Patrick's Post Game Wrap - July 16th, 2008
Game Summary
Patrick’s started the post-season off in style Wednesday as they
delivered a 23-4 pounding of IVESCO. Patrick's also marked the long anticipated return of Becker .
. . and Amy brought her
brother Steve and his family too which was nice.
While Patrick’s hammered out five runs in the top of the first, the bottom of the first started off poorly as IVESCO attempted to use short stop Jayson Koopmans as a human backstop. However Koopmans recovered to deliver several diving defensive plays and hold IVESCO to four runs, the only four runs they would end up scoring.
After failing to produce even one extra base hit last week, the team rebounded nicely this week as Steve Guimond, Mike Tollefson, Tom Lippert, Ben Hawkins, and Steve Becker all recorded extra base hits. Becker, who had promised to hit a home run in his return, delivered on his promise by belting a towering shot over the left center field fence in the fourth inning. Steve followed his on-field performance (3 for 4) by delivering a rack of beer to the team immediately following the game, although as is his MO, it was not without significant whining regarding recent beer price increases (see his editorial regarding “The Skyrocketing Price of Beer”).
One notable exception to the power-hitting mentioned above was the performance of Gary Schmiesing, who started the game off in Carlos Gomez like fashion with a bunt single, and followed it up with another in-field hit in which the catcher was unable to come up with a short pop-up. Schmiesing later explained that he is always up for the challenge of beating out the throw on infield hits because he enjoys running so much.
As spirits ran high Wednesday night down at Patrick’s, the time seemed appropriate for the Patrick’s Ball Team to go “old school” and bring back the long lost tradition of singing Margaritaville at karaoke. As was the custom, the team looked forward to Becker entertaining the crowd with his usual dance between verses, and dance he did. In fact, Becker put the exclamation point on the evening by attempting to deliver “the Full Becker” during his dance, much to the horror of everyone watching.
Key Stat
The home run watch continues as Tom Lippert’s streak of games without a
home run now stands at nine. Meanwhile
Patrick’s career home run leader Steve Becker, who is twice Tom’s age,
added yet another homer to his career stats.