Faithful readers of this website will know that the last baseball game of our regular season was scheduled for last Sunday. Going into this game, we led our division by half a game over Spikes, who had two games left to play. The first of those two finished shortly before our game started, so we phoned the league’s office hoping for good news… If Spikes had lost, we could clinch the championship. Unfortunately, they hadn’t. Far from it, in fact: they beat seventh-place Birds by 12-3.
That was too bad, but it didn’t really change our objective. We still had to win in order to win the championship. Our opponents were Wizards of Boz, who hadn’t won a single game so far. Back in June, we beat them 25-1, so the outlook for Sunday’s game was excellent.
It was a home game for us, so we took the field first. Our pitcher had some early trouble finding the zone and he surrendered a lead-off walk. Wizards never got beyond first base, though, as two strike-outs and a ground-out quickly followed.
We didn’t waste any time in the bottom half of the inning. Our first three batters each hit a single, the third of them already knocking in the first run. A few wild pitches, passed balls and defensive errors brought in two more runs and put runners on second and third. Our second baseman was up next. He hit one deep enough to right centerfield for an inside-the-park homerun. A single, a walk and a passed ball got us another run, before two strike-outs finally brought the Wizards out of their misery. The score was 7-0 by then.
In the second frame, the visitors got their first two runners on first and second due to a walk and a throwing error. If that brought them hope, it was only for a short while. Again, two successive strike-outs and a ground-out ended the Wizards’ turn at bat.
Compared to what was about to come, we’d restrained ourselves in the first inning. Our pitcher led off the bottom of the second and he would come to bat two more times before the inning was over. We produced seven hits and got four walks, while the Wizards’ defense made eight errors. All of that resulted in fourteen runs, driving the score up to 21-0. The onslaught last almost 45 minutes before the Wizards finally recorded the third out.
Taking our defensive positions again, we were afraid we’d need some time to get going again, but we didn’t. Our pitcher was still throwing strikes, and the Wizards were happy enough to hit them… right at our infielders, for three easy ground-outs. Six minutes was all it took.
We took it easy in the bottom half of the third, scoring two runs on back-to-back triples and a throwing error. Our first baseman then walked into a silly double play and a rare accurate throw from the visiting third baseman retired the next batter.
The Wizards led off the top of the fourth with a bunt single, breaking up the no-hitter. The next guy hit a soft pop fly to first base for an easy out and the third batter hit a ground ball straight at our second baseman. He tossed to the short stop, who easily completed the double play. There was still quite some time left to play at that point, but the Wizards told us they’d rather go and have a beer than let us run up the score even further, so we agreed to end the game after three and a half innings. The final score: 23-0.
Spikes will play their final game on September 9 against the third-place team. A tie or a loss will bring us the title. If they win, we’ll get a single play-off game to decide the championship.
