Second Game Down, Six To Go

The situation: Barkley Evergreen & Partners (BEAP) dude comes up to bat, acting a bit goofy. First pitch... WHIFF! Cindy mutters, "oh, this should be interesting." Coacherson counters with, "I think he's faking." Second pitch... BAAAAAAM! A nice shot over a running "Hey" Craig's out-stretched glove in left field.

The result: A few runs, if any, scored by the other team.

The morale: Don't underestimate anyone.

The silver lining: He wasn't faking, he was just pretty lit... lucky hit.

Tuesday night was the setting of the Slayers second game of the season. After a week off, and a little rust to shake, it didn't look good after not winning the coin flip to start the game. The Slayers had to bat first. The Slayers haven't had to bat first all season long (granted, it IS only the second game, but that's whatever).

The Slayers responded and showed some great adversity. After a three-run inning and a three up - three down inning at the bottom half, the Slayers were ahead 3-0.

The second inning wasn't as productive as the first -- maybe about 33% productive (they only scored one). The nice thing is that BEAP only scored one as well, making the score 4-1.

From here, the game gets pretty boring, or maybe I just fell asleep during some things. Hey, I'm the historian, who likes tons and tons of details!?!

The bats weren't rattling a whole lot tonight, but the defense was in mid-season form. The most BEAP ever scored in one inning was four (I think), and the Slayers were in control the entire game. It helps when the other team isn't a great hitting team... it also helps that when they do hit it, over 75% of the time it was hit at a Slayer fielder who wasn't about to mess things up.

Following Shortstop JP "PJer" (read: peeger) Wright's lead, the Slayer defense was amazing. On one hit, the ball was quickly rolling to the outfield over second base. PJer, out of nowhere, scoops the ball up with bare hand, sets himself and guns the runner out at first. Miraculous.

"THAT one was for all the ladies in the audience," said a confident PJer after the game. "Since Ben isn't here, I'll say that I know where his bitches are at. Not with him. BURN!"

Game two is in the books, and once again, the Slayers are sitting on the better half of the win-loss column. They took out BEAP 9-6 and are now 2-0 on the season.

Next Up, Monday, June 5 @ 6:00: The perinnial powerhouse, and unbeaten (2-0) Chiefs. Someone's going home with their first loss.

For more photos check out the KC Ad League Flikr page. For standings and schedule, check out KCAdLeague.com.

The Season Opener, aka, "Did We Win, Or Did We Lose?"

So there we are, sitting on the hill post game, enjoying some beers and a laugh, relaxing... when, for the third time after we cleared the dugout, the question, "did we win, or did we lose," was asked. Everyone chuckled. Well, everyone who knew the answer, that is. We'll get to that in a second.

First, our roster. Returning from last year's team: "Hey" Craig Kobler, Paula "Tug's Friend" Cousins, Bruno "The Brazilian" Pieroni, Neil "McShit" Getzlow, Heath "Bunz" Kennedy, Jerome"eo" Krehbiel, Seth "Coacherson" Gunderson and Ben "Where My Bitches At" Coldwell. Newcomers to the team (no nicknames, yet): Amy McIntosh, Cindy Augustine, Hilary Bailey, JP Wright, Kelly Ziegler, Lauren Doyle, Lindsay Bruno, and sometimes Will Griggs. Making her farewell performance last night, Ashley "Slayer Fo' Life" Sloan.

The game started a bit late, as Bill and Rex were still prepping the field for the '06 season. The infield looked immaculate, though a bit on the dry side. The outfield, well, let's just say it was there. Luckily for us (and the infield), it began to rain. But a little precipitation wasn't about to postpone our game.

We (The Slayers) won the coin flip, and Coacherson strategically chose to be the home team. That means we took the field first, while our opponents, Fleishman Hillard, went up to bat. And we took the field by storm. After a minor scare in the first, we escaped with no runs scored on us.

Then our bats went to work -- single, single, double, something, something, something, and before you knew it we had nearly batted around and were up 5-0. But that doesn't mean we didn't have our mishaps. In a coaching/base running debacle, The Brazilian got caught up in a rundown. Poor Bruno was very off-balance and it didn't take long to realize that he was about to eat some serious crap. Sure enough, after being tagged out, the momentum drove Bruno right into the ground. Aside from that, it was a great start. Maybe too great.

The next inning, from what I remember, was another good one. FH may have gotten one or two runs, but not much else. Back on our side of the inning, the bats weren't clicking as well as in the first, but Bunz (remember, that's Heath) decided to relive some moments from last season as he went yard, in the park style. The score was now 7-1.

Apparently, it was FH's turn to have hot bats as they proceeded to rattle off 5 runs of their own. This wasn't a defensive mess-up, but a combination of them hitting to the spots that we weren't in and McShit walking a few people. "Hey, it happens," said Neil after the game, "if you want retribution, here's a coupon for a Big Mac and get off my back." No one likes Big Macs, Neil, no one.

SHS 7, FH 6. It was a close game. We score one. 8-6. They score one, 8-7. That's when the subs came in and took care of some biz and we left that inning up 11-7.

Time was running out for FH and they thought making a game out of it was in the cards. Someone blasted a home run over the fence and suddenly the Slayers were starting to rock back. Two more runs and the score was 11-10. Two outs, one away from victory for the Slayers, runners on first and third for FH. The pitch... the hit... a weak bouncer to Neil who turned and fired it to Ben for the final out. Slayers Win! Slayers Win!

Stars of the game? Was it JP with three singles and three runs scored? Bunz with his in the park home run? How about the only person who slid into a base, Sloan? Maybe it was Neil... ha! There was no one star of the game; this was a true team effort and the beginning to a great season.

For more photos check out the KC Ad League Flikr page. For standings and schedule, check out KCAdLeague.com.

Opening Ceremonies

In what "is" (read: "probably isn't") considered a nod to the team's domination of 2005, the Slayers have been asked (and accepted) to play in the opening game of the 2006 season.

"Oh boy, the players are stoked! They keep asking me when the next practice is," says Coacherson. "We're just excited the league picked us to provide the fireworks for the season opening."

The game will be played on Monday, May 15th at 6:00. The visiting team will be Fleishman Hillard, who finished last season with a 6-6 record.

"Fleishman Hillard!?! More like, Fleishman Billard, right guys? Like they play pool? ...," said Heath Kennedy at a recent practice. No one understood what he meant.

So Slayer Softball fans, the season starts in 1.5 weeks. Come out and show some support!