The Le Bleu Drinkers impressively finished the regular season with a 22-11 drubbing of Things Caymanian on Sunday afternoon at the Field of Dreams.
Both teams entered the game with records of 8-2 and expecting a high-scoring affair.
However the Drinkers’ defence had perhaps its best game of the year, keeping the high-powered Things Caymanian offence off the board through four innings.
‘Any time you can throw goose eggs at a team like Things Caymanian for four innings, you’ve got to be pleased with the defence,’ said Drinkers coach Alan Markoff.
Le Bleu’s offence made sure the early defensive display didn’t go to waste.
Holding a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the third inning, the Drinkers ex-ploded with six runs keyed by a two-run double by William Foster and a two-run triple by J.B. Loving-good.
In the bottom of the fourth inning the Drinkers blew the game open with eight runs. Key hits included a three-run double by Markoff and a three-run homer by Lovinggood.
Things Caymanian finally got on the board with six runs of their own in the fifth inning as Markoff walked five batters.
‘He made Mitch Williams seem like a control pitcher,’ said third baseman Mark Wallace. ‘The umpire sounded like a broken record: ‘ball one, ball two, ball three, ball four’. It was like a Fat Boy Slim song.’
Any thoughts of a Things Caymanian comeback were immediately doused by Le Bleu, however, as they answered with six runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, extending their lead to 21-6.
Key hits in the inning were a three-run double by Stephen Ebanks and a two-run homer by Foster.
Things Caymanian scored one run in the sixth and another four in the seventh, while Lovinggood hit his second home run in the sixth to round out the scoring for Le Bleu.
Wallace (4 for 4, four runs scored) and Pat Haag (3 for 4, 3 runs scored) set the table at the top of the line-up for the Drinkers.
Markoff and Ebanks each had 4 RBIs, Foster had 5 RBIs and Lovinggood had 6 RBIs for the Drinkers.
‘I’m officially ready for the play-offs,’ said Wallace, who had his best game in weeks, prompting specula-tion that he has started taking vitamin B supple-ments again.
The Drinkers had to play the game without the benefit of any amazingly fresh and ultra-pure Le Bleu drinking water.
‘I forget to bring the water,’ said catcher Laine Symth, who was so embar-rassed she attempted to remove herself, illegally, from the game in the sixth inning.
Instead the Drinkers had to make due with ef-fervescent multi-grain bev-erages, which compounded the dehydration problem, but increased the chatter from the bench.
‘If Laine forgets the water again next game, I’m going make her sit on the other bench,’ said Lovinggood. ‘I could have licked the dew off Emily’s shoes I was so thirsty.’
Markoff was unfazed by walking more batters in the final three innings than he did the whole rest of the season put together.
‘When you live by the moon ball, you can die by the moon ball,’ he said. ‘If I’m going to lose control, it’s best to do it when we’re up 15-0.
‘I gave their clean-up hitter Alex Angel, one of the most feared hitters in the league, an O-for-4 collar, and that, along with winning of course, is what really matters.’
Related Videos
