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.

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