DRAMATIC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME COMPLETES 1998 UCSC OPEN SOFTBALL SEASON | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |10 || R | H | E | LOB | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Re-entry | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 || 9 | 23 | 2 | 12 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mmm...Bops | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 || 7 | 24 | 3 | 17 | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call them the come-back kids. For the second playoff game in a row, the Re-entry team fell behind early and then overcame a hitting slump to overtake their opponents. The Re-entry team is actually an amalgam of physicists and former re-entry UCSC students who play under the name Re-entry. The physics team members consist of manager Tim Nissen (an undergraduate physics major), graduate students Bob Echols, Norm Lowrey and Joe McCullough, and Professors Howard Haber and Scott Thomas. Scott now works at Stanford, but still maintains his Santa Cruz residence from his post-doctoral days. Only two Re-entry students (now alumni who live in the area) remain from a previous incarnation of the team: Mike Blevitt and Tony Kodis. Long-time McHenry Library staffer Jerry Lane has played with the physicists for the last eight years, while two new additions, Peter Kreder and Joe Moulton, rounded out the squad of 11 players. On Wednesday June 10, 1998 in a semi-final playoff contest against the Hurricanes, Re-entry fell behind 4-1 early in the game, and entered the top of the 7th one run down. Howie led off the 7th with a single to right-center. Joe Moulton followed with a single to nearly the same place that scooted past the outfielders. Howie came barreling around third (not hearing the 3rd base coach's advice), and scored just ahead of the relay from the outfield thereby tying the score. On the throw, Joe took third. Mike then grounded out to shortstop. The shortstop looked Joe back to third before throwing to first. But, Joe was off and running on the throw to first, and he slid into home just ahead of the tag with the go-ahead run. Re-entry picked up an insurance run later in the inning and held in the bottom of the 7th for the 9-7 victory. That win qualified the Re-entry team for the championship game for the first time in two springs (Re-entry lost in the semi-finals one year ago). But the true heroics were yet to come. In the championship game against the Mmm...Bops, Re-entry fell behind quickly 5-1 after one inning. In the bottom of the first inning, the Mmm...Bops hit one line-drive single after another in a clinic of hitting prowess. At the end of the 3rd, Re-entry was five runs behind, after the meat of the Mmm...Bops line-up had their second set of at-bats. It was time for a change of strategy. Re-entry realigned their defense to use the short-center fielder as a rover, instead of the four-man deep outfield used in the first three innings. The Mmm...Bops bats began to cool as they started to try to hit the open field (opposite the rover). More often than not, they either weakly popped out or grounded out. Still, the Re-entry bats were quiet, and as they entered the 6th inning five runs down, they wondered what it would take to turn things around. Yet, the team was amazingly loose. With one out, Howie opened the 6th inning hitting with a line-drive single to right-center. Scott followed with a double down the right field line and suddenly it was second and third. Joe Moulton followed with a flair to left, and both runners held to see if the ball would drop. It did, and Howie scored from third, but Scott was gunned down trying to take third on the play. The third base coach took full responsibility for his error in judgment. On the play, Joe ended up at second base, but now there were two outs. What followed was clutch hitting from the next two batters. Mike singled home Joe, taking second on the throw to the plate. Bob followed with a single and Mike was home with the third run of the inning. Re-entry was now down 7-5. With no further scoring in the sixth inning, Re-entry approached the top of the 7th and final inning of regulation play down two runs and one last attempt to prolong the season. To set the stage for the dramatic 7th, a few details about the game. You pitch to your own team (so, no balls and strikes are called), but each batter gets only three pitches. For the championship game, the Intramurals office had four umpires working (instead of the usual one). The main umpire at home plate was Skippy, who is the head of the Intramurals Office. The second base umpire, Kelly, is third baseman on the Re-entry co-ed team, but Kelly is widely admired for her integrity and sense of fair play. In the top of the 7th, with two outs and a runner