by Ken Sawyers
6/13/2018

Week 9 saw the Division A log-jam remain tight as Downtown upset Dalton Rd 5-4 behind crafty veteran P Mike Adams’ 5-hit, complete game gem.  This game had both teams flashing some leather early and often as Downtown 3B Rich Contreras looked like Greg Nettles in the ’81 World Series and robbed Dalton Rd of 2 extra base hits with diving stabs on line-drive headed down the line.  Dalton Rd 3B Mike Silk was up to the task as well defensively and made several nice plays to end a few Downtown threats.  Good to see Silky showing no ill-effects from the concussion suffered a few weeks back.  God speed, Silky.  Trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the 7th with 2-out and the tying run on first, Dalton Rd slugger Dave Birmingham popped out to second base to end the game.  (Editor’s note: game was played at Potoma and CF Scott Burke did, indeed, catch the ball ON 2nd base…..at the other field!)  DYR extended their win streak to 7 games as they came back from an early 5-run deficit to beat Lions 14-10.  Your humble correspondent’s 3-run HR in the 4th put DYR up 6-5 and DYR never looked back.  SS Jason MacDonald stayed hot with 3 hits and 3 RBI while OF Matt Piselli went 4 for 4.   Braggville nipped a valiant Mudville squad 6-4 in a game that was played in 36 minutes.  Seems both teams were eager to get the post-game festivities.  Kampersal defeated Anthony’s East 20-12 despite some horrific Kampy defense.  Manager Tom Kampersal was none too pleased post game and held a closed-door meeting as they began to prep for a HUGE game against Dalton Rd in week 10.

 ‘B’ Division also has a log jam thanks to Long Distance’s upset of Jasper Rock 11-10.  OF Eric Brucato had 2 hits and 3 RBI’s in the win and embattled 2B Chris Landers contributed with 2 doubles.   Brentwood won for the 2nd week in a row as they edged Queens 5-3 and South nipped winless Hood 14-13 preventing P Bryan Sweeney from going ‘postal’ on his teammates.  OF Steven Lawless keyed a 4-run rally in the 6th with a 2-run double and Sweeney retired the side in order in the 7th to secure the win.

GAMES OF THE WEEK /PREDICTIONS: (Season Record 1-0)

• Dalton Rd. (7-2) vs Kampersal (7-2) – after being upset in wk 9, look for Dalton Rd to bounce back here and nip Kampersal
   
• DYR (7-2) vs Anthony’s East (6-3) – DYR controls it’s destiny.. with a win, they play in the ‘A’ championship gm vs Braggville but Anthony’s will not be easy.  (editor’s note: I play for DYR & don’t want to give Anthony’s any ‘bulletin board material’).  Should be a great game!
   
• Downtown (5-4) vs Mudville (4-5): Mudville is playing for their ‘A’ lives while Downtown’s upset win last week gave them some breathing room.  Tight match-ups like these, take the more desperate team, Mudville prevails.
   
• Long Distance Tire (3-6) vs South (4-5): both teams coming off 1-run wins last week makes this one interesting for ‘B’ division playoff pairings.  A win by LDT puts them in a tie with South and a likely playoff rematch in 2 weeks.  A win by South and they tie Brentwood but would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker as they lost to Brentwood in week 6, 4-1.  I like LDT in this one as there are a ton of graduation parties in town this weekend and I’m not confident in South’s ability to abstain from the adult beverages prior to this game.

Division A Standings through 10 Jun

Division B Standings through 10 Jun