Summer Softcore Kickball in Ravenna Mon/Wed

This week, Tommy of Extra Special Ballers put on a truly dominant defensive performance. While playing on a team with only 8, Tommy was forced to patrol the large Ravenna park centerfield in relative isolation. Undaunted, Tommy cleanly fielded every deep fly ball in his direction, some in grandiose fashion. Of course, Tommy topped off his day with an excellent performance at the plate. For his overall heroics, Tommy is our player of the week.

Lauren was a defensive wizard at 1st! Making over the shoulder catches in foul territory. Diving stops. Snagging errant throws to still record outs. And these plays were flukish by any stretch of the imagination as these plays put in by Lauren became a recurring theme. Though Lauren wasn't particularly dominant at the plate, her defensive prowess certainly made up for any lack of offensive. And heck, if the defensive minded Bill Mazeroski can be inducted into the Hall of Fame, then certainly Lauren is a worthy candidate for player of the week!

Those that think Kickball pitching is easy, try it at Ravenna park. A slope in the infield is putting it mildly. But Brand of Recess Renegades overcame that difficulty and pitched, almost perfectly, 2 straight games. You should have seen the fluid motion and straight and low to the ground pitches he was producing. Art, is what that was! ;) Great job out there, Brand! Way to keep em straight, slow and low!!!

Toby had some huge kicks including a 3 run HR in the 6th to top off the 13 runs put up by the Recess Renegades. He also had the final out with a huge run from center field all the way to 2nd base to snare the catch with his outstretched arms and seal the victory.

Toby had some great kicks with solid defense and some very entertaining base running. At the plate, he had 2 doubles [well almost 2] and a triple for at least 5 runs kicked in yet he never crossed the plate himself. Playing in center field, Toby showed his tremendous range snagging a few nice grabs and had a bullet throw to 2nd for a big double play.
But running the bases--that's where he ran into a string of bad luck. On what would have been a double, a wild throw caught his toe for the out as he windmilled around the base [but did score 2]. Later, after overrunning 3rd, another great throw glanced off his elbow for an out [again scoring 2]. Finally, in some sort of avoidance technique, he was tagged out on his way to 1st while on his knees. A great and entertaining all around performance.

Garren started his team off toward a great playoff run with a 1st inning, 2-run HR blast over the right fielder's head. In the bottom of the same inning, he showed his defensive skills with a great catch and quick throw to first for an inning ending double play. Garren continued to contribute offensively with a single and run scored in the 3rd and to cap it off he kicked a big run scoring double in the seventh and then scored again. Great pitching as well in what was a complete game effort and playoff victory.

As many players shouted, the Championship run was a TEAM effort. It is hard to exclude the many contributors for Osgood Slaughters on their Championship night. But if one player stood out above the rest, it had to be Colin. In the semi final match, Colin not only booted a 3 run home run to erase an 1 - 0 deficit, but he also provided his team with a dagger of a shot that resulted in Grandma having to pull out the rye bread and mustard... Why??? Because it was Grand Salami time!!! As lethal as Colin was at the plate, he was equally as devastating pitching two complete game gems even though at one point we were all thinking that fatigue was getting the best of his pitching arm. But no! He channeled his inner Daniel Lawrie and pressed on to bring home a kickball championship!!!