Sluggers Game Summary
at Fidelity
May 21

Comeback Kids

Sluggers overtake Fidelity Infidels in final frame 30-22

--BOSTON, May 22, 2002

Overcoming obstacles is the key to any victory. The Sluggers overcame more than their share of obstacles yesterday, starting with the caution tape, chain-link barriers, and heavy equipment on the Storrow Drive footbridge. “Getting to this game was almost as hard as winning it,” Robert “Stretch” Orleman said in a post-game press conference.

Though they made it look easy, winning this particular match was no easy feat.

Down 22 to 17 after six innings and abandonded by their “faithful” fans, the Sluggers quietly worked there way back into the game. They started the inning with three singles in a row by Brian “Wightman Can’t Jump”, Aaron “Penguin” Mathieu, and Matt “The Rock” Ronzio’s. Ronzio’s screaming liner scored Wightman. A sac fly by “Good Stan” Hunting, and the Sluggers were within three. Craig “Trump Card” Trumm hit a solid single to keep the rally going. Noah “n$” Cushing’s double knocked in another to cut Fidelity’s lead to two runs. Mike “I’ll Be Right Back” Douglas walked to keep the inning alive. Tony “Skip” Vinciguerra tied the game by scoring Trumm and Cushing with a hard single to center. George “The Hit Man” Hart made sure the score didn’t stay tied long with his second three-run homer of the day. Will “The Natural” Jamieson knowing that he needed a single for the cycle took it easy on the ball and the base paths for a change. He hit a single to get a new rally started. Dan “Dinger” Landesman rocked a double to put two runners in scoring position. For the second inning in a row, Wendy “Wender Woman” Millard worked the count for walk, this time to load the bases. Orleman slammed a two-RBI double to turn the rally into a rout. Isaac “The Tool Man” Taylor followed with an RBI double of his own. Making sure every at-bat counts, Ted Johnson brought another run with a sac fly. Then Michelle “Ball First, Base Second” Zoltowski tacked on another run with an RBI single. Wightman, figuring that he started the inning, he might as well end it, decided to hit into an innining-ending fielder’s choice.

In that fantastic final frame the Sluggers sent 17 batters to the plate and scored 13 runs on 12 hits, a walk, and two sacrifice flies.

After six-and-a-half innings, the Sluggers were suddenly riding high on a 30 to 22 lead. However, they saw what the Fidelity Infidels are capable of offensivley. The Infidels put a crooked number on the board in every inning except the sixth when they scored one.

To make matters more nerve racking, the normally air-tight Slugger defense had already committed three errors on the day. The Slugger base coaches and bench coach noticed that the Infidels had started aiming at second base. Coach Tony decided that this might be time for a switch. He placed himself at second base, moving Millard to catcher. The first batter grounded out to Wightman, whose defensive prowess is severely underated. The second batter hit a single. The third flew out to right. The final batter made Vinciguerra look like a genious. The batter hit a low liner that the coach scooped up for the final out. And there was much rejoicing. If only the Slugger faithful had stayed until the end. They missed a hell of a game.

“I was glad that we did the defensive replacement there, but not until the end,” Hart said during the post-game press conference. “I think we kept playing Slugger-ball by not changing up earlier. I think it shows something about our attitude as a team. The Skipper did good work there. Right call at the right time without giving up our fun-for-all attitude. It was a great win.”

“Next time we face the Infidels, Chiuchiolo is pitching, T-Stop is playing third, Zoltowski is playing short, Smith is playing second, and Millard will play first,” an infuriated Tony “Skip” Vinciguerra said at the press conference. “We’ll see how many balls they get through the infield then. If they think our female players are a weakness, they’re dead wrong. Look at the stats, and look what our female players did with their bats.” A quick glance at the scorebook shows that Zoltowski went 2 for 4 with an RBI and Millard scored two key runs with two impressive walks. Millard and Zoltowski also combined for two putouts. Smith was sidelined with an injury in her second at-bat.

Offensive Play of the Game
Will “The Natural” Jamieson, who seems to break team and league records every week, became the first player in the seven-year Slugger history to hit for the cycle. He started the game with a two-RBI triple, had a double in the third, a two-run homer in the sixth, and a single in the seventh. He went 4 for 4 with 4 RBI. He also scored four times.

“The sports writers in this town are eating their words now,” Coach Tony said during his post-game press conference. “They all predicted that he’d go into a sophmore slump after winning Rookie of the Year.”

Other Offensive Highlights
Wendy “Wender Woman” Millard walked twice when the team really needed baserunners. It takes a lot of self-discipline to not swing at those fat pitches just a tad out of the strike zone. Millard is the epitomy of a team player. The Sluggers would have never completed the comeback without her selflessness. Several of the players also owe her a beer for her cool new bat.

Besides Jamieson, these other Sluggers batted 1.000 on the day:

• Dan “Dinger” Landesman went 3 for 3 with 2 runs, a double, a sac fly, and two RBI.
• Mike “I’ll Be Right Back” Douglas was 2 for 2 with two singles, a walk, three runs scored, and two RBI.
• After wearing the collar last week, Ted “Ruxpin” Johnson got off the schneid this week by going 3 for 3 with a double, a sac fly, and three RBI.

Defensive Play of the Game
Mike “I’ll Be Right Back” Douglas made that all-important first out of the fifth and sixth innings. One of his catches was nothing short of miraculous. When the ball left the bat, it was destined for the gap in right-center. Douglas appeared to be caught flat-footed as the ball began to sail over his head. He picked up the pace, hustled back, leaped, basically threw his glove at the ball, and came down in heap. The Slugger bench erupted in rapture.

