LADIES' DAY

And, really, isn’t every day?
Our Double-X Chromosome representatives on Thursday night, Ellen Kenney and Liz Gabor, combined for three hits in our 23-11 makeup win over the National Constitution Center/Old City Rising Suns, the team with the longest name and the shortest history in the Center City Softball League.
In addition to their work at the dish, both were vital in holding together what was, to be charitable, a bit of a spotty defensive effort. Kenney made the all-important 2-unassisted putout for staying with a fouled-off pop in the cage with two on and just one out in the third inning.
As for Gabor, she gloved almost everything near second base, with the exception of the one she dropped when Marcus wasn’t looking and then he didn’t know how many outs there were and called time loudly to tell the person on second base he was out – untrue – and later declared there were three outs and proceeded to leave the field when, in fact, there were two. So, for that alone, quite a night for Lizzy. (She did also win the Jiffy Lube High Maintenance Award for texting at 6 p.m. that she was walking near the Art Museum and needed a ride to the field.)

In any event, the P&P, with help from the ladies, did climb above .500 on the season, although not without our requisite drama. Some of us could do without the drama, but nevertheless.
The NCC team had scored a total of seven runs in its opening two losses over a period of 14 at-bats. Somehow, we managed to trail them 8-2 entering the bottom of the third inning. I say “somehow,” but the book is pretty clear. We fielded poorly and threw the ball around, and decided that hitting pop-ups would be our oeuvre for the evening.
Having held them to 8-2 in that third inning – with major help from the Kenney 2-unassisted – we got it going a little, scoring 7, 6, 6 in the next three innings. It was a nice run for us and we brought 35 to the plate in those three innings, batting around twice.
For the game, we have four hits from Mark Nevins, Russ Krause and Marcus Hayes, three hits from Kerry O’Connor, Chris Yasiejko, Steve Lynch (3-run HR) and B.J. Clark, and two hits for Dan McElhatton, Chris Brennan and Gabor.
We were 31-for-51 and held the Constitution Center to an equal number of hits and outs (21), which is fine.

They are a very formidable expansion team. Their 2-3-4 hitters were 11-for-12, and the out was a line drive to short. So, a couple more players and it’s a different team. We take it and move to the next challenge, which is the Zoo team that is always a competitive game for us. Onward.