JUST A PLAY OFF

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A play here, a play there. A catch, a pitch, a swing, a bloop, a bad step. Any of those. That’s how it looks after you lose a 14-13 game to begin and end the postseason run.

The truth is that the Art Museum, which beat the Pen & Pencil by that lone run on Tuesday night on the unforgiving plateau of Dairy 2, would have had the same regrets and the same thoughts if the score had been reversed – which it easily could have been.

Both teams were pretty good, neither was perfect, and the Arties would have gone home thinking about the ground ball that went through the wickets or the right fielder who fell down. Instead, it was us reliving the bad bounce in the outfield or the 1/32 of an inch difference between where the ball struck Dan Rubin’s bat for the final out of the game and the spot that would have propelled it over the outfield for a three-run home run.

That close.

And what has all that perspective taught us, class? That losing really sucks. But we have learned that hard

lesson before.

Anyway, that’s the season. We got the exact matchup we wanted with the Art Museum because we knew it was going to be a great game and it was. Every time we play the Arties, the game goes that way. They get to go off and play Catahoula now and we get to pursue whatever it is that we do until next season.

Let’s chew it over a bit, shall we?

We jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first with a bunch of singles and runs batted in by Mark Nevins, Chip Proctor and Brian Donlen. Not happy with success, we opened the door a little in the bottom of the inning and The Management gave up five straight hits at one point as the Dusty Hall of Artifacts came back to take a 4-3 lead.

The bottom of the order rose up in the second inning as we scored twice more to regain the lead, 5-4, with four hits, including RBIs by Jon Snyder and Russ Krause. The inning ended on a line drive by George Miller that Ray somehow snared on the mound, preventing at least one more run.

In the top of the third, following a good running catch by Proctor to shut out the Arties in their at bat, we scored four more to take a 9-4 lead. Chris Yasiejko’s run-scoring double capped off that rally, and there was an RBI triple for Rubin and a two-run single by Donlen in the run.

Well, it sure looked good there and continued to look good as we held the Museumites to single runs in the third and fourth and then added two runs in the top of the fifth for an 11-6 lead. A Steve Lynch triple followed by singles from Nevins, Proctor and Rubin provided those runs.

And wouldn’t it have been a nice story if the game stopped there. Regrettably the bottom of the fifth gave the Artistes three more runs, and then, as the sun decided to slip behind the trees and make seeing the ball a lot easier, the Home of the Rocky Statue won the game with five runs in the bottom of the sixth. It was a  slo-mo horror reel with all the runs coming with two outs. The big blow was a three-run home run to right field by Adam, who had cleverly disguised this ability by going to the left side in each of his three previous at-bats. So when The Management cleverly gave him an outside pitch, hoping he would try to pull it and pop up, he smacked it deep into the night and the pitch wasn’t so fucking clever.

Down 14-11, we rallied in the seventh. Krause led off with another line drive through the box that Ray claimed, so that wasn’t very good, but we had back-to-back hits from Miller and Lynch for one run, then a

run-scoring groundout to the right side by Nevins. Proctor and Donlen then got singles to put the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run on base, but Rubin’s deep drive to the oddly-dressed Frank in right-center turned out to just not deep enough.

Oh, fucking well. We shook hands and drank some more beer and cut down the festive playoff bunting and considered our sins, which were many.

Overall, we had 23 hits to go with our 13 runs, which should have been enough. Lynch, Nevins and Donlen had three hits each. Krause, Miller, Proctor, Rubin, Yasiejko and Snyder had two hits each. Nevins and Donlen each had three RBIs. There were only four extra base hits. A triple and double from Lynch, a triple from Rubin and a double by Yaz.

It was plenty of offense, but just not enough luck on the defensive side to get the popout or close play when we needed it. Exactly half of the Art’s 14 runs scored with two outs. Only three of our 13 runs came with two outs, and we left five in scoring position. That is very unfortunate. But it happened.

We might have deserved better, but you get what you get, not what you deserve. Onward. There is some planning for a friendly or two, probably on a Saturday, probably in September. And the CCSL All-Star Game is Tues., Aug. 5. That’s always a good time and the All-Star rules are pretty loose. Everyone is an All-Star!

Onward. See you soon. More information as it arrives. Great season, and next time we make that play. Chris, who gets the beer bill?

Photos by Jon Snyder and Chris Yasiejko.