on first base, Howie came up to bat. Refusing to have the season end right there, he sent the second pitch down the left field line for a single, leaving the heroics to Scott. With runners on first and second, Scott took the first pitch and weakly fouled off the second pitch. The last pitch (if he misses or fouls it off, the game is over), was down the middle, and Scott laced a low liner to short center field. The whole game turned on what happened next. The center-fielder saw the lead runner attempting to score, and rifled the throw home. Howie, who had rounded second, saw the throw on the way home and headed for third. But, the throw was way overthrown and sailed over the backstop! Howie trotted on home, assuming that he would be awarded home on the overthrow. Suddenly, loud protests erupted from the Mmm...Bops. Howie was at second when the throw was made, so they argued that he should only get 3rd. Skippy called over Kelly from second based and asked whether Howie had already rounded 2nd when the outfielder made his throw. She indicated affirmatively, and Skippy ruled that on the overthrow the extra run scores and the game was now tied 7-7! Further protests by the Mmm...Bops led to another conference of the umpires. A few minutes later, Skippy announced that the call would stand. A personal note at this point. I believe that I had already rounded the bag before the throw was made. The third baseman bitterly objected to this claim. There is no doubt that this was a close call (although the official rules of softball clearly state that the runner gets two bases on the overthrow). Nevertheless, the true error lies with the Mmm...Bops center fielder who made the throw. What was he thinking? He was apparently concerned with the 6th Re-entry run, which was of no consequence. His main concern should have been to keep me (the tying run) on second and try to get the last out. Joe Moulton ended the 7th with an out, and Re-entry took the field to try to hold the Mmm...Bops in the bottom of the 7th. It didn't look good for Re-entry when the Mmm...Bops sent two line drive singles into left field to open the bottom half of the 7th. With runners on first and second, the next batter send a screaming grounder into the hole between the shortstop and third-baseman. Bob (The Re-entry third baseman) dove to his left and just got his glove on the ball. He then just had enough time to get up and tag the runner coming from second. This was the second critical play of the game and effectively decided its outcome. But we would not know this for another 30 minutes. With one out, the next batter also hit a hot grounder to 3rd base, but this time the ball was to Bob's right. No dive was necessary this time. Bob fielded the ball cleanly and stepped on third base for the force. The runner on 2nd (perhaps with the previous play in mind), held up at the bag in order not to run into the tag at 3rd base. This confused the runner on first who initially headed for second base. But, upon seeing the runner ahead of him still at second, he simply returned to first base! Bob saw what was happening (with some help from his screaming teammates), and simply ambled over to second to touch the base and complete the inning ending double play unassisted. Psychologically, the Mmm...Bops were finished. The controversial call in the top of the 7th and the stellar dive by Bob in the bottom of the 7th took the fight out of their team. But, nothing is easy under the pressure of a championship game (even if it is only for pride, T-shirts, and bragging rights). Tensions were high on all sides (including the umpires!) as the game moved into extra innings. In the top of the 8th, Mike led off with a single and was instructed to tag up on a fly ball. Bob followed with a low fly ball to shallow left-field, and Mike tagged. This was a clear error by the first base coach who misjudged the situation. The ball fell in front of the left-fielder, but he had time to pick it up and throw to second base for the force. So instead of first and second and no outs, it was one runner at first with one out. Another single followed, but that was all. Ironically, two baserunning errors had cost us two runs (recall Scott being thrown out at 3rd), and perhaps the game. No championship game had ever gone beyond one extra inning. In the bottom of the eighth, two quick outs followed by fly ball to medium short right field. The Re-entry right fielder reached the ball in time, but the ball bounced off his glove, and the inning continued. The next batter swung hard and hit a dribbler about five feet in front of the plate. The batter was frozen, while the Re-entry catcher fielded the ball and looked toward second. Finally, he realized that the batter had not left home, and he tossed the ball to third for the third out. On