KEEP LOOKING, SON; WE'RE DOWN THERE SOMEWHERE

Well, it wasn’t the best of nights for the old Pen & Pencil Club softball team, as we lost 13-7 to the Franklin Institute on the beaches of Edgeley 4. It was our first loss to FI since the team fissured following the 2011 season. Previously, against this version of the Beating Hearts, we were 3-0 with a combined score of 46-16.

All that history was meaningless on Wednesday, however, as we fell behind early and were unable to get up. The Franklinites made the plays they needed to make and found the holes in our defense and potholes in the infield and won it fair and square.

We had our chances but were undone by a five-run first inning for the Institutionalists and then a seven-spot hung on us in the third when Franklin batted around. I meant to ask Buddy the last time FI batted around, but was afraid to hear the answer.

By the end of the fifth inning, after having trailed by 10, we struggled back to trail by six, but neither team

Yeah, Candy snared it.

scored in the last two innings. In fact, we held Franklin to just one run in its final four at-bats, but, alas, the damage had been done and it was time to drink beer and drive the car across the field. We even gave them the old, 1-2-3-Franklin after the game, obviously trying for our second straight Lady Byng Sportsmanship Jerkoff trophy.

For the record, since I keep these things and the league archives ain’t what they used to be, Franklin Institute was 2-33 in league play since Whitmarsh and Ventrola took the cool kids and went away. Both previous wins were over the Constitution Center, one in 2012 and one in 2013. Both of the wins over NCC were by more than six runs, however, so we’ve got that going for us.

Fortunately, because of the unbalanced schedule this season, we don’t see the Pirates of the Parkway again,

Even taking out their girls with body blocks didn't help.

having learned our lesson well enough.

Game details, you say? Thought you’d never ask.

Three hits for the Management, two each for losing hurler Chris Yasiejko, Jon Snyder and George Miller. We had just 14 hits total in our seven at-bats and brought four or fewer to the plate in four of those innings. Not good enough by a bunch.

The Franklins hit the ball up and down the lineup. I’m not going to try to separate the hits from the errors, but they all counted and 10 of the 12 in the Franklin lineup scored at least one run. That was annoying.

Ah, well. Onward. Next week we get to play the spinoff Franklinites, those Cajun dogs of Catahoula and it would be a nice symmetry to lose to one version of the FI team and then beat the supposedly better version the following week.

That game, Wednesday at Edgeley 3, is the rescheduling of our opener, which we graciously moved so that Nick could go to the Phillies opener. Just speaking for myself, I’ve had it up to here with being gracious for a while.

When all else fails, blame the scorekeeper. That book can't be right, can it? (Photos by Jon Snyder)

HONEY, DOES THIS MOUSTACHE MAKE MY BAT LOOK BIGGER?

We now know that the good news about the new era of wood bats in the Center City Softball League is that it can produce close, taut, exciting games, and we also know that can be the bad news, too.

The bad news bears repeating. (See what I did there?) There won’t be many instances of building up big leads and coasting to wins this season – as if that’s ever been our method. So, catching the ball and making the most of our offensive chances is more important than ever.

Tuesday was a dandy example as we held on for a 5-4 win over an Art Museum team that got the tie run to (almost) third base in the seventh inning and had its 2-3-4 hitters lined up to turn things into a dreary evening for us.

But the forces of good prevailed even though we brought only 15 batters to the plate in our final four innings of offense. The win evened us at 2-2 on the season.

Let’s get right to the highlight of the game: Chris Yasiejko’s moustache.

Yaz has decided to go all Rollie Fingers on us, although he chose not to wax the handlebars that have sprouted above his upper lip. I can’t say for sure if he has waxed anything else. More on that another time.

Along with pitching the final six innings, Yaz was our top hitter for the evening, going 2-for-2 and scoring two runs, including the winning run on a line drive home run to center field in the fourth inning that eluded Brian Rice and everyone else.

Ten batters had hits for us, but George Miller was the only one, aside from Yasiejko with multiple hits. Careful arithmetic means we had just 12 hits total. All of them were singles, with the exception of the homer by Yaz and another struck sharply inside the left field line by Jon Snyder to lead off our three-run second inning. Chris Brennan had the other two RBIs in the inning with a bases-loaded hit when we really needed one.

The P&P scoring began with a single run in the first inning courtesy of hits by Russ Krause, Kerry O’Connor and Miller.

That was all we got, but fortunately all we needed, too. The sixth looked promising, but Rice finally caught one, making a diving grab of a Miller line drive, and then, after a Mark Nevins base hit, the Arties turned a double play when Jeremy Darkness backhanded a shot by Steve Lynch and was able to double Nevins off first.

We had some stellar defense to earn the win. Krause tracked down a shot by Leadoff Lisa to begin the game; Donlen ran into the fence to snare a foul ball near third;Yaz started a spiffy 1-6-3 double play; and the game ended when Miller fielded a two-out grounder at short and – unsure if he could get the speedy LL at first – threw to Donlen at third for the tagout on a runner who neither slid nor surrendered, but was indeed out.

Well, it wasn’t easy, but we never surrendered, either, and have now dragged our sorry butts back to .500 again. It’s possible we should all grow moustaches, at least the guys. Whatever works.

Kind of a Zapruder-like quality, eh? Good thing we didn't need the run. (Photos by Jon Snyder)