Monday, November 9, 2009

Zog Semi-Final: Hounds Humiliate ZooMass; One Win Away from the 'Chip




The playoffs are once again here and we came into this game with a single-minded determination. Having stumbled the last two Zog seasons at the semi-final hurdle, we Hounds were eager to exorcise the ghosts of post-seasons past. It was a gorgeous fall Sunday night and we were at DeWitt Clinton Field, a good ballfield with a nice playing surface. In the opposing dugout was a team called ZooMass, the team which had handed us our one loss in the regular season. In the back of my mind, I knew that loss was a fluke and that we would have the upper hand this time around. Just how much of an upper hand, even I was surprised to see.

Margaret was our starting pitcher and she once again showed why she is our staff ace. She pitched a 1-2-3 top of the 1st, and soon it was time for us to bat. After a hit and two walks loaded the bases, Iain stepped up and hit a grand-slam home run. That home run set the table for the entire evening. After the 1st was over, we were up 6-0 and ZooMass already looked defeated. They made their first of several protests throughout the game. After a brief delay to reference the rules, their protest was shot down. That seemed to make us even more motivated to stomp them, and our offense continued the scoring barrage inning after inning. Every Hound had a part to play, but some standouts were Jason T, who had a monster 4 for 4, 2 home-run game, the aforementioned Iain(4 for 4), Amelia(2 for 3, 3 RS), Mega(3 for 4, HR), Wink(3 for 3, 3 RS), Alan(3 for 3), and Camille(2 for 3).

ZooMass continued to stop play every inning to protest(what exactly I don't know), but we just continued to focus on our business.They were able to ruin Margaret's shutout with a clean home run, but soon it was the last inning and they were down by more than 20 runs. We closed the game out with a nifty 6-6-3 double play. Final Score: Hounds 23, ZooMass 2.

To say we were impressive tonight would be a massive understatement. However, we haven't won anything yet. We have a big game tomorrow night against what I am sure will be a very good team. Let's bring the same focus we brought tonight, and we will be very difficult to beat.