to a second extra inning---the 9th. With one out, Howie hit a flair down the left field line which dropped between the left fielder, shortstop and third baseman for a single. Scott followed with a single, and Re-entry was threatening again with two men on and only one out. Joe Moulton followed with a line drive to short center field, but the rover swooped in to snag the ball. Howie had started for third, and was easily doubled off second to end the inning. (I did not have good vision on that hit, but perhaps I was being a little too aggressive.) Call that our third baserunning error. But, we survived the bottom of the 9th without incident. It seemed clear that the Mmm...Bops were getting tighter, while Re-entry still remained remarkably loose. The end came quickly. Mike led off the top of the 10th with a line drive down the right field line for a double. The right-fielder bobbled the ball, and Mike took advantage using his blazing speed and slid into third base ahead of the relay. Bob popped out for the first out, but Tony laced a pitch over the third baseman's head for a double, easily scoring Mike for the go-ahead run. Peter followed with a single scoring Tony for the second run, and reached third on a single by Joe McCullough. With first and third and one out, Tim hit a fly ball to short center. Peter tagged up and tried to score on the fly, but this time was gunned down on a perfect throw from the rover. End of inning, but the damage was done. Re-entry was up 9-7 and was about to face the bottom three of the Mmm...Bops line up. If any of those batters got on, Re-entry would have to survive the Mmm...Bops big gunners. But, three ground balls to third, short and third respectively quickly finished matters. Re-entry was the champion of UCSC Intramural Open Softball. Somehow, Re-entry overcame missing Jerry and Norm in the finals, Howie's sore back (brought back to mid-season form with the help of Motrin and Zostrix cream), and a set of bats that had been too silent for too many playoff innings. Re-entry co-ed teammates Sarah and Patty stopped by to cheer the team on, which must have been worth at least one run. What kept Re-entry in the game was an almost error-free defense and clutch hitting starting in the 6th inning. The Re-entry co-ed team was also in action last week, attempting to improve on three consecutive UCSC Intramural Co-ed championships. The string was snapped on Thursday, June 11, when Re-entry met up with their arch-rivals the Hurricanes. Having beaten the Hurricanes in the open semi-finals, the co-ed version of the Hurricanes were particularly hungry. In the fall of 1997, Re-entry beat the Hurricanes by one run in the bottom of the 7th during the regular season, and then annihilated them in the fall championship game, 25-10 (the Hurricanes scored their last eight runs in the bottom of the 7th as the last vestiges of daylight disappeared). This spring, the Hurricanes were prepared. In the regular season, Re-entry took a one-run lead into the final inning, but this time, it was the Hurricanes who scored two runs in the bottom of the 7th for a 10-9 victory. That was Re-entry's only loss during the co-ed season. On Thursday in the co-ed semifinal game, the Hurricanes played superbly, with timely hits and virtually no errors. In contrast, the Re-entry bats were strangely quiet, while three key (and uncharacteristic) errors led to four Hurricane runs. That was the difference and Re-entry went down to an 8-4 defeat. After the Re-entry open team victory on Friday, we wished the Hurricanes well in their co-ed final. The Hurricanes took the final game 6-4; and assumed their rightful place as worthy successors to the Re-entry championship run. Still, 3 out of 4 co-ed championships and 1 out of 2 open championships since the fall of 1996 is not a bad record! Re-entry Championship Game Box Score --------------------------------------------- |pos | AB| R | H |RBI| SF| E | --------------------------------------------- Mike Blevitt cf | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Bob Echols 3b | 6 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Tony Kodis rf | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | --------------------------------------------- Peter Kreder 1b | 5 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Joe McCullough scf | 6 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Tim Nissen 2b | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Howard Haber ss | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | --------------------------------------------- Scott Thomas c | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- Joe Moulton lf | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | --------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------- TOTALS |50 | 9 |23 | 8 | 1 | 2 |