May 2nd - The new month brought in some crispy weather with a cool 66° F at sign in time. It appears all the snowbirds have flown north for the summer so we will probably have two teams & nine inning games until the fall.
The score today was 20-12 with pitcher Dick Sessink picking up the win against Rich Palmer. The losing team fought back from an 8-1 deficit early in the game & pulled ahead by one run in the middle innings, but the home team's offense was just too much today. The five run 8th inning capped off the win as the visitors couldn't answer with any runs in the final frame.
Chuck Duff was perfect at the plate in the losing cause as he went 4 for 4 with a homer & he drove in 5 of the 12 runs. Jim Laffoon connected for a gapper homer out of reach of right centerfielder Jerry Noble & rightfielder Jim McPartlan.
Shannon Steinmetz & Jim Laffoon both had hot bats today & they each hit a perfect 4 for 4.
Bill Walker drove the ball over defending left centerfielder Fred Dampier for a double. Larry Powell, Jack Valliere, & Phil Johnson all hit well for the winning team. Rich Kralik hit well for the losing team & Vassurl Bess displayed bat control with a double to leftfielder Randy Lane followed by a single to rightfielder Sam Harrell. Billy Spring got two hits & ran for himself both times. Way to go, Billy.
Jack Valliere made two nice defensive plays at his 2nd base position. The first one involved the lone double play of the game. Jack fielded a grounder, flipped to shortstop Jim Laffoon covering 2nd base, & Jim fired to 1st baseman Hank Gomez for the inning ending double play.
In the 9th & final inning, Jack snared a hot grounder up the middle with a behind-the-back scoop. He had time to turn & throw out batter Mike Swartz in a close play at first base. Great play, Jack.
Third baseman Mike Swartz caught a hot line drive for the out. The ball was hit like a bullet in his direction & Mike displayed quick reflexes to make the catch.
Sam Harrell hit a short line drive to left centerfielder Fred Dampier, who charged in but was unable to hang onto the ball. Fred was able to get the ball quickly in to shortstop Jaime Rivera, who threw to catcher Morris Rosenhack for an out at home plate as the baserunner from 2nd base tried to score on the two out hit.
May 5th - The game went down to the wire today as the tying run in the top of the 9th inning was thrown out at home to end the game. The home team was victorious as pitcher Ted Granoski picked up the win against Rich Palmer in the 14-13 contest.
Offensively, Sam Harrell knocked a homer over leftfielder Jerry Noble, followed by a gapper triple. Freddy Gonzalez blasted a homer to right centerfielder Phil Johnson.
Fred Dampier cranked a triple gapper over the head of leftfielder Jerry Noble & left centerfielder Freddy Gonzalez. Fred later sneaked a grounder triple just past the infield that had to be retreived by rightfielder Shannon Steinmetz.
Vassurl Bess connected for a rightfield double in the direction of Shannon. Rich Palmer hit a gapper double that eluded defending left centerfielder Fred Dampier. Jack Donnelly & Shannon also hit well and Billy Spring got a hit today.
There were numerous defensive plays worth mentioning. Bill Walker patrolled a foreign position in the field. He played shortstop for part of the game & reached high to snare a line shot by Ted Granoski for the out. Second baseman Billy Spring had to react quickly to catch a low
liner to his left that was hit by Phil Johnson. Later in the game, Billy picked up a grounder by Jack Valliere in time to throw to first baseman Hank Gomez for the out.
First baseman Sam Harrell had to charge a slow grounder while pitcher Ted Granoski covered first base on the play. Nice teamwork, Sam & Ted.
In the outfield, left centerfielder Vassurl Bess raced in to catch a line shot hit by Reg Barnes. Fred Dampier charged in to catch a line drive hit by Freddy Gonzalez that the base runner from second base thought was a sure hit. After catching the ball, Fred threw to second baseman Jack Donnelly for the double play.
Left centerfielder Freddy Gonzalez ran quite a distance to his left to reach out and make a tremendous catch on a long fly ball hit by Jim Laffoon. Nice catch Freddy.
