fan, ask? Well, consider that the Mudcats were last season’s whipping boy team and the fact that this should have been a mercy game, please correct yourself now. This was the liveliest the bats would be, posting five in the 4th and making productive outs, the Hoes almost let it slip away in the 5th and 6th. Luckily,solid defense and multi-hit games from Dave Power, Sean McDonald and Greg Crane buoyed the team to victory.

Game 2 – 13-8 Loss v. Homerlovers - The game against the champions from the first tournament started off horrendously, as the Hoes relinquished eight runs in the bottom of the first. After that, the team put up a spirited effort to try and crawl back but the bats just couldn’t carry the load. The bright side is there, but the boys also committed an extremely uncharacteristic six errors. The offensive bright spots were Mike Poll and Danny Matijiw, each who tallied three hits, while the biggest highlight went to a 50,000-foot moon shot hit deep into the Slo Pitch City forest by a Homerlover (Dave Power tried valiantly to climb the fence for it, coming up just 30,000-feet short).

Game 3 – 7-1 Loss v. Braves II - A must-win game, since the Hoes had beat Braves II in the first game of the season, 20-19, the bats came out their flattest. In fact, the team managed just one run, an RBI-single by Deven Hiscock that scored Danny Matijiw in the 2nd. This lack of offense is certainly troubling but hey, at least the team found out their defense can rebound from a bad game and Dave Power is a legitimate pitching option. Oh, and the umpires were just brutal in this one, blowing at least two double plays calls and nailing B.J. O’Brien for being off the baseline and then refusing to explain why one umpire could overturn the appropriate umpire’s call. I digress, until next game.

Game 4 – 12-11 Loss v. Mudcats in 8 innings - In what should have been an easy win to keep the tournament alive, the Hoes had to score three in the bottom of the 7th just to stay alive. The bats were slightly more productive, adding two more in the 8th but coming up just short again. The same umpires continued their run of bad calls, refusing to explain, to any degree, a bizarre situation at home plate that may have credited Mudcats with an extra run. Excuses are a plenty in this one, but regardless, this is a team the Hoes should beat by more than a run. Sean McDonald, Deven Hiscock and Mike Poll each tallied three hits, while the Al Snyder-Deven Hiscock-Greg Crane 6-7-8 trio each scored to tie it in the 7th.

Looking forward, the Hoes have three changes to look forward to. One is some slight tweaking of the batting order. The second is the move of Dave Power to full-time pitcher, allowing Adam Millen to move back to the outfield (where his valuable glove and arm belong), and allowing the team to never worry about juggling the line-up when Mill-deez is away with Aussie Rules Football. Finally, Coach Scissors has decided to take a more active approach on the bench.

The next tournament is in a week and a half and takes place in Barrie, where the Hoes hope to make good use of a 2-hour drive and weekend away. And that means more than just drinking…they hope. In the meantime, rest assured that this team can hit, can win at the SPO-C level, and will do so this weekend.