Another beautiful
Western Catholic Atheletic League field graciously hosted
last Sunday's tussle. Warm muggy weather and a lot of fan's
in the stands watch two interesting games that turned on key
plays that coulda been outs but were mis-played into go
ahead opportunities. We're still
looking for a few good men to go to Tuscon... this could be
your chance to pitch or play that position you never get
enough of, let me know ASAP (that still means NOW!)
jprealini@aol.com. Lynn
LeFevre slammed the door on the Philly boys for six innings
and Mark Bruzzone gutted out the last two to hurl the Giant
Birdmen over the A's. Dave Vigil and MacAusland each threw
four to no avail against the steady Giant hitting
spree. Lynn
LeFevre slugged a triple and a single to lead Saint Louie
while five Giant Birdment had two-hit days: Keith DaCosta,
Mark Bruzzone, Frank Weishaar*, Michael Simon, and Doug
Rusch. Geoff Jacobs smashed a double to help beat up on the
A's. Doug Rusch did produce an amazing, twisting, turning,
acrobatic, and barely missing the fence catch of a pop-foul
at the plate. The
A's had three two-hit batsmen today: Dave Vigil, Rob
Oehrlein, and Don Luis*. Hilton, Calhoun, Greenfield, and
Calloway each chipped in singles for the
A's.. The
Oakland A's took advantage of some Christmas gifts from the
depleted San Francisco Giants to punch out an 11 to 5
victory. A collision between the outfielders on a "can of
corn" and two passed ball third strikes in the third (one by
each team) prolonged the innings and led to the winning runs
for the A's. Heath
Keller struggled through six innings of "stingy strike zone
syndrome" giving way to Tom Sanfillippo's darts for an
inning. Hard throwing Chuck Arthur came on to
finish. Dennis
Sanfillippo and Steve Conroy banged out singles while Todd
West crushed a triple with Heath Keller and Bill Doherty
blasting long doubles for the SF team. Jim Realini chipped
in two hits to round off the Giant attack. Oakland
A's point of view..... What a
great game everyone played Sunday. All of you will get ink
time in this write up today. It's Similar to HENDU'S Face
time, But with no picture. Offensively we started off a
little slow but picked it up when we needed to, with timely
hitting by almost everyone. There were only a couple of
guys that didn't get a hit in the book but got on with
walks and scored, Helping the A's play as a team and
damaging the Giants efforts that much more. Defensively we
played better than great. We had 1 or 2 errors throughout
the game, spread out and not hurting us at all. Great
Pitching by Mike Byron only allowing 2 HIT'S AND 2 RUN'S(
AWESOME JOB DUDE ) Dave Gaynor came in to relieve Mike at
the pitching spot and to get a little much needed work in
from the hill for the 2nd half run. Dave played a little cat
and mouse with some of the Giant batters for a couple of
innings, allowing a few hits. Then Dave shut'em down in the
8th, In the 8th Dave only saw 4 batters and turned them away
scoreless. Great Job as well Dave. Now on
to the Re cap................... In the
1st inning we only managed to send 4 batters to the plate
and only picking up 1 base hit from "Welcome back" Gordy
Yost. The Giants Matched Our play in the 1st . Into the 2nd.
Craig Alexander lead off with a base hit, Jeff McAusland
drew a walk then Gary "Hoop" Hopper punched a hit through
but the Giants lucked out with a slow developing play from
1st base and threw a perfect ball to home to get Craig
Alexzander at the plate for the 3rd out. Once again the
Giants Matched Our play with no runs as well. Into the
3rd, Felix "Ba Ba" Lu lead off with a nice base hit, Up next
is Culbert "Ba Ba" Lu, Culbert worked the Giants pitcher for
a Great at bat walk, The "Ba Ba" Lu's started the A's attack
in the 3rd by great base running F-Lu scored on a fly ball
tag up an C-Lu scored on the only base hit of the inning by
"Welcome back" Yosti. Believe it, those Giants matched us
again with 2 runs in the 3rd. going into the 4th it's all
tied up.The A's are about to strike again. Alexander lead
off with a full count walk, Rod Oehrlein followed with
another full count walk putting runners a 1st and 2nd. Don
"Ba Ba" Luis drew a a a another full count walk loading them
all up. Mello Yellow went in to run for Coach "Ba Ba" Luis
so Mello could keep his ( Cal Ripkin ) run going by not
missing 1 game since the A's started playing the Giants 5
years ago. Jeff McAusland hit into a 6-4-3 double play and 1
A's run crossed the plate. Here comes Hoop to the plate.
Hoop drilled an RBI single scoring Rod Oehrlein. That was it
for the A's in the 4th. The Giant's layed a goose egg in the
4th and they were no match for the A's this time. Into the
5th. Culbert "Ba Ba" Lu lead of the inning and smoked a
monster shot to right field which should have been an extra
base hit but the Giants made a excellent catch for the 1st
out of the inning. Patrick "My Man" Macias followed with a
base hit, which was Our only offensive damage of the inning.
The Giants were held scoreless once again.Into the 6th the
A's were held scoreless, But the Giants came up and rallied
for a couple of runs to tie the game up at 4 apiece. Into
the 7th. Don "BaBa" Luis belted a hit, Jeff McAusland smoked
a RBI double scoring The fast paced gazelle type runner Don
Luis. The Hoop drew a walk and Felix "Ba Ba" Lu copied Hoop
With another walk. Next up was Brother Lu from L.A. Brother
Lu from L.A. popped up an infield fly and all hell broke
loose on the bases. I really don't know what all happened
except I do know that Jeff McAusland scored before the 3rd
out of that infield fly play. The Giants scored only once
in the 7th giving the A's a slim 1 run lead. After 7 full
the A's 6 and the Giants 5. Into the top of the 8th As the
Giants were the visitors. Dave Gaynor held the Giants
scoreless. As the Giants were watching the clock, to try to
get their up's again and also try to put the big hurt on the
A's, The A's were ready for the Challenge. With 2 quick outs
from Our 1 and 2 batters the Hitting frenzy started. Mike
Byron belted a hit,Dave Gaynor smashed a 2 base hit RBI,
Craig Alexzander kept the action and time clock running by
belting another RBI base hit Rod Oehrlein drew a walk. And
Coach "Ba Ba" Luis belted another single. This brought Jeff
McAusland to the plate, Jeff worked the Giants Pitcher for a
RBI Base on balls. It aint over till it's over and I'm up
Say's Hoop. And "HOLY TOLEDO" Hoop Nailed a base hit smash
driving in 2 more runs, at this time the Giants had enough
and had the Blu's brothers call the game on
time. #1. Doug Rusch was thrown
out at second on Kim Ruppert's single up the center,
converting Kim's hit into a Fielder's Choice.
RETURN
TO BASEBALL PAGE
JIM
REALINI
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
July 15th, 2007