On a long fly ball, rightfielder Billy McDonough relayed the ball in to second baseman Jack Valliere, who threw to catcher Joe DeForge in time to nail one of the base runners trying to score on the hit.
May 9th - It was a washout today. The Winter Haven area was blessed with some much needed rain. Let's try again on Friday guys.
May 12th - It was a very windy day today as it probably gusted upwards to 15 MPH. Besides that, the wind was blowing straight in from leftfield.
At times, the wind direction changed to blow from leftfield to rightfield.
The home team won 20-14 as Rich Palmer received the win against opposing pitcher Dick Sessink. Ted Granoski finished the game after Dick was injured in the 8th inning from a hit ball.
Several players had productive appearances at the plate. Denny Shaffer blasted a homer over the heads of defending right centerfielder Dan Connolly & rightfielder Phil Johnson. Ron Thompson connected for two doubles down the rightfield line in the direction of Phil. Ted Granoski produced two long hits in the direction of Dan & Phil, too. As a result, Ted ended up with a triple & a double.
Fred Dampier hit two doubles towards right centerfielder Bill Walker & teammate Reg Barnes got a triple in a critical part of the game to put his team ahead to stay.
In all, Denny Shaffer, Ron Thompson, Ted Granoski, Fred Dampier, & Freddy Gonzalez each hit well today.
In the field, the winning team turned two double plays. The first one began with a grounder to shortstop Freddy Gonzalez, who flipped to rover Reg Barnes covering second base. Reg tossed to first baseman Rusty Landahl for the second out. The other double play occurred when second baseman Hank Gomez fielded a grounder, fed the ball to rover Reg Barnes covering second, & Reg completed the double play
with an accurate throw to Rusty Landahl.
Rover Reg Barnes made an excellent stop on a grounder up the middle by batter Bill Walker. Reg then stepped on second base to force pinch runner Vassurl Bess for the third out of the inning.
Second baseman Hank Gomez had to charge hard for a weak grounder & fire the ball to first baseman Rusty Landahl to get the batter out.
Pitcher Dick Sessink made three nice plays. Phil Johnson hit a hard grounder back to Dick, who had plenty of time to toss to first baseman Joel Freedman for the out. Dick also caught two line drives hit to him for outs. One liner was from the bat of Freddy Gonzalez.
First baseman Rusty Landahl sparkled at his defensive position today. He caught two line shots - one from the bat of Ted Granoski & the other was hit by Ron Thompson.
Third baseman Jack Valliere tied a record held by many as he recorded all three outs in an inning. Jack caught popups hit by Rich Kralik, Billy Spring, & Joe DeForge.
Denny Shaffer returned to Florida for a business transaction & joined us for one ballgame today. He resides from Akron, Ohio. Denny has expressed the possibility of returning for a week in June to play again.
May 16th - Tuesday game day? Nope - Tuesday rain day. For the second Tuesday in-a-row, the games were cancelled because of rain. There was a major downpour along with a steady continuing rainfall this morning.
The fields were blanketed with water. Standing water completely covered the infield & the entire length of the dirt in both foul territories from the backstop to the outfield fences by 7:15 A.M.
May 19th - The turnout was sparse as only 16 ballplayers showed up for the game today. It was first suggested to play three teams of five players per team with 10 in the field but the majority elected to go with 8 per team with two subs from the batting team to fill out the field with 10 defensive players.
Ted Granoski received the win for the home team in the seven inning contest. Dick Sessink was the opposing pitcher & the final score was 11-7.
Fred Dampier was perfect at the plate with a 5 for 5 effort.
One of his hits was homer that sailed over the head of defending rightfielder Billy McDonough. Fred also connected for a double.
Bill Walker cranked a long double over the head of left centerfielder Dan Connolly. Two other notable hits were a gapper triple by Hank Gomez and a triple over the head of leftfielder Fred Dampier hit by Sam Harrell.
Jack Valliere was 4 for 5 at the plate, including a double to right centerfield. Jaime Rivera has been practicing hitting left handed during batting practice & his labor paid off as he put his practice to work in a game situation. Jaime got two singles in his first two plate appearances before switching back to right handed with two strike counts in the rest of his at bats.
