Whetstoners look to rebound for post season

Since then, jobs, management struggles and life in general has torn at the championship fabric of the Whetstoners. Last year, they finished the regular season 5-8 and can’t actually recall where they ended up in the playoffs but they weren’t in the finals. This year, things continued to fall apart for the Whetstoners. After winning three of their first four games, they lost the next six games in a row and are sitting in seventh place with a record of 3-7. “It’s been a thin season,” admitted Alex Mattes-Ritz prior to their game. The plan, though totally unconfirmed, is to peak in the post season and the Whetstoners looked to start their upward swing against the Talk of the Town rec team at Pitsker Field Tuesday night. But before I go there, Tully’s got a scare the game before the Talk/Whetstoners game when the Avalanche nearly ruined Tully’s perfect season before Tully’s pinched out a 9-8 win in the bottom of the seventh. Back to the game of the week, without any poetry and or talk of soccer just testing to see if anyone is reading. As I was saying, the Whetstoners were looking to get back to their winning ways against the Talk of the Town on Tuesday night. They started out on the right foot holding the Talk scoreless in the top of the first, including a 6-3 double play by Mattes-Ritz, and then scored two in the bottom of the first on base hit RBIs from Barb Winter and Charlie Parr. The Talk responded thanks to some major league hustle from Brendan Waldron. Waldron did a lot of stretching before the game and looked to fire up the team with some pre-game stoke. The stretching and stoke paid off as he stretched for a triple and then scored on a single by Steve Rosati. The next inning was led by defense as both teams as the Talk defense turned a fly ball into a double play and Chris “Rocky” Durante had a couple big plays at third to hold off the Talk offense. The Whetstoners machine started purring in the bottom of the third inning spurned by Will Camcro and Michelle “Wheels” Fitzgerald. Camcro singled and Fitzgerald lived up to her nickname by turning a ground ball to second into an infield single and both scored when Mattes-Ritz clubbed (mind you they’re using single wall bats so rarely are hits “cracked”) a triple to centerfield. Those same wheels would end up factoring in heavily later in the game. Winter tapped an error-assisted RBI single to score Mattes-Ritz and the Whetstoners were up 5-1 with one out. The Talk clamped down to keep it close and Waldron continued his human highlight reel of a game smothering a hot grounder to third and flipping the ball to second base for the force out to end the inning. Julie Frerichs then took center stage at Pitsker Field when she flared an opposite field RBI double over first base. Waldron added an RBI single to the attack and the Talk was primed for a counter attack until Megan Craver chased down a pop foul behind the plate for the grab and third out. The Talk defense held the Whetstoners scoreless in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings led by Melvin Seyfried’s diving grab at shortstop on a ground ball and tossed to second from the dirt for the third out while their offense found a spark in the top of the sixth inning. Ashlee Reimer and Spencer Farrington connected for back-to-back singles to start things off. Frerichs continued her hot night at the plate with an RBI single and Seyfried popped a sac fly RBI to tie the game 5-5 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning. Farrington followed his offense with some defense tossing out a Whetstoner runner at third base from left field but Craver connected for an RBI single and the Whetstoners were back on top 6-5. Hearing the call, last call that is, in the top of the seventh inning, the Talk of the Town managed to squeeze out one more run to tie the game. Kricket Brigham singled and then reached third on a big hustle double by Rosati. The Whetstoners retired the next two batters and looked the seal the win until Christine Hawk tapped a sac hit RBI to tie the game. Granted, if you reading closely, there were already two outs so how is it that someone hit a sac hit RBI? I’m not sure, but both teams agreed that the run scored and they headed into the bottom of the seventh inning tied 6-6. After a fly out to lead off, Zach Matthias singled. The Talk retired the next batter but Chuck McKenrick blooped a double to put runners in second and third with two outs and “Wheels” Fitzgerald at the plate. Once again, she lived up to her nickname beating out a grounder to second for the game-wining infield RBI single and the Whetstoners squeaked out the 7-6 win.