LOSING SKID HITS THREE GAMES.
No end in sight for hapless Fun Bunch.
OTTAWA — Fun Bunch Captain Alison Hale took her demotion in stride. Stripped of her captaincy for her teams’ inept play, stalwart Hale kept a stiff upper lip and insisted that the best days were not behind her beloved Fun Bunch. “I believe in this team. In all my heart I know they are capable of better than they have shown the last three games. We are contenders and will turn things around before the tournament”, she insisted, somewhat half-heartedly. However, It was an ugly loss to the rejuvenated Controllers tonight. With a plethora of fresh faces, they came to play and schooled the Fun Bunch in hitting 101. “I hardly recognize the team” , said newly minted infielder Richard Bujold. “They have an all-new female line-up, who are young, fast, and skilled”, he added. What the Controllers did is put on a hitting clinic-- slicing and dicing the Fun Bunch defense to shreds. “I think I had two plays at short stop”, said Steve Saunders somewhat incredulously. “All night long, they placed the ball between short and third, or short and second or second and first—really it was impressive”, he further intoned. Really though it was a game that could have been won. The final score was 14-10 and the Fun Bunch had their share of chances to take the lead, but “dropped the ball” time after time—both figuratively and literally. “I will be brutally honest with you—we simply did not seem like a team that had lost two in a row and were hungry for a win. I saw fielders letting balls drop in front of them, and undisciplined hitting with pop-ups and solo home runs like little league”, said dejected outfielder Paolo Daros. Daros might have been referring to John “Hans Solo” Devires, who returned from vacation just in time to pop two “solo” homers over the fence and pretty much extinguishing any chance for the Fun Bunch to get back in the game. “It’s hard not to be excited for little Johnny when he hits one out of the park – it is such a rare occurrence—but he knows the team rule is to not waste homers on solo ‘ego’ homers”, said a clearly disgusted outfielder Martin Desjardins. With two home runs basically “thrown away”, the Fun Bunch found themselves in a deep hole—something they have grown quite accustomed to lately. Once again their “pop-gun” offense made it ridiculously easy for the Controllers to shut them down. Ground balls to short and third and lazy fly balls to shallow infield by the Fun Bunch made for a pretty effortless defense by the Controllers. The highpoint of the game was the stellar defensive play of Richard “Wild Thing” Bujold, who sporting a sore toe, shifted effortlessly to second base where he proceeded to gun down runners, back up first base and make deft throws to short. Add some precision extra base hitting and Bujold was clearly the Fun Bunch MVP. Honorable mention goes to Daros who--mired in a woeful hitting slump--managed to barely get one ball over the fence for a modest two run homer. Heading into the bottom of the ninth inning, down five runs, once again the Fun Bunch had a slim chance to stay alive. Hale dug deep and got on board on an error bringing Steve “downtown” Saunders to the plate. Imploring his “little brother” Scott to toss one outside, Steve was instead jammed tight, high and inside. In an effort to keep the ball from smashing his ear, he instinctively followed through with a check swing but it was too late – as the balled sailed easily over the right field fence for an out. With the bases loaded and down to their last out, outfielder Scott Saunders had one shot at redemption. With no home runs left –complements of Devires--Scott would have to place a precision hit to score some runs. Sadly, it was not to be as he tried to do too much with the exceptional pitch and flied lazily out to shallow left field. “So much for the rally”, rover Tea Derakhshan harrumphed as she stomped off the field.
--------------------------------------------