Marauders Fall to Annenberg's Short-Handed Crew

Pitchers' duel runs away from Marauders in 3rd inning. Bad blood continues on field.
By Bob Loblaw, Voice Staff Writer
June 1, 2009

LOS ANGELES, CA. — From the look of the first three innings of play at Dedeaux Field, you would have thought that it was Spahn and Marichal on the mound.

For those readers who are not familiar with baseball history, Warren Spahn and Juan Marichal matched each other pitch-for-pitch over 16 innings one blustery San Francisco evening at Candlestick Park in 1963.

Monday night, pitchers for the Marauders and All-Stars retired the first 6 batters they faced in what started out as a classic pitching duel. Too bad each team was pitching to itself.

But, what started out as a couple of 1-2-3 innings ended up as a grudge match with the All-Stars running away with an 8-4 victory.

Annenberg's starting pitcher Ben Chase came out of the 1st with a pair of strikeouts against his own teammates. But that didn't stop the All-Stars from putting up 4 runs in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th, including a pair off of a home run by Chase.

"Man, that was tough," pitcher Neil Teixeira remarked after the game. "Our defense was playing well and their pitcher was helping us out. Too bad I couldn't help us out. I pitched a lousy game, pure and simple. Lobbing balls at the ankles and then flinging 'em past the eyeballs. Dumb."

Some batters were particularly affected by the inconsistent pitching. Designated hitter Dominic Lau went 0-2 with a groundout and a strikeout.

The DH was not at all pleased with his foul ball strikeout saying, "I'm a klutz. I need to get my eyes checked because all the pitches looked good to me. I just had a bad game."

Rookie 1st baseman Mike Andrelczyk, who came away with a single and an RBI in his only plate appearance, felt differently about Lau's at-bats. "The guy has so much power it's tough to lay off those slow, lobbed pitches." Andrelczyk added, "As long as "Big Papi" doesn't get down on himself and get into a real slump, we'll be fine. Dom's gonna be hitting dingers in no time."

But even when the Marauders hit the ball, Annenberg was there to make the outs. The All-Stars were undoubtedly impressive on the defensive side of the ball, playing extraordinarily well with as few as 7 players on the field, and holding the Marauder's offense to 4 runs scattered over 7 frames.

"You've got to give them credit for fighting through a shallow roster," outfielder Westley Nguyen remarked, "but they were also trying to get away with 5 guys and 3 girls in the 5th inning."

Nguyen pointed out that IMREC rules state: "7 players are required to start a game" and "40% of fielders must be women." That prompted the Marauder's skipper to remind Chase, the All-Star's manager, that they could only field 7 players in the 6th.

Unfortunately, tensions between the teams had already been stoked over a base running mistake at 1st base and a close call at 2nd.

Chase was not pleased when Teixeira approached him between innings. "He basically told me that if we were going to pick on their roster issues, then they would be happy to call our players out when they round first base."

Things took a turn for the worse when Teixeira's repeated calls for "time" in the outfield were not heard by Annenberg's pitcher and batter. The subsequent pitch was hit and snared by shortstop Binh Tran for an out.

When the All-Star's sent the batter to the plate again, the Marauder's skipper argued that the batter should be out since the call for "time" was ignored until after the hitter made the out.

"To be perfectly honest," an irritated Teixeira grumbled, "if you're pitching to your own team and you ignore repeated calls for "time", then I'm not going to care when you line out. Every pitch, you're supposed to check the outfield to see if the other team is ready."

Teixeira added, "I can only get so mad at the All-Star's. I hate IMREC for putting us all in the position where we have to argue every call because they're too cheap, too lazy or too full of themselves to hire umpires. I mean, they're not all too busy playing softball, I hope. I know for a fact that one IMREC staff member was a scab for Annenberg tonight, so it just goes to show that they don't care about rules."

But once the clouds of anger and frustration passed overhead, you could definitely see some bright spots.

Third baseman Jared Laux went 2-2 with a single, a double and a run scored. His production was a major turn-around from his slumping finish last season.

"I was happy with my hitting," Laux said with a straight face, "but, I was pretty upset about my base running error. I cost us a chance at keeping the inning alive."

Asked about his hot bat to start the season Laux credited a special conditioning regimen. "Basically, a power-lunch at McD's and about 7 sodas throughout the day propelled me through the game." The third baseman sarcastically added, "It really showed on the bases."

Kevin Chan, who played center field, also went 2-2, slapping a pair of singles and collecting an RBI and a run. Chan smiled after the game and said, "It's nice to start the season off batting .1000. Too bad we couldn't pull out the win."

The ladies had a solid showing as well, with rookie right fielder Juli Legat knocking two base hits in her three plate appearances and 2nd baseman Nadia Barosy collecting two singles and scoring a run, despite playing through an injury suffered during a collision at first base.

"Even when I'm not right," said Barosy, "I get hits. So, you know, I just go to battle, and keep preparing the way I'm preparing. Because I never go down. That's me, man."

The second baseman added, referencing a certain former Red Sox slugger, "I guess, you know, when you don't feel good and you still get hits, that's when you know you are a bad Mamma Jamma."

Let's hope Barosy's swagger rubs off on the rest of the Marauders team and that they take that confidence and tenacity into their next game against the SPPD Sprawlers.

Stats from Monday, June 1st --- Annenberg All-Stars vs. MAPP Marauders

Name	Batt %	Slug %		At-Bats	Hits	1B	2B	3B	HR	K	RBI	Runs
Andrelczyk	1.000	1.000		1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Barosy	0.667	0.667		3	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1
Burnop	1.000	1.000		1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Chan	1.000	1.000		2	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1
Charles	0.000	0.000		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hartman	0.000	0.000		3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Horn	0.500	0.500		2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lau	0.000	0.000		2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Laux	1.000	1.500		2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	1
Legat	0.667	0.667		3	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	1
Nguyen	1.000	1.000		2	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Suckow	0.000	0.000		3	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Teixeira	0.000	0.000		2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Tran	0.500	0.500		2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0