Sporting their new playoff-issued orange silicone bracelets with the phrase “Leave No Doubt”, the HMA/RAMSA softball team did just that in the semi-finals as they eliminated PCF/HH with a pretty convincing two game sweep.
The first game of the series took place last Tuesday as PCF/HH on North Meadow #11. Coming off a series victory against FxFowle the night before, PCF/HH admittedly looked a bit tired and worn down for the opening game. Couple that with the fact that PCF/HH was without their starting pitcher,
Juan Monahan, and the first game was over very quickly.
After getting the first two runners on base to start the game, the middle of the order did their job in driving home the runners as
Doug Houstoun and
Mike “The Situation” Sargent went for back-to-back triples. HMA/RAMSA scored 5 runs in the first inning and put up another 5 runs in the second inning as well as Houstoun and Sargent drove in another pair of runs to take a commanding 10-0 lead into the third. From there, the two teams exchanged runs for a few innings until the sixth inning where HMA/RAMSA ended the game by mercy, 14-3.
Game Two followed a week later and saw the return of PCF/HH’s starting pitcher. In stark contrast to game one, the second game was all about pitching and defense. The two teams
combined for 7 hits all game long. (Our stat guys are verifying but it is believed to be a SLAM playoff record). Both pitchers were frustrating the batters and the defenses were shutting down the opposition all game long as the game ended in little over an hour.
Fresh from his jog from Central Park West, leadoff man
Pete Garofalo ran to the field at 5:35 without so much as a warm-up swing or stretch and did what he’s done all season long: lead off the game with a base hit. From there, his hustle to 3rd base on an infield groundout epitomized what this second game was all about. He would later came around to score on a sac fly by
Doug Neri (his third of the series). HMA/RAMSA began the second inning with two singles--but those would be the last hits that PCF/HH would allow the entire game. HMA/RAMSA was able to scratch out two more runs that inning without another hit in the second inning to take an early 3-0 lead. Unlike Game One, which was all about the bats, the rest of the game was all about the gloves.
On the other side of the ball, the defense for HMA/RAMSA was beyond brilliant. I would like to say it was a brilliantly pitched game, but when you have multiple over-the-head basket catches, diving catches in foul territory and "blinded by the sun" catches in the OF playing behind you, it makes the job of the pitcher that much easier. To put the pitching and defensive efforts into proper perspective, PCF/HH got only 4 hits in the game and never advanced a runner to 3rd base as HMA/RAMSA finished off the series with a 3-0 shutout.
There were no whip-cream celebrations on the field or postgame celebrations at the bar for HMA/RAMSA. After last season’s failure in the finals, this season has been all about redemption; and getting into the SLAM Finals is only the next step in the process for this single-minded team. Next up for the Orange Crush......we shall see.
Two down, two more to go.
Leave No Doubt.
