PINK MOON NIGHT AT THE DIAMOND

Our grandmother moon radiated a deep pink as she snuck around the CN Tower to catch a glimpse of SkyDome and the Dreamers who were twinkling around the bases of Trinity Bellwoods Park. It was a perfect evening for baseball and the squads who came to the park were filled with pep, sass, and post-Raptors victory euphoria.

Would the Don River Don of the Dead have the Rouge River Raccoons humming “with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs and their bombs…in your head, in your head they’re still fighting….” or would the cunning Trash Pandas be miming the iconic words of Jack Armstrong…”get that cabbaage outta here!”?

Would the Humber River Haze show Credit River what its like to be on top of a Los Angeles freeway or would the feisty Care Bears leave their tenderhearts on the diamond?

If you wanna know the results…

READ MORE TO FIND OUT!

Photo Credit: Victoria Barnett 🙂

ROUGE RIVER RACCOONS @ DON RIVER DON OF THE DEAD

Don don don don dooooonnnn…..an ominous soundtrack played gently in the background as the loveable Zombie got set to play against their nemesis from Rouge. Don, once again missing many of their players had to do some quick brain-eating pre-game to shore up their roster and ensure that the night of the living dead would indeed continue. The Raccoons, however, were masked up and ready to play ball!

The first few innings were, however, a defensive duel. With both teams showing off some stellar glove work, the first two innings resulted in a score of 1-0 for Don thanks to a key RBI by alpha vector 0, Jo Jefferson, who punctured a whole through the Raccoon defence to score Credit infectee Craig Fortier.

But Rouge River’s hunger could not be kept at bay. The 3rd-5th innings proved to be an explosion of procyon power! Taking a moment to carefully wash the ball before pounded it back, Kate Uffelman scored Stu Schussler and Phill Morgan on a stunning single. While the aforementioned duo were pouncing around the field like it was the drain pipes behind a grocery store in Chinatown – each contributing a home run to the Trash Panda cause. Nat Saavedra, Yogi Acharya, David Ravensbergen, LJ Robinson, and Sena Hussain all got into the act and the loveable Toronto mascots clubbed 15 runs in these innings.

The dead were listless, but not lifeless. Well they were lifeless, but not listless. Pecking away at the seemingly insurmountable lead, Rachel Small, Tyler Chartrand, Ryan Roantree, Joseph Bautista, Rachele Gottardi and comrades Annelies Cooper and Karl Gardner started to raise their spirits and march towards … brains. Potentially the most eventful of such was the scurrying of Craig Fortier, who in a pinchrun effort for Tyler, the Zombie Creator, Chartrand…got hung up between 2nd and 3rd producing a Johann Juarez special rundown…that resulted in a score for Don!

But there was no real challenge in the second battle of the nocturnals…as Rouge River came away with a 15-6 victory.

HUMBER RIVER HAZE @ CREDIT RIVER CARE BEARS

Story by Robyn Letson – Credit River Care Bears

On a cool and eerily trance-music-free night in Trinity Bellwoods, the Credit River Care Bears made sure to take their antihistamines ahead of another matchup against the Humber River Haze. Perhaps the zombies and raccoons scared local park sojourners away – or, wait, was something kind of major happening in the city on Monday? Regardless, the blues and the yellows took the field. And before you could yell, “4-3-2-1 STARE,” the action was well underway.

Weird weather had scattered much of the Haze’s lineup, but luckily Rachele Gottardi and Annelies Cooper subbed in to help fog the air. A flurry of hits had the Care Bears spinning in circles – but by the time they took to the plate, their tummy beams managed to find several holes in the Haze’s defense. Papa Bear Leigh Kittson made his triumphant return with a gorgeous low drive down the left field line for a double – too much smoke for the Haze to handle. The Haze did their best to turn the tides, with gorgeous doubles by Annelies Cooper and Samira Banihashemi alongside a dust-up by Andy Smith that saw him grab third base from under the Bears’ button noses.

Fine infield defense by Take-Care Bear Rees Nam and Do-Your-Best Bear Michelle Kidd kept the Haze’s poor air quality index down, despite admirable offensive efforts by Umar “Smoky” Saeed – doing double time as the Haze’s principal pitcher – and Oskar “Tire Fire” Eliashevsky, whose nascent line-drive double (triple? homerun??) was snagged from thin air by Surprise Bear Alie Hermanutz at second base. It was plays like these that helped bring the Care Bears to victory in an exciting and wholesome match – all over time to get a good night’s rest in preparation for the River Run this Thursday!

The Final Score was Credit River 18 – Humber River 8.

See the game box scores here

See player stats here

See league standings here

See all-time career statistics file (updated for August 1 2018) here

MILESTONES

Credit River
Victoria Barnett – becomes 80th player in league history to reach 25 career at-bats (26)!
Leigh Kittson- becomes 26th player in league history to hit at least 2 career home runs!
Rees Nam – becomes 92nd player in league history to reach 11 career hits!
Terrance Luscombe – currently ranks 7th on the all-time list with 86 career runs scored.
Robyn Letson – becomes 36th player in league history with 6 career doubles!
Alie Hermanutz – becomes 93rd player in league history with at least 6 career runs scored!
Craig Fortier– 1st player in league history to reach 350 career hits (351)!
Michelle Kidd – becomes the 49th player in league history to record 4 career doubles!
Karl Gardner – becomes 5th player in league history to reach 110 career runs scored!

Don River
Rachel Small – becomes 6th player in league history to reach 240 career at-bats (241)!
Jo Jefferson- becomes 15th player in league history to reach 110 career hits!
Rachele Gottardi – becomes 22nd player in league history to reach 135 career at-bats!
Joseph Bautista- becomes the 44th player in league history to reach 40 career singles!
Tyler Chartrand- see oddities below!
Ryan Roantree – see oddities below!

Humber River
Umar Saeed – becomes 19th player in league history to reach 15 career doubles!
Oskar Eliashevsky – becomes 98th player in league history to reach 15 career at-bats!
Alex Brant – becomes the 27th player in league history to reach 80 career hits (81)!
Samira Baniahashemi- becomes the 74th player in league history to record 2 career doubles!
Jill Aoki-Barrett – currently ranks 65th on the all time list with 27 career hits!
Robin Smillie – becomes 41st player in league history with 90 career at-bats (91)!
Andy Smith- see oddities below!

Rouge River
Stuart Schussler – becomes the 17th player in league history to reach 5 career home runs!
Yogi Acharya – becomes 9th player in league history to reach 105 career singles!
Susannah Mulvale – becomes 71st player in league history with at least 20 career hits (21)!
Phill Morgan – currently ranks 22nd on the all time list with 12 career doubles!
Sena Hussain – currently tied for 91st on the all time list with 6 runs scored!
David Ravensbergen – currently ranks 76th on the all-time list with 17 career hits!
LJ Robinson – currently tied for 4th on the all time list with 163 career hits!
Nat Saavedra – currently ranks 20th on the all time list with 14 career doubles!
Kate Uffelman – becomes 35th player in league history with 65 career hits!

Garrison Creek
Annelies Cooper – becomes 12th player in league history to reach 130 career hits (131)!

SUBS
No Subs played this week

ODDITIES

FIRSTS

Runs: Tyler Chartrand – Don River (1)! Ryan Roantree – Don River (1)!

CENTURIAN

Andy Smith – Humber River – recorded hits 100, 101, 102 to become the 17th player in league history to reach at least 100 career hits!