Honorable Mention
Is anyone the least bit suprised that Will “The Natural” Jamieson made yet another flashy diving catch to rob the opposition of a sure home run? The new owners of the Sluggers know that Jamieson is a big reason the Sluggers have sold so many tickets this season, and they also know that this is a contract year for him. Jamieson better hope he doesn’t get hurt throwing himself at the ball before he signs a long-term deal.

Other Defensive Highlights
To the surpise of no one, Dan “Dinger” Landesman made a stupendous sliding stop of a hard liner in the gap. To the surprise of everyone, Tony “Skip” Vinciguerra stabbed the a line drive to second for the final out of the game.

Teddy Points
We have a new department in the write-ups this year. After each game, at the Red Hat, Ted Johnson hands out points given for the little things that don’t show up in the box score but still contribute greatly to the team’s success. Last night, Johnson handed out three Teddy Points:

“This week’s Teddy Points go to Mike Douglas for the sweet grab in the outfield, to Georgie for his 2nd home run, and to Wendy for drawing the two huge walks late in the game.”

The Week in Pictures
Check out these photos of yesterday’s game. Special thanks to Lauren Jamieson for the pictures.

Injury Report
Michelle “Ball First, Base Second” Zoltowski, took her nickname a bit too seriously again this Tuesday. Sacrificing herself to prevent the batter from getting extra bases, Zoltowski put her body in front of a wicked throw that may have gone wild. Baseball Weekly has upped the ante to $4,000 for a color photo of said bruise.

Kristen “Killer” Smith, pulled a quadricep. She’s listed as day to day.

Stats from the Maniacal One
Here are this week’s off-beat stats from the Maniacal One:

• Keeping them at bay: Brian “Wightman Can’t Jump” didn’t allow a home run to the powerful Fidelity offense. The Sluggers had three home runs.
• Keeping them flat: In 62 at-bats, the Sluggers only popped out six times.
• Keeping them coming home: The Sluggers had 34 hits and only left nine runners on base. Fidelity had 32 hits and stranded 12 runners.

Player of the Week
George “The Hit Man” Hart went 4 for 4 with two three-run home runs, a double, and a single. Most notably, he had an ungodly seven RBI. And most important of all, he had the game-winning hit, which came in the form of his second three-run homer that truly turned the tide in favor of the Sluggers.

See Hart’s Player of the Week stats and killer photo here.

The Rumor Mill
The latest rumors to spring out of the Slugger clubhouse this week involve Skip juggling the lineup. Unamed sources say that he’s tired of Jamieson and Landesman hitting with the bases empty. However, does he want to mess with success? The top of the lineup has scored an awful lot of runs in the first two games. Stay tuned.

Quotes of the Week

• “Nice rip, Skip.”--Dan Landesman, Slugger center fielder, giving props to his coach for ripping an RBI double over the head of the Infidel’s left fielder in the sixth.
• “It be what it be, you dig?”--Noah Cushing, Slugger shortstop.
• “If you want to see two teen-age Mexican boys masterbating, this is the movie for you.”--Isaac Taylor, Sluggers catcher, telling his teammates about the movie he tried to land a role in.
• “Now say ‘Amen’.”--George Hart, Slugger thirdbaseman, after shortfielder Mike Douglas made his late-inning spectacular catch.
• “It looks like he’s trying to do a summersault without using his hands.”--Coach Tony describing leftfielder Will Jamieson’s technique for making crowd-pleasing catches.
• “I am never going to the the Red Hat.”-- Jed Whitlock, coach of the Fidelity Infidels, after his team blew a five-run lead to lose by eight runs.

Next Game
After going 2 and 0 on a long, tiring road trip, the Sluggers are looking forward to coming home Tuesday, May 28 (day after Memorial Day) to host State Street on Field 2 of the Esplanade at 6:00 PM. This should be an interesting match-up. State Street squeaked a 14 to 13 win by Fidelity on May 8th. Look for another high-scoring dual next Tuesday.

Batting Summary

No.	Name	Pos	AB	R	H	BI	2B	3B	HR	BB	K	SF
8	Tony Vinciguerra	SS	4	3	3	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
51	George Hart	3B	4	4	4	7	1	0	2	0	0	0
41	Will Jamieson	LF	4	4	4	4	1	1	1	0	0	0
6	Dan Landesman	CF	3	2	3	2	1	0	0	0	0	1
33	Wendy Millard	2B	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
24	Robert Orleman	1B	3	2	2	2	2	0	0	1	0	0
7	Isaac Taylor	C	4	2	2	3	2	0	0	0	1	0
13	Ted Johnson	SF	3	0	3	3	1	0	0	0	0	1
12	Michelle Fugere	2B	4	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
16	Brian Wightman	P	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
5	Aaron Mathieu	SF	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
9	Kristen Smith	C	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
25	Matt Ronzio	3B	3	1	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Stan Hunting	RF	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
21	Craig Trumm	1B	3	2	2	1	0	1	0	0	0	0
30	Noah Cushing	SS	3	2	2	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
17	Mike Douglas	SF	2	3	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
	Totals		52	30	34	30	10	2	3	5	2	3

Linescore	1	2	3	4	5	6	7		R	H	E
Slugger	5	0	6	0	0	6	13		30	34	3
Fidelity	5	2	5	7	2	1	0		22	32	0

Pitching Summary

No.	Name	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	HR
16	Brian Wightman (Win)	7	32	22	19	1	0	0
	Totals	7.0	32	22	19	1	0	0