Game Photos from November 19

These photos were taken by my friend Matt Holden at East River Park two weeks ago. He's a pretty good photographer, and there's some nice action shots and portraits. Enjoy!

Softball @ East River Park

Games and Notes of 11/28

Alex Rivera broke Phil Kotik's doubles record with a 1st inning flare to short center off of Havelock Hewes. Where anyone else would have stopped at first, Alex took second, and now has 35 doubles for the year.

We will be in Hastings, at Zinsser Park, Sundays at 10:00am when the weather permits it. Now, the games:

Melendez 11, Hewes 7
Freddie Melendez won his 17th behind the bats of Alex Rivera (3-for-4, 3 runs, 2B, RBI) and Ian Parfrey (2-for-4, 3 runs, 4 RBI). Sam Magnus homered for Havelock's squad.

Nilva 9, Schmerler 6
Zach Nilva (6-5) cruised to victory behind a balanced offensive attack. Nilva led 9-1 after 4, but Schmerler's team fought back. Alex Rivera homered and drove in 2 in a losing effort.

Hewes 10, Parfrey 6 (5 innings)
Jorge Davila homered and drove in 4 to back Havelock's pitching. Alex Rivera was 3-for-3 for Parfrey's team.

ZACH NILVA, RECORD BREAKER (part 2 and 3)

Zach Nilva got his 140th hit of the season, a 4th inning RBI single off of Freddy Melendez, to break Joe Gerber's single-season record, which had lasted since 1995. Nilva also had 17 consecutive hits over 5 games before finally being retired on a groundout by Jeff Appell. This is also a record as far as we know.

Zach needs to score 5 more runs to break Gerber's run record, and Ian Parfrey needs 10 RBI to break Larry Savell's record. Alex Rivera needs 3 doubles to break Phil Kotik's record. Parfrey also has a chance at breaking 2 more obscure records-- most times reached base and most runs produced, needing to reach 6 more times and produce 11 more runs, and also may become SFLOI's 4th ever Triple Crown winner. To recap, Zach has already broken the records for most hits and most singles; Freddy Melendez has broken the record for most player wins; Laura Stoeth has broken the record for most wins by a female pitcher; and Havelock Hewes has batted for the 6,000th time. It has been a historic season already and there may be more to come.

Now onto the games.

Hewes 6, Appell 4
Ken Walker hit a grand slam and tripled in another run, and Evan Peters added 3 hits as Hewes (13-20) held on for the win. Zach Nilva was 4-for-4 for Appell's team.

O'Connor / Garcia 21, Connor / Melendez 14
Game 2 was a slugfest featuring 35 runs, 41 hits, 12 walks, at least 7 errors, and 4 pitchers. Jim O'Connor (13-9) got the win and Freddy Melendez got the loss in relief. Adam Garcia picked up the save with 3 innings of relief pitching. O'Connor was staked to an 8-2 lead, but Connor's team scored 5 in the 3rd and 5 more in the 4th to take a 12-8 advantage. O'Connor's team scored 8 times in the bottom of the 4th and 5 more in the 5th to regain control. As you might expect, there are alot of individual performances to mention: For the O'Connors, Ian Parfrey (4-for-4, 2B, 5 RBI), Zach Nilva (4-for-4, 2 RBI), Adam Garcia (3-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Jeff Appell (3-for-4, 2B, 3 RBI), Joe Geller (2-for-3, 3 RBI). For the Connors, Freddie Melendez (5-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI), Sam Magnus (4-for-5, 3 RBI), Alex Rivera (3-for-5), Ken Walker (2-for-4, 3 RBI), and Havelock Hewes walked in all 5 of his at bats.

Melendez 13, Appell 9 (5 innings)
Eric Schulman homered and drove in 4 runs, and Adam Garcia was 3-for-3 with a triple and 4 RBI, as Freddy Melendez improved to 16-9 on the year. Alex Rivera had 3 hits in a losing cause, and Sam Magnus tripled twice. Melendez's team opened a 13-4 lead and barely survived their own defense.

ZACH NILVA, RECORD BREAKER

While leafing through the arcane lore contained in the lifetime stats, I discovered that Zach has set the single-season record for singles with 111 and counting. The previous record was held by John Grieco who had 100 in 1995.

