Gotham City: Hounds Split

Following a strong performance in our last outing, it was time to measure ourselves against the undefeated, first-place team. The setting was the Great Lawn, and the city was embroiled in a stifling heat wave. Thankfully, a big tree provided shelter from the sun, and the field was in immaculate condition. In the opposing dugout were The Big Cocks, and by the time the day was over, they would demonstrate that they are aptly-named.

For Game 1, Margaret took to the hill and she did what she always does, pitch very well. The Cocks went out 1-2-3 in the first, then it was our turn up to bat. The Cocks made a curious choice for starting pitcher, as the lad was unable to come close to the strike zone. We gladly took the walks and sprinkled some hits in between. Iain, Jason T. & Justin each had 2 RBIs. A 6-run first inning boded well for our chances of winning this one. The Cocks would change pitcher, but by then, the damage had already been done. Meanwhile, Margaret continued to make pitches, and our defense was solid even if there were a couple of miscues. We were up big entering the top of the 5th, and Margaret closed them out to end the game on mercy rule. We realized that The Cocks did not get on base through a clean base hit, giving Margaret her first no-hitter as a Hound. Final Score: Hounds 11, Cocks 0.

For Game 2, George took the ball and pitched decently. He did have a few walks though and the Cocks were able to finally get some base hits. Early in the game, we pointed out that The Cocks' male-to-female ratio in the batting order was too high. The umpired agreed with us but unfortunately, that ruling brought out the worst in our opponents. They became very talkative and obnoxious, but they held the lead and we were unable to silence them with our play. Unbelievably, they gifted us 8 walks but somehow we were not able to fully capitalize. We hit a combined .222 in this game, which won't get us very far in any league. We also had a couple of rally-killing bonehead baserunning plays, with 2 runners getting called out for leading too early. We can't have that kind of stuff happening, guys. We did mount a rally in our last licks, but were only able to get one run on the board before the game ended on a 5-5-3 double play. There was a brief confrontation between the two teams at the end of the game before cooler heads prevailed. Final Score: Hounds 4, Cocks 6.

It was very tough to split against this team, but at least we had a look at the team that was in first up to this point. It's safe to say that we do not have too much to worry about if we have to play them in the future. I am very proud that we were able to just keep playing the game and leave the talking up to them. I know we are going to rebound strongly after this loss.