Despite numerous ducks left on the pond, the Bad News were victorious in their first round playoff game against Innovation, by the score of 4-0, providing another proof point to support the old adage that, “Defense gets you through the playoffs.”
Defensively, the Bad News defense allowed no runs over the course of the full seven-inning contest. Han Lui, a homeless man and a regular at Coleman Oval softball games, said that, “[The Bad News] were straight up tight in the field. O’Leary had a hell of a day at short, and Marino made some nice catches out in left.” And Julie Murphy turned in one of her best defensive outings of the year, with Lui adding, “The Murphster was in the zone. She caught two foul tips for outs. The best catcher the league has ever seen, and this game proved it.”
On the offensive end, the Bad News bats were strong, but struggled to bring runs across the plate, leaving 11 men in scoring position over the course of the game. Said Matt Rinaldi, a local skateboarder and Bad News fan for all three years of the team’s existence, “Yeah, their bats were on, they just couldn’t bring it home. They’ll need to be clutch if they want to make it through the next round.” O’Leary and Marino went a mammouth 6-for-6 at the plate, with Rinaldi commenting, “Flica flica flava.” When asked about Frank Stingone’s Ted Williams-like run for .800, Rinaldi concluded that, undoubtedly, “Frank-the-Tank is the mothaflippin.”
Next game (Updated!): As an eerie sense of déjà vu continues to settle over the 2008 playoffs, the Bad News will face No. 1 seed Team Tuttle (the 5-3 winner over the New York Daily News) in the Division Finals on Wednesday, at 7:15 p.m. at East River Drive Field No. 7.
The Bad News hope to shake off it’s annual second-round slump, and bring home a division trophy. With the way their defense is keeping runs -- and David DaCosta’s era -- to a minimum, it may not be much longer until Jim Malkin has to start constructing a trophy case.
No comments:
Post a Comment