Georgia Diamond Dogs 10, L.S.U. Tigers 8
by T Kyle King on Apr 4, 2009 8:27 PM EDT
in Baseball
Email
PrintThe one redeeming feature of Friday night’s disaster against Louisiana State was the fact that the Diamond Dogs finished strong in the late innings, because, otherwise, it was an utter tail-whipping. Saturday afternoon’s effort was a mirror image of the previous evening’s game, as the Classic City Canines dominated their guests and the Pelican State Panthers made it appear closer than it really was with a futile surge in the final two frames.
Alex McRee drew the starting assignment for Georgia and he induced Nicholas Pontiff to ground out in the initial at-bat of the first stanza. Jared Mitchell hammered a home run to center field in the ensuing plate appearance to give the Fighting Tigers a 1-0 edge and Blake Dean singled thereafter. Sean Ochinko and D.J. LeMahieu each reached on a fielder’s choice to conclude the canto.
Already trailing in the bottom of the earliest inning, the Red and Black came up to the plate with an answer at the ready. Matt Cerione led off with a base hit and, once Zach Cone had gone down swinging, Rich Poythress singled to put runners at first and third. A Bryce Massanari home run brought three men across the plate and another run was generated when Lyle Allen walked, Joey Lewis doubled to advance him to third, and Colby May brought him home on a sacrifice fly. Levi Hyams grounded out to end a four-hit, four-run frame for the home team.
Mikie Mahtook sent a two-out single into center field in the upper half of the second canto and took second on an error by McRee before being thrown out at home. The Diamond Dogs recorded only a lineout, a groundout, and a pop-up in the bottom of the stanza. Tyler Hanover led off the top of the third frame with a single up the middle. Pontiff followed with another single and Mitchell walked to load the bases.
Louisiana State leadoff hitter Nicholas Pontiff went one for four with a strikeout but neither an R.B.I. nor a walk, which raised serious theological questions about the validity of the doctrine of papal infallibility.
With trouble brewing, McRee persuaded Dean to foul out and Mitchell was picked off at first base. This opened a base for Ochinko to take on a walk, and, after a passed ball plated an unearned run, LeMahieu grounded out to end the inning.
Poythress responded with a leadoff single in the home half of the canto, after which Massanari notched a base hit, as well. Although the Georgia first baseman was caught stealing and Allen struck out, Lewis scored one run with a double and May scored another with a single. Hyams tacked on another base hit before Michael Demperio struck out to conclude a five-hit, two-run frame for the home team.
After a leadoff home run by Micah Gibbs opened the top of the fourth stanza, the next three Bayou Bengals lined out, flied out, and grounded out, respectively, and the Red and Black carded only a trio of strikeouts in the lower half of the inning. Dean’s two-out walk was all L.S.U. had to show for the visitors’ half of the fifth canto.
In the bottom of the inning, Chase Davidson dropped a one-out single into left field. Lewis’s ensuing base hit moved him over to third and Davidson scored when May reached on a fielder’s choice. Hyams grounded out to conclude the canto.
Tiger third baseman Tyler Hanover went two for four and drove in a run, which made the English people a lot more forgiving of the fact that his family took over the monarchy after the end of the Stuart line despite the inability of his people to speak any language other than German.
LeMahieu got the top of the sixth stanza underway with a leadoff double, but, even though Ryan Schimpf subsequently was hit by a pitch, a groundout and a pair of strikeouts stranded both baserunners. In the bottom of the inning, however, Cerione belted a one-out double and Johnathan Taylor sacrificed him over to third. Poythress’s ensuing double added another run before Davidson grounded out to close out the home team’s turn at the plate.
Michael Palazzone was on the hill for the upper half of the seventh canto and he struck out the first two batters he faced before walking Dean. Ochinko flied out in the next at-bat to erase this baserunner. May notched a one-out double in the bottom of the frame and Hyams brought him home with another double. A Demperio single put runners at the corners for Cerione, whose sacrifice fly scored another run before Demperio was picked off.
LeMahieu and Gibbs began the top of the eighth inning with back-to-back singles. A wild pitch advanced both baserunners following a Schimpf flyout and Mahtook scored a run on a groundout. A Hanover single plated another and, after Leon Landry sent a single to right field, a wild pitch brought home the third run of the frame. Mitchell went down swinging to prevent further damage.
A pair of two-out singles by Massanari and Peter Verdin in the bottom of the canto came to naught when Lewis struck out swinging, so it all came down to the top of the ninth frame. Dean Weaver came on to pitch and he secured the first out from Dean before surrendering a single to Ochinko.
L.S.U. second baseman Ryan Schimpf managed only one hit on Saturday, which helps explain why he’s the least popular of the Stooges.
An error by Weaver allowed LeMahieu to reach base, which enabled Gibbs to bring home an unearned run on a groundout. A Schimpf double scored another unearned run before Mahtook popped up to close out the contest.
