Previous Game Highlights for 2008

Sep 22  -VS-  House

We didn't play a *bad* game, we just didn't play our *best* game.  There were some great offensive and defensive highlights, but overall we were below par, and the ending score showed us a little short.  House was fired up, and led 5-3 in the 2nd, extending their lead to 8-6 in the 4th.  Jeffery and Roger shut them down in the 5th with great SS plays and pitcher defensive line drive stops, but we just couldn't find our bats in the 6th inning, and ended up the second season in 3rd place with a 14-6 loss in the 6th inning, called on time.  We'll get 'em next year!

Sep 15  -VS-  Calvary Nazarene

Every team has an off night.  Sep 15th was ours.  Nazarene played a good game, strong hitting and good defense.  Our offense stank with only 5 hits, the only bright spot was a 3-run HR by Kevin, which incidentally was our only scoring.  Defense was error prone : missed balls, fumbled catches, you get the picture.  They jumped ahead 4-0 in the 1st, and it just got worse from there, resulting in 12-run-rule loss of 3-15 in the 5th inning.

Sep 8  -VS-  College Heights

What a game!  We won 18-11 in 5 Innings. They had an early lead, we pulled ahead and held on. Our defense was really good and we had 2 great catches from Rob Taylor and an inning stopper by Chris Peterson when he threw a guy out trying to steal 3rd base. Kevin hit a monster shot. Pete was 3 for 3 and several others had multiple hits including our manager Jeffery who was forced to play because of a last minute no show. We were able to avenge an earlier loss and remain undefeated in the tournament.  (submitted by Ken Plunkett)

Sep 2nd  -VS-  Forest Park

Nasty drizzly night, just not quite bad enough to call off the games.  Made for interesting outfielding.  We jumped ahead 8-2 in the 2nd and 12-5 in the 3rd, by hitting well with few errors.  Forest Park came back sprightly in the 4th, but we answered to tie 16-16, including a 3-RBI homer by Kevin.  They scored 1 in the top of the 5th.  Steve led off with a double, Kevin hit a triple against the RF fence, and Stu brought him in with a nice line drive, ending the game with a 18-17 Win.

August 18th  -VS-  Calvary Nazarene

The 8:15 PM game was *supposed* to be at Bassman field.  Thanks to a miscommunication by Joplin Parks & Recreation (again!), it ended up being a 9:15 PM game at Redden.   Game time actually began at 10:35 PM, thanks to triple overtime of the previous game.  The Nazarene roster was mostly MSSU 20-somethings who could run like we used to.  The first 2 innings we just sorta stood there while they ran up an 8-2 lead.  Finally we started playing softball in the 3rd, and ended up with a 12-12 tie in the 5th.  This extended to a 17-17 tie in the 6th, and Nazarene scored 3 in the top of the 7th.  Being home team, our last at-bat was a valiant effort, but didn't *quite* make the grade, scoring only 2 and resulting in a 19-20 loss.

August 11th  -VS-  Calvary Legends.

When you play as a team, you win as a team, and that is what happend tonight.  Perfect softball weather made up for a delayed start (10 PM gametime due to a P&R mix-up).  We jumped ahead 5-3 in the 1st, and never let up.  We traded errors in the 2nd - 4th, but we also hit well, with Stuart and Steve leading, resulting in a 21-8 lead going into the 5th.  Calvary found their bats in the 5th, closing the lead.  But we held on defensively and walked away with a 24-17 win against the 1st Season champs.

Aug 4th  -VS-  Forest Park

Good game.  It was a 6:15 pm game and it was HOT out there, almost record high.  We played with 4 substitute players, but they fit right in.  Started off 3-1 in the 1st, 5-3 in the 2nd.  Then both teams woke up and we traded hits (and errors) ending up 13-5 in the 5th.  Forest Park almost rallied in the 6th, but not quite, and we ended up with a 13-8 win.

July 28th  -VS-  College Heights

Every team has an off night.  July 28th was ours...  C.H. jumped ahead 7-1 in the 1st.  After that we traded a few runs in the 2nd & 3rd ending up at 12-3.  C.H. broke loose again in the 4th with a 2 out rally : hitting blooper singles when we played the outfield back, and surprise burns over our heads when we played the outfield in.  We rallied in the 4th with a 3 RBI HR by Stuart, but we just didn't follow up, and ended with a loss 7-19.

July 14th  -VS-  Fellowship Baptist

Sounded like one of our better games.  I was not able to be there, so this report is from Roger and Ken.  "25-5 Win in 5 innings.  Lots of hits.  Few errors.  Kevin hit another home run, congratulations.  Steve chalked up 4 doubles."

July 7th  -VS-  Immanuel Lutheran

Great Game, until the 5th inning.  We won the toss for home team, and proceeded to play pretty good softball.  We jumped ahead in the 1st.  Each inning saw a couple errors, but a bunch of hits.  We led 11-1 in the 3rd, and 19-4 in the 4th, with a Grand Slam 4-RBI by Kevin.  Immanuel was having an off night up till the bottom of the 5th inning. They broke loose with 10 runs, batting hit after hit straight up the middle, and we didn't help the situation with our 4 errors.  But it wasn't enough, and we chalked up a 19-14 win.

June 23rd  -VS-  Forest Park (2nd Place Tournament)

Best offensive game of the year!  Winning the toss, we started rattling the bats on the first inning.  Everybody hit.  Our defense was tight, at least until the 3rd inning, where we allowed 5 runs with 3 errors.  Offense continued, and we led 11-5 in the 5th.  Trading runs in the 6th & 7th, we ended up winning 17-12 after a full 7 innings, clinching 2nd Place.

