by Pete

Beat Back in the Win Column! The Beat holds on to short-circuit Rhino’s comeback, 17-13

Now that both had all but dropped out of the race to thwart the Cool Dudes’ march to another C-league division title, two .500 ball clubs—The Beat and Rhinos (3-3)—met Saturday with goals of maintaining respectability in an evenly matched 9-team division. As morning wore into the afternoon, both teams could say they had attained a certain measure of what they had been looking for.

The Beatniks survived another late-inning fadeout, thanks to a sustained hitting attack, shaky Rhinos fielding, and clutch relief pitching from Javier Urdiales in his Beat debut. Coming off 3 losses in it’s last 4 games, the Beatniks won a game that it could have lost, but in effect saved the season by putting the club back over .500 at 4-3, tied with the idle Renegades for 4^th place. 

No lead is safe.

The boys in gray looked poised to blow their biggest lead of the spring after having jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the top of the 4th.The Rhinos closed to 13-5 off a sharp Kevin (Special K) Austin in the 4th before Kev gave way to Javier in the 5th.With a couple of walks and some shaky defense behind Urdiales, the Rhinos made it 13-9, but the steady Beat offense got 4 of our own back in the 6th.The Beat failed to score in the 7th and after some timely hits, more nervous defense and a home run, the Rhinos made it 17-13 with no outs before Jav got 3 straight pop ups to end it. 

Beat players proclaimed it a “fun win”—“yeah it was fun,” said Mike (Pizza Man) Weiss after the game. Everybody hit—which is always fun, for a total of 19—Kev pitched well and Jav had a successful debut and save. Jim (The Thrill) Colletto won the game ball for breaking Austin's all-time Beat consecutive game hitting streak with 31.In fact, Kev was the 1^st teammate who went over to congratulate the incredulous JC.

How it all got started.

The Beat put 4 runs on the board in the top of the 1^st on singles by Gunnar Rosenquist back in the leadoff spot, Kevin back in the #2 hole, MSG the Cottonmouthwash, and Colletto, who broke the Beat record with a pop into no-man’s land in straight-away center. Greg (Luki) Lukoski brought in the 4^th run with a sacrifice fly to right field to score JC.

Austin used 3 pitches, including an outstanding knuckleball, to wiggle out of a 2-out 2^nd and 3^rd situation in the 1^st inning. The Beat came back with 3 more runs in the top of the 2^nd to make it 7-0.The manager Peter Wenner, hitting as the EP in the 10^th spot, got the Beat attack going with a bloop-sort-of-line-drive single up the middle. With Pizza Man serving as the courtesy runner for Wenner, Bob (BJ) Bateman capitalized on a swinging bunt to put runners on 1^st and 2^nd. Gunnar then moved both runners into scoring position with a fly to right. Austin got his big hit of the day with a clutch triple into right center that scored Weiss and Bateman. St. Jorge drove in Austin with a single, accentuated by the customarily loud grunt of “yyyeaaaHHHHH!!!”.

Kevin dominated the Rhinos in the 2^nd and 3^rd frames, owing part of that to some dazzling plays by rifle-armed 2^nd baseman Brian Arcuri, while the Beatniks added to their lead. It became 13-0 at the game’s midway report. 

The Beat had poured it on with 5 runs in the 3^rd, featuring Jim Colletto’s first double—believe it or not—in black & gray. After an RBI-single by Luki, slugger Dave Maxion broke out of a slump with his 1^st home run of the spring—a two run shot. Pizza Man tripled to the opposite field and Pete Wenner drove him in with a signature Texas-league bloop into left-center field. Weiss, who ran for Wenner once again, scored the 12^th run.

Arcuri plated the 13^th Beat run in the 4^th inning on a single up the middle to score MSG.

So, 13-0. Pretty safe, huh? 

No.

Making a deal to let Kevin stay in the game as long as he had a shutout might have been a bad omen for the Beat manager. The Rhino’s offense stirred for the first time in the bottom of the 4^th off Austin and scored 5 unearned runs after 2 were out. 2-RBI hits by the veteran 1^st baseman Rory McCall and catcher Dennis Sheridan got the green-shirted Rhinos back into it at 13-5 in sudden fashion.

The Beat was single-handedly taken care of by speedy left-fielder Kevin Brown (no relation to the $100 million dollar man) in the 5^th and the Rhinos came back for more in the home half. Javier, now on in relief of Austin in lieu of veteran stalwart Dennis (OB) O’Brien, seemed a tad nervous and lost the strike zone, walking two. Then Urdiales struck out the dangerous Brown on a foul ball. But #5-hitter Steve Jackson singled in a run before the 3^rd baseman Neal Golden homered off into the growing right field gale. Very quickly, it was 13-9 and The Beat needed runs. 

They got them.

In the top of the 6^th, BJ and Gunnar led off with singles before MSG scored BJ on an error by the 2^nd baseman on a questionable scorer’s call. A banged-up Donnell (Big Daddy) Moody and Colletto drove in runs to make it 17-9.

The crafty Urdiales, who showed a drop-down sidearmed move among his multi-pitch repertoire, got the bottom half of the Rhinos order to go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 6^th before the Beat went down quietly themselves in the top of the 7^th.

Fast forward to the Rhinos’ last chance with the top of the order facing Javier. Leadoff hitter Chris Lewis and #2-man Sargent singled and a couple of errors quickly scored 2 runs. Two more singles by Brown and Jackson made it 17-13 with no outs. Pete turned to his captain, starting pitcher Kevin Austin, and asked if he needed to warm up should another batter reach. Austin shook his head “no” but added, since the tying run was not at the plate, the game was still Javier’s to finish.

Then the tension broke. BJ got the crucial 1^st out on Golden by making a fine running catch on a shallow-hit pop to right. Jav then coolly induced Santiago to fly out to Pizza and McCall to pop to Gunnar for the final out.

The Beat breathed a collective sigh of relief and repaired to the sidelines to consider the final act of the spring against the Other Guys next week. Following its 2^nd cardiac victory in the last 3 games, The Beat left invigorated to finish the season strong. But once again, this game represented a microcosm of the Beat season, as had several of the past five. Fortunately, this outcome reflected the positive end of the roller coaster.  

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