Overall, Sam Harrell & Bill Walker also batted well today.
In the field, an infield double play was turned in an unusual manner. First baseman Hank Gomez fielded a grounder & tossed to shortstop Rich Kralik, who covered 2nd base for the first out. Rich tagged second base & threw the ball back to Hank, who was at least 10-15 feet away from 1st base. As surprised as he was, Hank recovered in time to flip the ball to pitcher Ted Granoski, who covered 1st base for the second out.
Second baseman Billy Spring was active in the field & was involved in several plays. Billy accounted for two assists in one inning on grounders hit his way.
First baseman Hank Gomez fielded three grounders in the second inning for three unassisted putouts.
In the outfield, left centerfielder Dan Connolly scooped a base hit & fired to second base in time to nail baserunner Bill Walker, who was running from first. Leftfielder Fred Dampier recorded an assist on a hit by Sam Harrell. Although he couldn't catch up to the Texas Leaguer hit, he gloved the ball on a short hop & threw to 2nd baseman Billy Spring to force baserunner Billy McDonough out at second.
May 23rd - The skies were cloudy this morning and the temperature before the ballgame was a comfortable 75° F. The forecast called for a 30% chance of rain before the daylight hours were over so the weather was perfect for a day at the old ballpark.
There were 21 ballplayers for the contest today. Pitcher Dick Sessink relieved starter Ted Granoski and recorded the win for the home team against opposing pitcher Rich Palmer.
The final score was 22-21 & the winning run scored with two outs in the bottom of the 9th inning. With Jack Valliere pinch running for Ted from home plate,
Ted hit a gapper grounder between rightfielder Jim McPartlan & right centerfielder Herb Oesterreich. As Jack rounded the bases, Herb retrieved the ball & threw to rover Phil Johnson, who relayed it to pitcher Rich. Rich turned & threw to catcher Joe DeForge just a bit late. Jack crossed the plate with the winning run for the home team.
The game began as a runaway for the home team as they took a 15-5 lead after three innings. While they were held scoreless during the middle three innings, the visiting team came alive with 8 runs in the 6th inning. Prior to that, the visitors posted four goose eggs in the previous innings after scoring 5 in the first. The visiting team took the lead in the top of the 7th but were tied after the completion of 7 frames. The visiting team took the lead again after 8 innings but couldn't score in the 9th. That set the scene for the big
lead-blow the big lead-comeback win for the home team.
Lead off hitter Jaime Rivera had a powerful day at the plate. He hit a gapper homer between leftfielder Randy Lane & left centerfielder Jack Donnelly to begin the game & later hit a long homer over the head of right centerfielder Sam Harrell. Jaime also connected for a double.
Fred Dampier also hit a homer over Sam in right centerfield. Later in the game, Fred hit a double in the direction of left centerfielder Jack Donnelly. Elvis Abney hit a gapper homer that was to the left of Jack.
The two elder statesmen, Morris Rosenhack & Billy Spring, each had two hits today. Both of the hits by Morris were up the middle & one of the hits by Billy was a double up the middle. Billy McDonough had a perfect day at the plate as he had four hits to rightfield & one hit to left centerfield. Great hitting, Billy. Herb Oesterreich, Randy Lane, & Dick Sessink all hit well today, too.
In the field, baserunner Larry Powell tried to score from 2nd base on a hit, but was out at home on throws from leftfielder Randy Lane to 3rd baseman Elvis Abney to catcher Morris Rosenhack.
Jack Valliere, playing 2nd base, reacted quickly to nab a line drive a few steps to his left from the bat of Shannon Steinmetz.
Leftfielder Larry Powell made an excellent running catch on a hit by Randy Lane. Larry had to run back & to his left towards left centerfield in order to track down the ball. Nice catch Larry.
May 26th - The game for today has been cancelled. All five fields at the DiamondPlex are being treated & aren't available for play for three days afterwards.
Have a safe & healthy weekend.
For those who also play with the Lakeland Senior Softball Club, the games are cancelled for Monday, May 29th. The Club is taking Memorial Day off this year.
