August 10, 2006
By Elliot Malaguty
The Bridegrooms took the field for the second game of the series with Hammer getting the start. After a couple of fouls down the third base line, he got the Dentist on a easy fly ball to right. MadDog reached on an error and quickly found out what everyone meant by Hammer’s "quirky" delivery as it seemed that MadDog was always leaning the wrong way when Hammer delivered the pitch. MadDog finally stole 2nd as Hammer caught Icehouse looking at strike three on the inside corner. Nighter drew a walk and Josh reached on an infield pop-up that Hammer, Mediocre Jay, and Supe all watched land on the grass in front of third. Pesci was charged with the error for calling "Infield Fly" when there were 2 outs. With the bases loaded, Hammer got Patrick Johnson to ground out on a nubber back to the pitcher.
The bottom half of the inning seemed to take about 45 minutes – probably because it took about 45 minutes. Nails led off with a single followed by a Supe double to right! A Ken Sloat single, a walk to "Squeaky" Lehr, and singles by Fluff and Hammer before Josh was able to record his first out on a Jeff Lawrence grounder to the right side that drove in another run. Mark Chapdelaine popped out Tony Maspo beat out an infield hit and MJC reached on an error before Mike O was retired for the third out. After one, Bridegrooms 6 – Hitmen 0.
Ken Sloat took the mound for the Bridegrooms in the 2nd. Working methodically, Ken allowed one walk and three hits while striking out one. The Hitmen scored 3 to cut the lead in half.
The Bridegrooms sent 9 men to the plate as they once again made life tough for the Hitmen pitchers. A leadoff groundout to the shortstop was followed by 4 consecutive singles from Supe, Ken, Bryan, and Fluff chased starter Josh and brought in the Dentist . Despite walks to Hammer and Mark Chap, he was able to get out of the inning with only one more run. The score after two was Bridegrooms 11 – Hitmen 3.
Fluff now takes the mound as the Bridegrooms strategy becomes clear – they are hoping that the hitters will fall asleep waiting for the pitches to reach the plate. Fluff looked sharp and efficient facing 4 batters - giving up one hit and three infield ground outs.
The Bridegrooms added 3 runs in the third and 3 in the fourth to make the score Bridegrooms 17 – Hitmen 3.
With the sun fading rapidly, the teams tried to get in another half inning. With Nick Nails leading off, disaster struck. Letting out a blood curdling scream worthy of one of Nightman’s victims, Pesci straightens up, spins twice, and goes down face first quicker than a drag queen in her first pair of high heels. Everyone is thinking heart attack, aneurism, or cerebral hemorrhage. After a few seconds, Pesci finally mumbles "I got dirt in my eye". They flush out the eye and try to continue the game but by now the sun has disappeared. After 2 walks and a double that no one saw until after it landed, Pesci calls the game. Final score Bridegrooms 17 – Hitmen 6.
