The Rackballers were at it again after a bye week and faced Dogs Love Trucks. Yes you read that correctly, their team name is Dogs Love Trucks. Not sure who came up with the brilliant name, but I didn’t see any dogs at the game. Where were the truck loving dogs? I want answers!
The Rackballers had a few lineup changes this week due to last minute updates. Sherman was back from his knee injury, and although he was only at 70% I think it’s safe to say that I would take an injured Sherman over anyone on the other team. Logan came back from his ankle injury and replaced Chris as the starting pitcher since Chris didn’t make it to the game until the 5th inning. On top of that Cody’s pinkie finger was completely messed up, Jack’s wrist was still hurting from the last game, and the rest of us had bruised egos.
This was by far the best defensive game of the year for the Rackballers. With Sherman being back the Left side of the field was solid as usual. Sherman, Gene, Jack, and Cody showed that if you hit it to the left side you were asking to be out. Geno played solid at second which is becoming a constant thing each week. Brandon and Kevin did a great job a catcher keeping the ball in front of them and not giving up any steals. Anthony and David didn’t get too many balls hit into right field but were still solid when they needed to be. Michael played the 4th inning on at first base and played his best game of the year. Logan was great at pitching strikes and getting into certain peoples’ heads. Chris came in and played one good inning in right field. The most improved fielder this week was Jonathan. Jonathan ended up playing the whole game in right center field and made a catch and kept every ball in front of him.
The game was 8-5 Dogs Love Trucks going into the seventh inning. The game ended 18-6. The Dogs Love Trucks bats got hot and started finding the gaps in the seventh. The Rackballers once again had several rallies killed by untimely outs. The Rackballers were swinging the bat well but kept hitting the ball right to the Dogs Love Trucks players instead of finding the gaps. Jack alone could’ve had a tremendous game batting if it wasn’t for the fact that he kept hitting it right to the left center fielder. All in all it wasn’t a bad night batting, in fact the Rackballers had more total walks in this game then they’ve had total all year. Anthony ended up striking out for the second time this year and Brandon struck out looking for the first time this year.
This game did however have its fair share of controversy. Jack got called out in the bottom of the third on a blown call by the umpire. However that umpire made sure to make a bad call against DLT in the top of the fourth to even it out. In the words of Jack, “That’s a Maybelline call.” In the bottom of the fourth Logan hit a shot right back at the opposing pitcher. He was fine and didn’t seem to upset by it. However, the doucher playing short stop for DLT told the pitcher, “The middle is wide open now and I’m gunning for it.” Top of the fifth inning the doucher came up and hit it right back to Logan. Logan made a good snag and ended up getting the guy out but not before he tried to talk trash. Emphasis on tried. The top of the sixth a DLT player allegedly gave Michael a shoulder shove. Michael claims it was an accident, but some people think otherwise. Due to the graphic nature of what was said to the umpire following the shoulder shove I will not repeat it. Let’s just say that Jack, who was sticking up for Michael, made his point. I ended up having to talk to the plate umpire twice about the calls going on and the fact that some guy was trying to hit the ball back to the pitcher. I wish there was another match up against Dogs Love Trucks.
There were a lot of great plays throughout the game and everyone ended up playing well. I could’ve picked Logan and his solid pitching, Jack’s graphic nature, Sherman’s big return, or even Cody’s 9 finger play in Left. In the end however I’m going to have to give the player of the game to Gene. Gene was incredible at shortstop and solid at bat. He played a near flawless game.
Next weeks game is against the Coafletic Visigoths at 7 PM on field 8.
