The Chicago Hounds are back to .500 (5-5) on the 2019 CMBA season after losing to the Yankees 7-2. The Hounds won the season series 2 games to 1 v. the Yanks, but were unable to complete the sweep.

The Yankee hurler threw pretty hard today and Gil the umpire’s zone was huge (and inconsistent), so the Hounds first three batters all struck out. Nick Schmidt (#23, EH/LF) stood in the box after a Jack Deichl-like K (= 3 straight strikes looking). But, Nick’s crew all showed up at the bar, so my dad can rest easy that everything is OK with Nick and his friends!

The Yankees took an early 4-0 lead off of opener Phil Zelenka (#24, P), helped in no small part by a few Hound errors and a few hit batsmen. The Yankees then got 3 more off of reliever Casey Peterson (#30, P) in the second frame, but then Peterson and Tim Riggenbach (#8, LF/P) shut the Yankees offense down for the next 4 innings.
So, the Hounds were behind the whole game and K’d 10 times overall. The only baserunner to reach in the first 4 innings for the Hounds was TJ Rinaldi (#8, CF) on a sharp double to lead off the second, but he was left stranded at second base. The Hounds offense did not get a run across the board until in the 6th inning after a 7-0 deficit when Matthew Steffens (#5, SS) singled and stole second, and Brian Lehman (#2, RF/2B) singled to drive in the first Hound run. Steffens and Lehman also combined on a fine double play up the middle.

The Hounds scored their second and final run when Matt Burch (#6, 1B) reached on an error by the catcher after hitting the ball at most 2-3 feet down the first base line–Burch has reached by error seemingly 1-2 times in nearly every game this year. Burch took second on the error and then Arron Kruse (#11, 3B) singled him home.

There was a good crowd at K’s after the game, including my dad, Mel, Haley (and Nick’s other friends), Casey Peterson (for the first time during the regular season), and a bunch of Hounds (TJ cleaned up in darts). Meghan ordered the densest heaviest “cookies” ever (they seemed more like muffins), and fun, food, and drink was had by all. And Karen finally stopped charging my dad for soda. Happy Sunday!

The Hounds play the first of 3 K’s Dugout rivalry games v. the Electrons on Thursday at Winnemac. It is also open mic night at K’s on Thursday, so come to see Tony (and possibly Nick Ingram, Matt Burch, and Hans Hetrick and others) perform a crowd-pleasing set.