The fact that the Bayou Bengals notched six hits and five runs in the last two stanzas should not distract you from the truth any more than the Diamond Dogs’ six hits and four runs in the final two frames last night; this was a whipping. Georgia leapt out to a 4-1 lead after one inning, maintained its three-run lead through four cantos, and pulled away in the next three innings to carry a 10-3 lead into the eighth frame. It had the feel of a shootout, but it was never in doubt . . . much like a certain other Georgia-L.S.U. game I could name.
Bulldog starter Alex McRee outlasted his Tiger counterpart, allowing two earned runs off of seven hits in six stanzas while the Bayou Bengals’ Austin Ross surrendered nine hits and six earned runs in just three innings. The Red and Black out-hit the visitors (18-13) and did not give up more than one run in any canto before the eighth, despite a pair of errors.
Matt Cerione went two for four with an R.B.I. from the leadoff spot and the Classic City Canines were able to rely upon Levi Hyams (2 for 4, 1 R.B.I.), Joey Lewis (3 for 5, 1 R.B.I.), Bryce Massanari (3 for 4, 3 R.B.I.), Colby May (2 for 3, 3 R.B.I.), and Rich Poythress (3 for 5, 1 R.B.I.) one day after Friday’s power outage. Georgia needed a game like this one after the one that preceded it. It is to the credit of David Perno and his team that, when they had to get it done, they got it done---in a much bigger way than the final score suggests, in fact---to set up a rubber game at noon on Sunday.
Go ‘Dawgs!
9 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
In other good news . . .
. . . Florida lost to Vanderbilt today, so the Diamond Dogs have resumed sole possession of first place in the East!
Go 'Dawgs!
So I've read, like for one week..
and while the writing is clearly good, the sameness of the format, images, lame varied school names, and incessant and pompous use of the word “canto” is just too much (I’m sorry, baseball is just not poetry).
Thanks for the depth on the games, though, as it is virtually impossible to find it elsewhere.
The play on the error at first leading to the play at the plate was terrific baseball. One of the best plays it’s been my privilege to see at Judge Frank D. Foley Field.
And as any connoisseur of T Kyle’s writing can tell you (and I’ve been reading him since we was a columnist for the Rude and Bleak), too much is never enough. Baseball is poetry and so much more.
Especially when it results in yet another fine victory over the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge.
First of all, thanks for reading and thanks for commenting
As for our stylistic differences, this is why Baskin Robbins has 31 flavors.
For what it’s worth, though, I use “canto” for the same reason I use “stanza” and “frame”; namely, because using “inning” every time would get redundant and repetitive and redundant. I also use “miscue” for “error,” “hurler” for “pitcher,” “visitor’s half” for “top,” “home half” for “bottom,” and “hill” for “mound,” just to break up the monotony.
I admit to being guilty of using the same format, although there is something to be said for consistency. We all have our niche, and this happens to be mine.
Finally, I agree with BarnettShoals about baseball being poetry. Bernard Malamud’s The Natural, W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe, and John Updike’s “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” would appear to support this position, as would “Bull Durham”’s Annie Savoy, Yale classicist Donald Kagan (who likened Joe DiMaggio to Achilles), and Bart Giamatti (who brought to the post of commissioner an understanding informed by a lifetime spent explicating epic poetry, which led him to see in the game The Iliad and The Odyssey).
Plenty of sincere baseball fans prefer to strip the game of its poetry—-Bill James and George Will spring to mind—-but, while I respect many folks who fall into that category, I fall outside of it. That’s just the way I roll.
I do, however, thank you for visiting, for reading, and for taking the time to comment. I hope you will continue to do so, not in spite of our divergent views, but, in part, because of them.
Go 'Dawgs!
Name me another sports blogger . . .
. . . Whose skill with prose intimidates his readership to the degree that they apologize for omitting commas in their comments.
As for the content, the game of baseball bores me to death, so it’s no slight to you that I find the play-by-plays wholly uninteresting. I usually read the captions, at least.
Although . . . if you wanted to take the whole “baseball as poetry” idea to the next level, you could start writing your recaps in classical heroic hexameter. Homer had the Achaeans, Virgil had the Aneads, you have the Diamond Dogs. I normally have no interest in baseball or classical epic poetry, but I would read every single baseball post if you decided to do it that way.
Yeah, right, I was intimidated.
I agree with the rest of wwcrmd?‘s post; if baseball is poetry, than it’s art, or “an art.” So it’s got ideas, intended expressions, an inextricable relationship to the values of its culture and time, originality, and falls along a continuum of the ideas expressed in the history of its medium. So yeah, instead of the occasional Faulkner reference I think Dylan Thomas, Homer, and e e cummings are likely on the brain of David Perno, poet laureate/manager, so a proper synopsis would have to include some sense of the unlimited mastery of the master coach/manager.
Or so it would seem. Perhaps it’s just Kevin Costner wandering in hackneyed cornfield instead.
It depends on how strict you want to be, wwcmrd?
Would every foot have to be a dactyl, or would I be allowed to substitute spondees?
In any case, it’s a good suggestion, and I’d be lying if I said I had never considered such an option.
Go 'Dawgs!
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Dawg Sports
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
