Q: When is a walkoff, not really a walkoff?
A. When the team is leading by a wide margin, and does not take the lead with the final hit?
B. When the the final run results from a triple with an error, and not a home run?
C. When the umpire calls the game after an 11-run lead, when the league rule is 12?
D. When the umpire may have called the game for the cannot-start-an-inning-after-8-pm-CMBA rule?
E. When the player who hit the triple, sneaks into the manager’s bag and tries to change the official scorekeeper’s ruling?
F. All of the above?
Tonight, the answer was probably all of the above.
The Hounds defeated the Yankees 16-5 in a 6-inning shortened game at Winnemac Park today, with the wind howling out to the outfield and 80 degree sun. Tim Riggenbach (#8, P) got the win, and Mike DiCola (also #8, wearing “Riggenbach” on his back, P) got the 2-inning save (we only play 7 innings, so the 3 inning MLB rule applies for 2 in the CMBA).
The Hounds defense was sound (well, after the very first play, which was the only error of the entire game for the Hounds). Nick Ingram (#36, LF) made a diving play in left, Riggenbach saved a run with a force out at the plate, Brian Lehman (#2, SS) had 4 assists and a putout at short, and Matthew Steffens (#5, 2B) had 3 putouts and an assist at second.
The Hounds batsmen did it all, from Matt Burch’s (#6, 1B) first ever bunt single to Nick Ingram’s first Hounds home run. Tony Correa (#13, C) and Steffens both were hit by pitches in the helmet, and Brent Schoenbach (#7, 3B) was hit by a pitch as well. Lehman had a double and a triple, drove in 3 runs and scored twice. Burch, Correa, Schoenbach, and Steffens all scored twice as well. Phil Zelenka (#24, EH) also singled, scored, and had an RBI and Nelson Bowers (#48, DH) singled and doubled and drove in a run. TJ Rinaldi (#1, CF) singled twice, scored, and drove in a run. Basically, the entire offense was awesome today.
Finally, Nick Schmidt (#23) scored three times, and he singled, reached by an error, and tripled and scored to end the game, all the while demanding (1) his triple be scored a homerun or (2) his soft liner to short that the shortstop dropped be called a hit. His friends Nowruss, Matt, and Haley were so disgusted by his antics that they failed to show up to K’s Dugout after the game.
The Hounds have two scheduled games this weekend, and we hope the rain holds off and one or both actually get to be played. The Hounds have played the last 2 games in the entire league, today and last Wednesday–every single other game in between has been rained or flooded out.