June 23rd  -VS-  Calvary Legends (1st Place Tournament)

Well, it just wasn't real pretty.  This 'rainbow' league is not seeded properly.  As catcher I heard the Umpire and the Legends players discussing "whether they placed 1st or 2nd in so-and-so State Tournament".  Despite that, we played a pretty good game, although somewhat worn from the 6 PM game.  We rattled some bats (not enough), made some errors (too many), and had some injuries (Jeffery, Ken, Karl), but played the full 7 innings against this team, which is more than -most- teams in our league can say.  We ended up with a 1-11 Loss on a double play.

June 16th  -VS-  Fellowship Baptist

We put on our game face, won the toss, and rattled the bats from the start.  Defense started out flawless, and we were 2-0 after 3 and 5-0 after 4.  Fellowship came back 5-3, and we traded one or two each inning, with the score tied 7-7 in the bottom of the 7th.  Scott led off with a double,  Kevin advanced him to 3rd, and Steve batted him in for a 8-7 win.  Excellent game, the 2nd best or our season.  Defensive player of the game was a tie between pitcher Stuart with 5 1st base outs, and shortstop Jeffery with an amazing catch at 2nd, and rundown at 1st.

June 16th  -VS-  Immanuel Lutheran

Immanuel had played the previous game, but started out strong.  We had an hour between games, but it was debatable if this was an advantage or not.  Turned out to be in our favor this week, and we played almost as good as the first game.  We lost the toss, but led early 5-0 in the 2nd, when the defensive errors started creeping in.  We did manage to hold them to 3 runs.  After that both teams managed to hit the ball right into the other team's gloves.  Kendall caught a bunch, the most action LC has seen all season.  The 4th and 5th tore it wide open for us, where we scored 11 on 2 outs.  Immanuel couldn't rally, and the game was called for time after 5 innings with a 16-3 win.   This win clinched at least 3rd place for us.

June 2  -VS-  Calvary Young Guns

Calvary was in trouble from the start, with only 8 players.  Their 9th player showed up in the 3rd but it was too little too late.  They also had pitching trouble, walking 9.  We batted well, hitting them thru the sparse infield.  Our defense was tight, no errors.  They did spark a surprise in the 4th, rattling 3 in a row off the center field fence, but again it was too little too late, and the game was called after 5 innings for a 18-6 Win.

June 2  -VS-  Forest Park

Every inning except for the 3rd, we wondered where the St. Mary's team went.  This couldn't be the same team that played at 6 PM.  Anyways, in the 3rd we battled back from 2-8 to tie it up 8-8, and most of the hits came with 2 outs.  We lost the initiative in the 4th, making many defensive errors and batting the ball straight into Forest Park gloves.  We never recovered, and the game was called for time in the 5th with an 8-19 Loss.

May 19th  -VS- Fellowship Baptist

Best game of the year!  Excellent offense with zero errors made for a great game.  Perfect weather and a large cheering fan base was nice also.  Second inning was our best, putting us up 12-2.  Kevin put one over the fence.  Slama had 2 hits from 2 at-bats with 4 RBI (and 2 fielder's choice outs...).  Roger rattled right center field fence.  Steve and Jim continued expanding their hitting distance.  Everybody hit well all around, resulting in a 18-4 win after 6.

May 12th  -VS-  Immanuel Lutheran

We've played this team many times, it's enjoyable as we're pretty evenly matched.  We traded some hits (and some errors...) most innings, we just ended up with more players crossing home.  Excellent long range hitting on our part, with Stu going yard, and quite a few bounced off the left center fence.   Jeffery & Kevin dominated right field power hitting.  Beautiful evening weather-wise, great fun, a 19-11 win, and prayers afterwards for the tornado victims.

May 12th  -VS-  Calvary Legends

Just not real pretty.  Like Scott said, this rainbow team (I counted 5 different team jerseys) lazed around for most of the game, then poured on their true ringer abilities at the end.  Indeed, we were 6-0 after 3 and 8-4 after 6 innings.  Then came the 7th, they beat the snot out of the ball hit after hit, and we ended up losing 8-16.

May 5th  -VS-  Forest Park

We enjoy playing Forest Park, both teams are about equal, and we saw that again this game.  Both sides traded one or two runs up thru the 5th.  We had a nice 2-out rally in the 3rd.  Their 3rd baseman fielded many many balls, a regular vacuum.  Their pitcher had trouble in the 4th, walking 3.  TWO of our guys swung on 3-0 pitches.  Fielding and hitting were about equal, and we were tied 7-7 in the top of the 6th.  And then... they blitzed, putting them on top 14-7.  We just never rallied, and the game was called on time.

April 28th  -VS-  Calvary Young Guns

We lost the flip to become visitors, then lost our focus as we got off to a slow start, trailing 1-2 after 2.  Then we fired up and found our bats, pulling ahead 12-4 in the 4th, helped by 4 Calvary errors and excellent heads-up extra base running on our part.  Calvary found their bats, and we traded 3-4 runs each in the 5th & 6th.  We kept the lead and scored a 20-11 Win as the game was called on time.

April 14th season opener  -VS-  Fellowship Baptist

Not bad for not playing or practicing since last fall.  We jumped to an early 8-1 lead and held it into the 3rd.  They scored 6 in the 4th, 5 of which were our errors.  They also had 4 errors in the 4th & 5th innings, giving us 4 runs.  After trading a couple runs per inning after that, we ended up with a 14-11 Win as the game was called on time.