GAME RECAPS

An ominous weather system lingered over the field of play as the Mastodons took on the Trout looking to stave off an extirpating 5 game losing streak.  Bolstered by the returns to the lineup of Annelies Cooper and Devin Clancy, the thrash metal Dons littered the skies with hits and bloops and blasts! But the Trout weren’t to be outdone as they leapt from the currents to snap up balls hit in their vicinity, including some nifty plays by Rachel Small and LJ Robinson in the middle infield and a few valiant attempts in the outfield by Johann Juarez and Alex Brant.  Like the tides that govern the trout migration, this game was a back and forth affair with the mammutid proboscideans prevailing 18-14 as the drizzling rain broke the longest ice age in the teams short existence.

In the second game played under the lights, the Humber River Hustle looked to keep their spot at the top of the Billboard charts but faced a formidable challenge from the Ballsheviks.  Some crafty defensive maneuvering from the disco divas stifled the red menace for much of the game with stellar plays by Leigh Kittson and Jenny Chan at first base, some excellent backup coverage by Rocio Velasquez at rover, and a memorable timely home run by Natalia Saavedra who took advantage of a soviet bathroom break by the Ballshevik’s centre fielder, Andy Smith to widen the Hustle lead.  But as the 6th inning began, there was panic at the disco! With fears of a reassignment to Siberia, the summer rain awakened the Ballsheviks and they began a series of blasts and bloops led by comrades Merle Davis, Jarl Gardner, Andrew Stokes, Gita Madan, Kate Uffelman, Nav Sidhu, Lainie Basman and Stu Schulsser. Despite a strong push for disco supremacy, the front page of Pravda continues to show The Internationale as the top hit in Ballshevik land and solidarity forever rang true with a 17-16 victory for the Reds.

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

MILESTONES

FIRSTS & Seconds

Home Runs
Natalia Saavedra – Humber (2) and Andrew Norton – Humber (2) and Andy Smith – Rouge (2) and Andrew Stokes – Rouge (2) second career home runs!

ODDITIES

Ahead by a Century

Nav Sidhu – Rouge River (102), Devin Clancy – Don River (100), and Merle Davis – Rouge River (100) all joined a select number of players in league history to record 100 career at-bats!

Solitaire 

TH Vega has a string of three straight games scoring exactly 1 run and earning 1 run batted in

ALL TIME PLAYER STATUS!!!

Richard Peters becomes the 35th player in league history to eclipse the 50 At-Bat plateau. An important milestone of longevity for the league!!!

GAME RECAPS

Weaving through the frizbee legions, intoxicated pedestrians and amidst the explosion of fireworks, trance beats, barking dogs, hecklers, and choppers, the Field of Dreamers took our places on the SkyDome’s diamond to play a couple leisurely games of ball.  The first matchup saw the powerful Rouge River Ballsheviks face off against the Don River Mastodons who were seeking to stave off a fourth loss in a row after starting the season with four consecutive wins.  Despite the human debris in the outfield, this was a game filled with powerful blasts and Don River jumped out to a quick start cashing in the speedy duo of Annelies Cooper and Devin Clancy who made their long-awaited return.  But as the red sun heated the field, the red menace was awoken and slowly spread their ideology of equality and prosperity for all across the diamond.  With some thunderous claps from Andy Smith and Andrew Stokes (who accounted for 11 of the teams 16 runs batted in), the Ballsheviks took advantage of some new recruits (Jan Braun and LJ Robinson) to build up a comfortable cushion and take the day game 16-10.

In the evening’s tilt, the Rainbow Trout were hoping to swim away with a win with the addition of some super subs in the form of Sebastian Lesch and Will Shields and with the help of Rouge River duo Merle Davis and the Jarl of Dufferin. But alas, the smooth grooves of the reunited Hustle were already being felt by the end of the first inning.  Like the moment where Donna Summers released her futuristic single I Feel Love, the Humber River squad pounded out hit after hit with some spry running by the returning Jenny Chan, Rocio Velasquez, and Laura Pin, some cool defence by Katie German and Natalia Saavedra, and some fly fly balls off the bats of Yogi Acharya, Richard Peters, and Andrew Norton.  Captain of the Hustle, Jo Jefferson, put together an A-B-C-1-2-3 lineup that was potent on the dance floor and the Hustle shimmied their way to a fourth consecutive win 15-4.  But though the Trout were swimming upstream all night, they showed some sustained life in the ninth inning with a speedy run of hits off the bats of Rachel Small, Alex Brant, Will Shields, and Michelle Roseman that pushed across two runs and threatened for more.  These fish were by no means squished! And the last inning explosions showed signs of a mid-summer migration up the standings! There is life in those gills!

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

MILESTONES

FIRSTS

At-Bats
Will Shields (Credit) and Sebastian Lesch (Credit) – the 59th and 60th players to take an at-bat in the inaugural Field of Dreamers season!

Veronica Majewski and Matt Leitold become the 99th and 100th players to take at-bats in league history

Doubles

Sarah Naumes (Rouge)

ODDITIES

Law of 3rds

Michelle Roseman (Credit) has reached safely in 14/21 at-bats and knocked in 3 runs while scoring 9 for a 2/3rd and 1/3rd ratio thus far this season!

Adrian Rodill Award

Karl Gardner – currently leads in all-time career .AVG (.775) .SLG (1.080) and OPS (1.854)

ALL TIME PLAYER STATUS!!!
Richard Peters becomes the 35th player in league history to eclipse the 50 At-Bat plateau. An important milestone of longevity for the league!!!

