The Chicago Hounds beat the Vikings 20-8 today in 6 innings just before the lightning and thunderstorm took over the north side of Chicago (reminding us of Nolan’s homer in the gloaming v. the Vikings at Taft a few years ago).

The Hounds dominated the day, and the game was never really in question. Arron Kruse (#11, 3B) and Brian Lehman (#2, 2B/RF) had extra base hits, and Phil Zelenka (#24, EH/2B) had a line-drive single as well. Charlie #5 (even though there are only 4 Charlies) [Alec Reinke (#14, DH)] probably reached safely as well, I just don’t remember, and the scorebook is in the car and I am not going back outside to get it.

Casey Peterson (#30, P) and Tim Riggenbach (#8, RF/P) threw three innings each to get the victory on the mound for the Hounds. But the key today was consistent hitting and run scoring from the Hounds offense. In many years past we have had arguably the best overall pitching and defense in the league, but we have always lacked a little on the offense side. Not this year, as we have a solid lineup every game and just score a ton of runs.

After the game I talked to the third baseman for the Vikings, who is a super nice guy. He said: “Have I seen you at K’s Dugout a couple of times?” I said, “Yes, I am sure you have, they sponsor us.” He said, “well, I live really close by Winnemac and K’s and go there quite a bit.” I said, “What are you doing, you should say hi and join us.” And he responded, “well, usually I am drinking there alone, not with my team.” He added, “you guys really crushed us today.” I responded, “Yes, we did today, but we had to avenge the loss from last time.” He said, “yeah, well, I wasn’t there, which is probably why we lost.” I asked, “what is your name, could it be Brent?” And he said, “no, Dan.”

The Hounds are now 10-9 and play the Pirates at Winnemac on Saturday and the Browns at Proviso West on Sunday. According to Tony’s dad we need to win both games and go 9-5 on the rest of the season. Seems reasonable to me.

EDIT: Every write up I make mistakes. Every write up I have regrets. This time it was this, the quote was: “yeah, well I wasn’t there, which is probably why we WON” — not lost.
Sorry Linda!