COLUMNS
DC Bullets Softball: Bullets See Red (Dogs)
July 21, 2008
Softball recap by Joel "I write my game summaries on time" Press
In a show of either ultimate dedication or incredibly poor judgment, a smaller than usual contingent of the DC Bullets hung around last Thursday to play softball, despite being given the opportunity to get out of Dodge at 1pm. Team leader Adam Schlagman proved what most of us already knew - that he will play softball whenever and wherever he can, long holiday weekends notwithstanding. So this ragtag bunch of players took the field against a similarly touched group of Scholastic Big Red Dogs players, including sometime Bullet Laura Demoreuille, an actual Scholastic employee, who sided with the enemy on this given day. The Dogs came showing their teeth, complete with their own security contingent, courtesy of NY City taxpayers, to protect them from the feared DC fanboys, who are known to violently throw comic books in anger at the hint of defeat.
Taking the mound in only his second game as a newly minted pitcher, former coach Joel Press, hoping to continue his unbeaten streak (of 1 game) would hold the Dogs scoreless over the first 2 innings, despite some shaky Bullets fielding, including his own. He would help his own cause by knocking in the game's first run with an RBI single in the bottom of the 2nd inning, scoring the game's offensive star, Sal Cipriano (3 for 3, 1 RBI, 2 Runs Scored).
But Scholastic would take the lead in the top of the 3rd inning, scoring two runs, and would hold DC scoreless in their half of the 3rd, giving the Dogs the 2-1 lead after 3 full innings. They would add another run in the top of the 4th inning to go ahead 3-1, but DC would tie the score in the bottom of the 4th inning behind an infield "double" by Andrew Arnold (1 for 4, 1 Run Scored), an actual double by Sal (driving in Andrew), and an RBI triple by Neil Hiremath (1 for 3, 1 RBI).
Both teams failed to score any runs over the next 3 innings, and so, after 7, the score remained tied at 3. But the teams had previously agreed to play a full 9-inning game, so they fought on. And that's where things got hairy for the Bullets, as the Dogs would plate 3 runs in the top of the 8th inning to go ahead 6-3. Joel would lead off the bottom of the 8th by showing the team what true grit is, hustling out a leadoff double on a surgically repaired knee. But the team would fail to bring him around, despite some solid hits that just couldn't find their way past the Dogs' mitts. A scoreless 9th inning left the Bullets disheartened, heading into the long holiday weekend with thoughts of what could have been and with declarations that had nothing to do with independence (and that can not be repeated here).
Special thanks to Vicky Djonovic (1 for 3) for squatting behind home plate for 9 innings.