Bearcats rally to win despite short roster

AQI, USA and FIFA

by Than Acuff

The Inglorious Batters will be the first to admit, it takes the better part of a season before they find their groove. Still, I had hopes that after covering so many lopsided games this season, I would finally get to witness a close game and maybe even an upset win on Wednesday, July 1 when the 1-4 Inglorious Batters faced the 4-1 Bearcats at Tommy V Field with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 150. Which, according to the Internet, is the equivalent of smoking 6.8 cigarettes per day. Which doesn’t bother me as I grew up riding in a car with my mom cranking Benson & Hedges 100s.

To be fair, my mom cracked the window when driving me and it has not affected my health whatsoever. Not only that but if I was divorced at age 30-something and tasked with living with/raising me from grade 7 to grade 12, I would be reaching for something a little stronger than nicotine and white wine, nahemsayin’?

As for the Batters, add in the fact that the Bearcats had just seven players to start, things were looking good for the Batters, and they started things off in the top of the first inning putting up three runs. Nicole Bogenschuetz led off with a single, Ashley Bouey singled and Connor the Beard drove Bouey home dropping an RBI double in the expansive outfield further expanded by the short roster of the Bearcats. Steph Reeves followed with a two RBI sacrifice hit and we had an upset in the making.

Sure, the Bearcats stepped to the plate to jump out front almost immediately as Kate Schmidt singled to right and scored off a double from Jesse Smith and Amber Knight, Johnny Greene, Nadine Allen and Robbie Vandervoort all connected for base hits to score four runs. But when the Batters defense tossed out a Bearcat headed for home to end the inning it appeared, albeit for a brief moment, the Batters brought their bats and their gloves, to the game.

A slight glitch, or glitches, at the plate and on the basepath left the Batters scoreless in the top of the second inning and the Bearcats, now with eight players, tacked on three more runs thanks to hits from Greene and Allen for a 7-3 lead but the Batters came back.

Jack Foersterling and Bouey started it off with singles and Beard doubled to score one. Sacrifice RBI hits from Reeves and Hunter Dagnon then drove in two more runs pulling the Batters back to within one.

With confidence high among the Batters, or relatively high in their own self-deprecating way, they took the field in the bottom of the third inning while I sat in my chair excited, in my own hyperbolic way, about writing a glorious article that would tout the strength of the human spirit played out in real time in an upset win in the local softball league and compare it to the triumphs of the US men’s national soccer team in the World Cup.

Then this happened.

The Bearcats, in their classic sublime manner, rattled off 11 base hits to score nine runs starting with the all-important lead off hit, or hits rather, by Schmidt, Smith and Knight to load the bases. Greene and Allen followed with back-to-back RBI base hits to score four runs, Vandervoort and Schmidt would tack on two more runs with singles and Smith would clear the bags with a three-run Inside the Park Home Run (ITPHR) for a 16-6 lead.

Still, it was only the fourth inning, and it would only make for a better story when the Inglorious Batters would come back to win.

But they didn’t.

The Bearcats would add three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and then, just as the Batters started finding their swing again in the top of the fifth inning, the Bearcats defense shut it down.

Foersterling, Bouey, Beard and Reeves started it off for the Batters with successive base hits driving in two runs, but the Bearcats turned a perfect 6-3-2 double play and Greene made a leaping grab at short to stop the Batters in their tracks that would eventually lead to a 24-9 Bearcats win. Guess I’ll check in on the Batters come the playoffs.

It turned out later that evening Mountain Colors edged out a 15-14 win over the Lords of Dirt, but I was busy watching the US men’s soccer team take down Bosnia-Herzegovina 2-0 to advance to the round of 16.

My bad.

But not as bad as FIFA’s recent decision. I mean FIFA has always been one of the most corrupt organizations in the world and we just got to watch corruption in real time.