Hello friends. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten together here on the SweatSite for one of our illustrious write-ups, and it’s entirely my fault. I’ve been so busy working on a high-level top-secret government project, that I just haven’t had the time to gather my thoughts about this forgettable stretch of games, until now.
Our story begins back on May 28th when for the first time ever, the SweatSox took on the Gatineau Marc Sports, who are playing in their inaugural NCBL season. It was a quick-paced, low-scoring affair with Marc Sports scoring the first two runs of the game in the 4th inning. The SweatSox scored one in the 6th, and after some small-ball in the 7th got the tying run to third, but that’s as close as we’d get.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP award was: Eric White. THC had one of the four SweatSox hits going 1/1 off the bench, and scored the only Sox run of the game. He also pitched 3 innings of 2-hit, 5-strikeout ball in relief. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was: Mark Bond. The Bus Cop broke his brand new bat in literally its first career swing.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx was nearly the last, as half the team nearly died in either a gas explosion and/or sex shop fire.
Two days later, the SweatSox took on for the first time: the River Hawks, who made the jump up to Tier 2 after winning the Tier 3 pennant and championship last year. Although this was the first ever matchup between these two franchises, there was at least one familiar face on the River Hawks: Eric Boisvert, who we last saw in Game 3 of the Athletics series last playoffs – well, Craig didn’t see.
Boisvert started for the River Hawks, and dominated the SweatSox; throwing the complete game shutout giving up just 3 hits. One of those hits was off the bat of Mark Stinson, who also drew 2 walks in 3 plate appearances, earning him the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP Award. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was Eric White, not because he picked up the loss, but because he ripped off GLE’s move of going for a mid-game après-pitching “walk”.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx saw the SweatSox eventually head to St. Louis Wings and Ribs, everyone except for Denver Hunt that is, who finally made it home at a reasonable hour. Could this be the beginning of the end for our little Shostappa?
Although the Odlid is supposed to be awarded for something that happens during a game, it didn’t help Eric’s case to not receive it when the bill came and this happened:
Two days after all that, the SweatSox travelled back to Allen Park to take on the Gatineau Marc Sports. Looking to avoid a 4 game losing streak, the SweatSox started their career leader in just about every statistical pitching category: the GLE Cory Bond. In the bottom of the 1st with the SweatSox already up 1-0, CBond retired the side in order and then spent the next 30 minutes watching the Sox put up their second 7-run inning of the season. The Sox added 3 more in the 3rd to take an 11-0 lead, leaving Eric White and Josh Ramage (who wasn’t even in the city) wondering where that kind of run support is during their starts.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP award was Cory, who picked up his first win as a starter in nearly 2 years (June 8, 2012) when he beat the Pirates 5-2 at Aydelu. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was Armando Navarro, who didn’t realize that getting DH’d for meant he still had to field his position, and ended up running to LF as the umpire yelled play ball.
The SweatSox headed back to St. Louis during the Après Baseball Hyjinx to watch the NHL’s Western Conference finale, and Cop crawling under tables; but not before Eric got iced at the field:
Five days after the Marc Sports win, some the SweatSox trekked, while others (like I, Shaun Keay) could’ve walked, to Kinsmen to face the #oldisnew Braves. Making his 2014 debut on the mound was Mark Dorrington, who hadn’t lost a regular season game since “The Loss” in 2006. The SweatSox got off to a good start, taking a 1-0 lead in the first off a Martin Trepanier RBI single, but that lead that wouldn’t last long. The Braves scored runs in each of the next 5 innings en route to an 8-3 win, dropping OMS’ career regular season record to 15-2.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP award was: Josh Ramage, who was making his “full-time” return. Mr. Winchester pitched 2 innings of relief, giving up just 2 hits and 1 walk, with 0 earned runs. He also went 1/1 at the plate, with a classic Josh Ramage opposite field single to temporarily lead the team, tier, and league in average (1.000). The winner of the anti-award Odlid was: Mark Bond, who is never allowed to scorekeep again.
The Après Baseball Hyjinx was one of our most difficult challenges, as the opposing Braves are no Hyjinx rookies. We ran out of beer first, the ripple effect of which forced us to the bar first, which meant we paid first, and ultimately left first. Did we lose the Hyjinx though? Thanks to Josh, Cory, and I, who explored Kanata Centrum for a bar that was still serving beer, the Hyjinx was won.
On Sunday June 8th, the SweatSox travelled to Cornwall to face the River Rats for the first time since “Game 5”. The big question coming in wasn’t how huge the beast was we unleashed in the River Rats after the championship comebacks, we already knew they went big in free agency, the question was what would Cornwall do to Marc Lett in his first at bat.
The River Rats dominated from start to finish, shutting out the SweatSox 4-0 in game 1 of the double header. There was one, and only one standout in this game and that was Mark Bond, who had 2 of the 3 SweatSox hits, as well as a couple stolen bases and even got the Marc Lett treatment getting HBP too. Cop, the early MVP frontrunner, picks up his second 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP award of the season. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was Armando Navarro, who showed up late and blamed his GPS.
Game 2 started off much better for the SweatSox, as leadoff batter Armando Navarro was HBP by “The Translator”, stole second and third, and then scored on a wild pitch. Unfortunately, that was all the offense we had in us for the day.
The winner of the 2004 A&W Kamloops International Baseball Game MVP was: Armando Navarro. Army #12 led the team with 2 of our 4 hits, stole 3 bases, scored the lone run of the day, and as mentioned was hit by pitch. The winner of the anti-award Odlid was Marc Lett, who was the first to get picked off this year (we don’t count Ross’ since he doesn’t usually get on base so he doesn’t know any better).
During the Après Baseball Hyjinx, the team compared bumps, cuts & bruises before heading to Boston Pizza for some of Cornwall’s finest customer service; minus the waitress’ team pitcher spill of course.
Next up was supposed to be our second and final trip to Winchester last Thursday, but instead Mother Nature forced our 2nd rainout of the season.
I’m glad to see just about everyone remembered the secret rainout code:
Next up for the SweatSox is our 3rd straight matchup with the Cornwall River Rats, Wednesday night at Southgate.
Boxscores from all games can be found on the Statistics page, or by clicking here.
#WONTHEHYJINX