Marauders come up Short in Slugfest

Bats come alive with 6 extra-base hits, 9 runs. Avatars shut out Marauders in last three frames for win.
By Bob Loblaw, Voice Staff Writer
June 18, 2007

LOS ANGELES, CA. — Monday night's contest between the MAPP Marauders and the ICT Avatars was a lot less about the leather and plenty more about the 'ping'.

The guys 'n' gals in gray broke out the bats for twenty-two hits in seven innings, sprinkling in a trio of triples and an equal number of doubles. Team manager Neil Teixeira commented on the offensive production saying, "It was great to see everyone come up to the plate, stay focused, and just keep getting on base. We were stringing together some great runs and staying aggressive on the base-paths, which really helped us keep up with a good team like the Avatars."

Indeed, this was surely the Marauders' best challenge to date, facing the highest-ranked team in the division. The ICT Avatars (3-0) have yet to lose a game this season, and have won all of their games by more than three runs. However, yesterday's meeting gave them some trouble through the first four innings, when the Marauders were neck-and-neck and looked to break the game wide open with a four-run fourth inning.

But the Avatar's never doubted their own ability and came back, producing five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a one run lead. After that, they never looked back, scoring two in the fifth and one in the sixth to finish out the game over the Marauders with a 13-9 victory.

Still, there are some members of the Marauders that didn't really buy into the Avatars' mystique. "For a team that's undefeated," said Linda Taing, "they should know that a bunt is an automatic out!" The play that Taing is referring to struck a sour note between the two sides, and occurred when a female member of the Avatars chop-bunted a ball up along the third-base line to move the runner at first.

The entire Marauders defense proclaimed that the batter was out and that the runner needed to go back to first. Yet, the Avatars' pitcher tried to argue that the bunt was a full swing. Newcomer Carly Paoli sarcastically commented from left-field, "Hey, if that was a legal swing we could do that ALL DAY!" In the end, the play was ruled an out with the runner unable to advance. Taing remarked of the situation, "Maybe there should be a - what do you call them? - UMPIRE to say who's out and who's not because there was a bunch of disputes."

In fact, tensions did run a little high between the squads at certain moments. Third baseman Jared Laux had two run-ins with lady Avatars while trying to make some physical plays. "The biggest thing that hurt," he said, "was letting my team down at the plate, not getting punched in the face or chop-blocked by the girls on the opposing lineup." Asked to elaborate, Laux continued: "Look, I can come up with a lot of excuses about the sun bothering me at the plate and in the field, but really they just hit the ball hard and played equally hard on the base-paths. Still, I think they're a dirty team. I'm lucky I didn't get cleated."

Laux made a dangerous play tracking down a fouled pop-fly in front of the Avatars' dugout. On the second pitch of the at-bat, the ball was skied and began to trail wide of third. Unaware of the count, Laux locked in on the ball and began moving to make the out; however the same Avatar that had chop-bunted for an out earlier in the game interfered with Laux's play by crouching down and covering her head, effectively taking the third baseman out at the knees.

"I apologized to her after the incident," said Laux. "I didn't realize it was the second pitch and that the batter was automatically out on the foul ball. But get this, she didn't even care about my apology. She gave me a bunch of attitude saying I was more concerned about the ball than running her over. I was pretty sure we were playing a game, not practicing earthquake safety drills."

Eventually, things settled down and the Marauders worked on making outs and keeping the game close. Outstanding plays were made in the outfield this time around with Josh Gebelein, Javier Andre, Paoli, and Teixeira all recording put-outs on well-hit fly-balls. Yet, while the outfield seemed drastically improved, the left half of the ever-steady infield broke down in the later innings when the Marauders needed to keep the runs off the board. The Avatars were the recipients of 3 additional runs in fifth and sixth innings, sticking the Marauders with the task of coming up with four runs to tie the game.

The Marauders only late scoring opportunity came in the top of the seventh with one away. Shortstop Allison Adamovic, who had singled and was on first base, came charging hard around third base on the double hit by August Cockroft, only to be tagged out inches from the plate. "It was disappointing to have been shut down in the later innings after displaying such a potent offense," Teixeira said. "Next week, we'll have some of the defensive issues fixed and come out strong again. We've played better each successive week and the team is really gelling on offense, so there's a lot of positives to look at despite the loss."

Stats from Monday, June 18th --- ICT Avatars vs. MAPP Marauders

Name	Batt. %	Slug. %		At-Bats	Hits	1B	2B	3B	HRs	K	RBI	Runs
Adamovic	0.500	1.250		4	2	1	2	0	0	0	1	1
Andre	0.500	0.500		2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Burnop	1.000	1.000		2	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0
Caldwell	0.000	0.000		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Chan	1.000	1.000		2	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1
Cockroft	1.000	2.000		3	3	1	1	1	0	0	0	1
Gebelein	1.000	1.000		2	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1
Laux	0.000	0.000		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Matsumoto	0.500	0.500		2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
McKenna	0.667	0.667		3	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	0
Paoli	0.500	2.500		4	2	1	0	3	0	0	2	1
Pease	0.000	0.000		4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Taing	0.500	0.500		4	2	2	0	0	0	1	0	1
Teixeira	1.000	1.500		2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	2
Nguyen	0.500	4.500		2	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	1