Wednesday, April 16, 2008
The Daily Pooch Punt: 4/16/08
Josh Podgorski wasn’t kidding when he told us on Monday that the key to Tuesday’s baseball game between his Stuarts Draft Cougars and Waynesboro would be two-out hits.
He said it. He knew. Then he watched it happen at the KC during his team’s 8-3 loss to the Little Giants. The problem was those two-out hits didn’t come from his Cougars.
In back-to-back innings, two-out hits got the best of Draft and its ace Cameron Cook, none bigger in the bottom of the fifth when Josh Craig’s RBI single gave the Giants a 4-2 lead after two outs. Jeremy Hahn followed with a two-RBI double that rolled all the way to the wall in center.
It was much of the same in the sixth when two straight singles by Joseph “No, Not James” Lucas and Terrell Thompson (both after two outs) set up Eric Hall’s RBI poke into the outfield.
You do the math: Five runs in two innings all after two outs. That usually equals a loss.
After back-to-back walks issued by Cook in the fifth, the Cougar hurler mowed down Jay Thompson with runners on first and second, a rare feat (I mean Thompson is the Southern Valley’s best hitter and all) and things looked up. Another out in that inning and the Cougars are only down 3-2 against a Little Giant defense that decided to revert back to early-season form. (That’s not a good thing, by the way.) I mean this is good, right? Then Josh Craig gets all high and mighty, breaks out of his slump and rockets a shot to left.
“Jay, he’s been carrying us all year,” Craig said, “and when I saw him go down I said ‘OK, I can’t let the team down.’ ” He didn’t, which is why he was excited enough to pump his fist toward the dugout as he stood on first base. His teammates, packed up against the fence, yelling and pointing at him, were grateful he didn’t let them down.
Oh, and Hahn was thinking the same thing before he roped his two-out (there it is again), two-RBI double to the wall in center. At least, Craig said Hahn said it as well.
Things probably could have started off better for Lucas who took a Zac Marion shot off the thigh to open the game, hit a batter in the second and then committed a throwing gaffe (after walking and hitting back-to-back batters in the third) that gave the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Then he freezes Ricky Dimitt with that looping curve ball of his to end the third and all seems right on his mound.
Hey look, the Cougars got a two-out hit. A two-out inside-the-park homer, for that matter. It just happened in the seventh with Draft down 8-2. But hey, at least Marion got a two-out hit.
Sure, Terrell Thompson proved Tuesday (and probably all year, for that matter) that he’s arguably the best leadoff man in the Southern Valley, but Marion sure looks the part too. All he did was start the game off with that hit off ( and we mean “off” ) Lucas, get hit by a pitch (and eventually score), rope an RBI single and cap his day with that old fashioned homer. Can’t remember the last time two leadoff guys like that were on the same diamond at the same time.
Eric Hall, bring your 3-for-3, three-RBI day down here. Your table is ready.
Even with the win and even with an undefeated district record after the first cycle, Waynesboro skipper Jim Critzer is adamant that his team still needs to improve. He wants to see crisper fielding (though Stevie Moreland’s play at third base Tuesday garnered a “Some Major League stuff,” quote from Critzer) and, once again, wants to see more hitting.
“I’m not kidding,” Critzer said. “There are a few things we have to get better at. There’s a lot of potential in this ball club.”
Problem No. 1 right now is getting his No. 6, 7 and 8 hitters to do something. Anything really. The group went 0-9 against Cook on Tuesday, all were strikeouts.
“We had a lot of kids looking tonight,” Critzer said. “We need to be swinging the bat.”
Then, finally, after looking at the scoreboard and seeing that his team won, Critzer, who brushed off the contest as just another game, admitted that it was a big one.
“Of course it is,” he said. “That’s a good ball club over there, guys. That’s a real good ball club.”
Cameron Cook is good, folks. He paints the plate with fastballs and struck out 10 Little Giants. The problem was defense on Tuesday. “Any pitcher, good or bad, if you don’t play defense behind them, eventually a team is going to start rocking them,” Podgorski said. He’s right.
Critzer, despite the calls for improvement, looks like this team has taken 20 years off of him. Plain and simple, the veteran coach is excited. “These kids,” he said, “they want to win. They’re winners. Of course I’m excited, we got a good group.”
So Cody Montgomery hits the mound for Riverheads and strikes out nine Wilson Memorial batters earning the headline “Montgomery burns Wilson.” Excellent.
Shenandoah softball shirt idea: “Summer Ramsey, please stop striking us out.” Someone has got to figure out how to put a “K” somewhere in her name. Seriously, someone get on this. So let it be written, so let it done.