IT’S ALL OVER.
Blown call in ninth inning erases Fun Bunch chance at history books.
OTTAWA — The Fun Bunch’s unprecedented nine game winning streak and shot at the pantheon of sports came crashing down in the bottom of the ninth inning when home plate umpire Paolo Daros mistakenly called out shortstop Steve Saunders at third base.”I’ve been playing in this league for twenty five years and have never been called out on base”, Saunders said dejectedly. “I guess it was a tough call but I slid my foot into the bag and leaned back at the same time so was in well before the tag was applied” Saunders added. The Fun Bunch dug an early hole for themselves when they simply couldn’t get runners on base and either flied out to a very dense outfield or grounded out to a very tight infield. The Athletics took advantage of some surgical hitting to pick apart the Fun Bunch infield and outfield in the early innings to build a substantial lead. However, the tide turned for the Fun Bunch when they shut down the A’s in four of the last five innings with some spectacular catches in the outfield. “I felt if we could just score a couple of runs we could pick away at that lead and get back in the game as our defense was rock solid”, noted team captain Alison Hale. Richard “wild thing” Bujold was up to his old high jinks again stretching a single into a triple twice by forcing a throw to second which went wide both times allowing Bujold to trot into third. “I suppose if the throw had been on-line at second I was a dead duck but they don’t called me ‘wild-thing’ for nothing” extolled a jubilant Bujold. By the time the bottom of the ninth rolled around the score was 14 – 7 for the Athletics leaving open a slight crack for the Fun Bunch to extend their winning streak. Center fielder Martin Desjardins got on board as did Steve Saunders with two out and one run scored with Scott “boom boom” Saunders in the on-deck circle. “I was feeling like we were going to pull this one out. All we needed to do was get a base hit and bring Scott to bat”, opined back up short stop Glen Rankin. But Alas it was not to be. On the next play, Desjardins came in to score and Steve Saunders advanced to third but was called “out” by Daros thus snuffing out any chance at the record books.
--------------------------------------------