New Decade, New (Half-)Season, Same Bad Attitude
| This past Sunday, the Brewerkz River Rats kicked off the new decade, otherwise to be referred to as ‘The 2010-2019 Campaign,’ in style playing a twin bill versus arch-rivals, the CAT/APL team.
With the holiday season barely ended and the US collegiate school year not yet underway, the Rats were the happy beneficiaries of the skills of a Gen 2 Rat, Russell Kreutter. After CAT/APL plated a pair to start Game One, Russ kicked things off in the bottom of the first with a single and came around to score the game’s first run on Steve Davis’ homer to straight away center.
Following two innings where the Rats managed to avoid getting a runner past first base, the Rats re-took the lead in the 4th. A further 5-run outburst in the 6th inning extended the Rats’ lead to 9-2. Excellent defense was the watchword, as the Rats held our evil and pernicious opponents scoreless over the final 6 innings of the game.
Even more surprisingly, the team earned only a solitary pink hat. Despite the paucity of pink, the hattable offense was a doozy as James ‘I Think the Bat is Just More Comfortable on My Shoulder’ Stanczak watched a strike three pitch landed squarely in the middle of the plate.
After a refreshing break, the Rats returned to the field of play. Game Two started well, with the Rats scoring twice in the top of the first. CAT/APL, however, answered with four runs to take a 4-2 lead. The Rats’ bats immediately fell silent for the next two innings, but continued strong defense kept the team in the game.
Things started looking up with a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth. A 6-4-3 double play quickly erased that runner and the sad parade of non-hitting looked set to continue. Then ---
suddenly ---
dramatically ---
--- an inspired coaching decision turned the tide. With Steve Davis visiting the ‘lil Rats room, Old Man River Davis (Steve’s progenitor) stepped to the plate and calmly rapped a two-strike single to left. Despite reports of there being a rather hunky mailman “delivering the mail” in the Davis family’s Seattle neighborhood some 40-odd years ago, we’re pretty sure the patrilineage is correct. The evidence: Big Daddy Davis’ injured hobble to first base! I guess it runs in the family.
Well, that 2-out hit started a string of 7 consecutive Rats reaching base safely. The key hit of the inning came when Adam ‘I Might as Well Get This Outta the Way’ Persson shocked everyone by knocking his annual single to right to drive in the go ahead runs.
Although CAT/APL scored a run in the bottom of the inning, the Rats continued to pile on runs, en route to a final score of 17-5.
And, lest we forget, the pink hat earner of this game was Brian Porter.
And, with that, the Brewerkz River Rats started decade two of the 21st century on a winning streak. Tune in to www.singaporerats.com to see how long the streak lasts.
Hitting Valedictorians: * Russ Kreutter – 6 for 7, .857 * Steve Davis – 4 for 5, .800, BB, dinger
Hitting Salutatorians: * Daniel Heng – 2 for 3, .667, 2B, 3 BB * Methuselah Davis – 2 for 3, .667 * Collin Toh – 3 for 5, .600
Hitting Sent to the Principal’s Office -ers: * Brian Porter – 4 for 7, .571 * Adam Persson – 4 for 7, .571
Hitting Homeroom Detentioners: * Tony Trombino – 3 for 7, .429 * Chad Garcia – 2 for 5, .400
Hitting Please Repeat the Graders: * Greg Parker, 2 for 6, .333 * Kevin Weisgerber, 1 for 3, .333 * Steve Kreutter, 1 for 3, .333 * Frank Hufschmid, 1 for 3, .333 * Travis Washko, 2 for 7, .286 * James Stanczak, 1 for 5, .200
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