GAMES OF NOV 14

It was a historic morning, as Havelock Hewes got his 6,000th plate appearance in game one-- he reached on an error; and Zach Nilva went 8-for-8.

Rosengard 10, Appell 9
Rosengard's team led 8-0 after 2, but Appell's squad chipped away at the lead. In the 7th inning, Zach Nilva (4-for-4, 2B, 3B, 5 RBI) doubled home two runs to tie it, took third on a throwing error, and scored on Adam Garcia's sac fly. In the bottom of the inning, Alex Rivera (2-for-4, 3 runs, HR, 2 RBI) homered to straightaway center to tie the game up again, and Ian Parfrey then walked, went first to third on a groundout, and scored on Joe Geller's 2-out single to center. Bill McLaughlin was 3-for-4 for Appell's team.

Melendez 9, O'Connor 6 (8 innings)
Another thrilling finish occurred when O'Connor's team, trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the 7th, suddenly woke up to tie the game. Jaime Orochena singled in Marvin Cohen, and Alex Rivera's throw home brained catcher Dave Rosengard, allowing Bill McLaughlin to score the tying run. Freddy settled down to get Ken Walker to pop out to short with the winning run on third, and his team went to work in the top of the 8th. Joe Geller singled to start the rally, Havelock Hewes followed with a bunt single, and Gil Schmerler walked. Nate Sillman's groundout plated the go-ahead run, and then Glen Lawrence singled to score Hewes. Schmerler came around on an outfield error, and Alex Rodriguez then hit a sacrifice fly. O'Connor's team didn't go quietly, scoring once in the bottom of the 8th, and bringing the tying run to the plate. Nilva had 4 hits in a losing cause, and Jeff Appell had 3. For the winners, Freddy Melendez backed his pitching by going 3-for-4.

Reflections on the end of Game One, or Why my Thumb Hurts

the ball starts in the pitcher's hand, which is Freddy, who can hang with anybody, outhit and outdrink the young kids, it flies toward right field off the bat of Sam who is trying to outthink the scouting report on him-- pull hitter, good pop-- and today will have nothing to show but two rockets into the glove, and Bill is catching this one in right, you gotta watch this one, he's sneaky, by which i mean his teams win an awful lot and once in awhile he'll hit a home run or gun someone out from the outfield hitting the catcher in the chest with the throw and you'll say, hmm, this skinny dude can play, but most of the time he is a cerebral and unobtrusive force in the dugout, well, in this case the bases are loaded and the man from third is Havelock, a week away from 6000 plate appearances, he is across home plate with career run #1103. can you get to know a man by his numbers? so the throw must come into the cutoff man, the tail runners can do anything they want but score, only one more out is needed here. I take the cutoff, and one thing you can say for me, 4 seasons in, is I have a knack for being in the middle of strange plays, which this is about to become when Alex rounds third too wide. the throw must go home, to stop his forward momentum, and Tony is catching, the godfather of the game, you didn't cross don corleone in his old age either. there is a rundown. Alex's resume involves a bunt triple and a baserunning style that borders on kleptomania. Glen is playing third, his reputation consists of 924 hits, and an aversion to aluminum, and he runs Alex towards the plate, and looks up, and there I am in the baseline, in the middle of another play, when I could be guarding second base or picking my nose, and the ball is there, and here comes Alex at full tilt and the only question is, will he succeed in ripping the glove off of my hand, which he doesn't so the comeback is dead as a doornail, and the fielders are celebrating.

GAMES OF 11/7

Melendez 10, Hewes 9
Freddy Melendez won his league-leading 14th game. Alex Rivera (3-for-5, 4 runs) was caught in a rundown between third and home as the tying run to end the game. Melendez's team was led by Ian Parfrey (3-for-5, 4 RBI), and Eric Schulman (3-for-6, 2 2B, 3B, 2 RBI). Zach Nilva went 5-for-5 with 2 RBI for Hewes's team, and Sam Magnus was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI.

Schmerler 5, Parfrey 0
Gil Schmerler picked up his first win in over 2 years by throwing a 5-inning shutout. His team scored 3 times in the bottom of the first on RBI singles by Sam Magnus, Glen Lawrence, and Tony Connor, and never looked back.