Just dropped in to see what condition our condition was in

Exhibition Baseball Game

Urban Achievers vs. Ballerup
Summer Solstice


Pre-game

After Cap'n Raz announced he'd organized our first baseball game of the 2012 season, the Achievers gave a hearty laugh.

Who would dare challenge the National Champs? No matter, we were more than excited to take some leads, bring out the lumber, and throw some junk.

Half the team hopped on their iron-horses and rode off like a motley crew of cowboy ballplayers, burning a new trail into enemy territory to answer the first challenge to our title as National Baseball Champions of Denmark.

Señor Monsalvo couldn't find the field, but by delaying the start of the game we allowed enough time for the Bjørneboe men to get suited up to play for Ballerup, ensuring a proper nine-on-nine baseball game.

The weather was strongly sunny, with strong winds, on this, the longest day of the year. It would be an 8 inning exhibition battle between Copenhagen and Ballerup, with baseball bragging rights on the line.

Pitching and Fielding

Lukwata took the mound and pitched 3.2 solid innings, giving up two unearned runs. He mixed a slowball and fastball to keep the hitters off-balance. He got out of a few jams, stranding runners in crucial situations. His gutsy performance gave the Achievers a great start.

Feebles followed with 3.1 innings of one-run ball, finding his groove after beaning the first dude he faced. He got stronger, better, more precise as the innings wore on. His solid finish came on the heels of the Achievers regaining the lead, giving Feebles the "W".

D'mensch closed it out in the final inning. Deer antler and doobies got him through a bases-loaded jam to earn the save.

The Achievers mercifully kept the errors to a minimum. Nick made a few tough flyball catches in the sun, while Eduardo fielded some hard-hit grounders at the keystone position with ease. Simon caught all 8 innings and looked like a pro.


Hitting

The scoring started in the 2nd inning. After drawing a walk and stealing third, D'mensch scored on a passed ball. 1-0 Achievers after two.

In the third inning, with two on and two out, Ballerup got a run off an error, then Feebles was called on to relieve Lukwata and he immediately beaned Jacob Dietlervsen on the first pitch. No funny stuff.

Ballerup got one more run, to go up 3-1, but that was it. The score would stay that way until the final inning. Both Lukwata and Feebles were throwing rocks!

But Copenhagen couldn't scratch out any additional runs against Anton or Dietlervsen, even though we broke two wooden bats and an aluminum one.

We were getting dudes on base -- Seena walked thrice and Dan hit the shit out of the ball -- but just couldn't seem to score.

 Alas, in the top of the 8th, the Achievers finally broke loose.

The Last Inning

With their closer on the mound, and their right fielder -- our own Z-Dog -- hittin the showers (unbeknownst to the Achievers), the big city bats woke up.

Feebles led off with a walk, and got to third on a couple passed balls. With one out, D'mensch tripled to right, making it 3-2; then Wes followed with an RBI double to tie the game, 3-3.

After Wes somehow slid safely into third on a wild pitch, Simon Paag hit the go-ahead single up the middle (with two strikes), to put Copenhagen up, 4-3. He himself then scored to make it 5-3.

The bottom half of the inning saw plenty of late-game drama. D'mensch spontaneously came in to close it out, armed with no plus pitches, yet with a jazzball that proved too hard to lay off.

Ballerup's lead-off man put one in play and reached on an error. A walk was followed by a base hit on which the first out was recorded: a perfect relay from Seena in CF to D'mensch, to Simon, back to Wes; (8-1-2-5) on the putout to get the lead runner going for home.

One out.

Then young Anton came up with the tying runs on base. First-pitch swinging, he popped up to the mound.

Two down.

D'mensch then gave up a single to load the bases, bringing Marky Mark to the plate. With three on, two out, and the count 2-2, the runners were moving on contact. Mark blooped one over third base where Lukwata seemed to have no chance.

The sea monster turned and ran at full sprint, looking the ball over his head all the way into his outstretched glove - a snowcone, Willy Mays catch - and he secured the final out in the tip of the pocket, running off into the sunset with that sudden rush of joy from victory.

Game over.

Achievers win, 5-3.

Still defending champs.