GAME RECAPS

After a downpour during the mid-afternoon with Dreamers running for shelter and making panicked calls to check if the games were still on, the skies let up and the diamond was in great shape for two excellent nail-biter games! In the first game, Humber River took a large early lead helped by some defensive wizardry at short-stop and second base from the pairings of Yogi Acharya and Giibwanisi and a nifty slide by Craig Fortier. This was complemented from some excellent hitting by Katie, Jenny, Ro, Janine, and Jo – one hasn’t seen contact like that at SkyDome since the Days of Olerud & Alomar! As might be expected on a night when the air was warm and dewey, the ball was jumpin! Karl “The Jarl of Dufferin” and Andrew “No-Nonesense” Norton exchanged towering home runs that were hit into another area code and required rescue missions for the balls. However, just as Humber thought they had the game locked up, Rouge stormed back to score 9 runs in the top of the 6th inning to tie the game! However, Jenny Chan played hero on this day, knocking in the winning run on a walk-off single, 16-15 for the Hustle! (Richard Peters & Craig Fortier).

Game two was played at dusk under a beautiful sundown. But quickly the Credit River Rainbown Trout went to work. Just as the sun had descended earlier a shallow bloop off the bat of Don River powerhouse Ryan “I Don’t Bunt” Hayes, looked to be drooping in over the infielders and out of reach of the outfielders. However, from the dark reaches of left field came a sliding Johann Juarez to make what might have been the most spectacular catch of the season!!! As Juarez walked off, both teams (Don & Credit) and even a few of us lingering in the crowd rose in standing ovation to acknowledge the spectacular effort. It was back to work for the fish as they quickly took a 10-1 lead over their distant distant distant relative Mastadons (like really distant, really really distant). But no lead is safe when the Mastadons start playing like Wooly Mammoths and the keen clobbering by Jessica Duarte, Karen Campell, Reena Reddy, Erika Pulfer, and the speedy sprint of Brianna Greaves set up some enormous blasts from Don Rivers’ side that ended in 3-4 balls being consumed by the night sky! However, Credit River was not going to be denied their second win of the season and as they gingerly pushed Alex Brant toward third base, the clutch hit from Colin Hastings sealed the victory, 16-15 for the Trout!

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

MILESTONES

FIRSTS

Hits
Tracey Mann (Rouge)

Triples

Darren Puscas (Don)

Andrew Norton (Humber)

ODDITIES

Double Agent

Brianna Greaves and Erika Pulfer have the same number of hits (9) in almost the same number of at bats – yet while Brianna has knocked in the most runs (4), Erika has been a scoring machine (8)

Adrian Rodill Award

Karl Gardner – currently leads in all-time career .AVG (.775) .SLG (1.080) and OPS (1.854)

ALL TIME PLAYER STATUS!!!
Richard Peters becomes the 35th player in league history to eclipse the 50 At-Bat plateau. An important milestone of longevity for the league!!!

GAME RECAPS

The sweltering Toronto heat started to break – just barely – as Field of Dreamer’s players took the field in tank tops and altered jerseys. And while the temperature was indeed dropping, the action on the field continued to be fire. In the first game of the day, Credit River faced Humber River for the first time this season. A matchup of the west-end rivers the game was bound to be long and winding with a strong current. And sure enough, these two teams combined to play the first 7 inning game of the season! A 22-7 score for Humber River belies the action-packed and thrilling play that was exhibited by both sides. Katie German played a stellar second base alongside Craig Fortier at short stop where the pairing combined for a half dozen put-outs and some dance floor flair for the Hustle. In the 4th inning an apparent home run blast off the bat of a Humber River player was met by the incredible iridescence of a number of Rainbow Trout relay throws that was able to cut the celebration short with an out at home!

In game two, the night cooling the air, a reformulated Don River squad placed their undefeated record on the line against a determined Rouge River in the first battle of the eastern river teams. The dense summer air ensured that the ball was flying off the bat! Home runs from Karl Gardner, Umar Saeed, Andy Smith, Darren Puscas and Matthew Poggi led the charge…but it was Rouge that was able to place runners on base to drive in. Merle Davis, Rachele Clemente, Gita Madan, Shelagh Pizey-Allen, Andrew Stokes and Nav Sidhu all had multi-hit games that clogged the base paths with Ballsheviks. And like Czar Nicholas II some time in the summer months of 1917, the writing was on the wall for the undefeated Mastadons. A score of 19-7 in favour of the collectivists made the mammutid proboscideans realize that no team is safe at the top of the food chain. Nonetheless, the Mastadons are far from extinct as they take the best record in the league into this week’s matchups. Stay tuned kids…

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

MILESTONES

FIRSTS

Hits
Andrew Norton (Don)

Runs Batted In
Linda Swanston (Credit)

Home Run
Matthew Poggi (Don)

Darren Puscas (Don)

Andy Smith (Rouge)

ODDITIES

Double Agent

TH Vega (Credit) – becomes only the 10th player in league history to record a hit as both a left handed and right handed hitter!

Double Cycles!

Karl Gardner (Rouge) – accomplishes an incredible feat by hitting for the cycle (1B, 2B, 3B, HR) two times in 4 games played! Including a Grand Slam! Interestingly Karl only scored once in all of these at-bats.