Hewes Wins Two, Sam Melendez Dominates and Mishkin Is In First Place - by Havelock Hewes

    The first half of the Memorial Weekend games were played at Hechscher Field on Sunday, May 25.
    Game one was tied at three runs a piece, when Nel Yomtov drove in Chris Pun (his first game of the season) on a fielder's choice.  The team added more insurance than Tony Connor would sell you when they piled on seven more runs in the top of the seventh to support Havelock Hewes' fine pitching performance and beat Freddy Melendez' team 11-3.
    After the game, Hewes' team added Tony Connor who pitched game 2.  The Sam Magnus team picked up Joe Geller.  There was also a four-plyer trade which sent Gil Schmerler and Tom Haskin to Magnus for Joey Escobar and Adam Wald.  Connor's team scored one in the first and it looked like that lead might hold up as Connor and Sam Melendez matched zeroes through six.  The slight lead disappeared quickly as Melendez' team clubbed six straight hits off the bats of  Sam Melendez, Ross Barkan, Dave Sommers, Freddie Melendez, Sam Magnus and Dimitri Patsalos and scored four runs.  Sam Melendez  allowed only five hits and no earned runs in defeating Connor 4-1.
  The teams were re-mixed for game three and Freddie Melendez faced Havelock Hewes in a re-match of game one.  A number of errors contributed to Hewes' team building a six nothing lead (2 earned) and they held on to win 6-2.
  The hitting stars of the day were Freddy Melendez ( 5 for 8 with 2 walks, 1 RBI, 2 runs), Dimitri Patsalos ( 4 for 9 with 5 RBI), Chris Pun ( 3 for 9 with a double and a triple and 5 runs scored) and Ross Barkan (4 for 5 with a triple, a walk, 1 RBI and 2 runs).
   Going into the second half of the Memorial Day Weekend Games (to be played May 26 at eleven am at The Great Lawn), the pennant race looks like this...
+7   Matt Mishkin  10 - 3
+6   Fred Lang  9 - 3
+4   Ross Barkan  5 - 1
+4   Tom Haskin  6 - 2
+4   Eric Schulman  8 - 4
+3   Ian Parfrey  10 - 7

The (Softball) Odyssey

An overnight rain closed the Heckscher fields last Sunday. It was a beautiful day, and there was no way we were turning around and going home. We went to DeWitt Clinton (54th Street), only to be denied by the little league. We went to Chelsea Park on 28th Street, only to be denied by tee ball. Finally we ended up at Houston Street at the East River, a few blocks south of our fall fields, sharing a turf field with a soccer game. Jeff Appell opposed Freddie Melendez, and thanks to a pair of homers from Eric Schulman, Appell's team was in a quick 6-0 hole. They scored 6 times in the top of the 4th to tie, and then a solo shot from Tom Haskin in the 5th proved to be the go-ahead run in a 12-10 win. Melendez's team put up a spirited comeback, sparked by Greg Hilska's 2-out, 2-run triple, but ultimately fell short.

Games of April 13 AKA Chris Hall Day

I don't know if I've ever seen a hitter dominate a doubleheader quite like this. Chris Hall had 7 hits in 7 at bats, scored 4 runs, drove in ELEVEN, doubled twice, and homered. Thanks to Hall's outburst, Dave Rosengard defeated Sam Melendez, 15-8, and Havelock Hewes beat Jeff Appell, 8-6.

In the first game, Hall homered and drove in 7 runs. Carl Weinberg also homered, crushing his 100th ever SFL home run to deep right-center in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The second game was a tight battle, with Jeff Appell taking a 6-4 lead into the 5th inning. He intentionally walked Ian Parfrey with two men on and two outs, and-- who else-- Chris Hall ripped a bases-clearing double to deep left-center, and was then driven in by Carl Weinberg's triple.

Havelock Hewes set down the heart of the opposing order in the sixth inning, and got a huge outfield assist from Zach Nilva to preserve the win in the seventh.

2014 stats are now available in the right sidebar. League leaders will be updated once we've played a few more games.

Defense Of Scoring Decision by Havelock Hewes

  Critical feedback from a scoring decision I made Sunday was worthy of an explanation.  Zach Nilva hit a soft liner to short centerfield. My reading of the play was that the centerfielder, Eric Schulman, got a good jump on the ball and was running to catch it.  He extended his glove, while running, and the ball bounced off his glove. This was a play that could have been scored either way.   I applied our scoring rubric of "average difficulty and average skills." I believe most outfielders would not have gotten to the ball and because Eric was running and extending his arm to catch the ball it was not an easy play.  

Regular Season Opener

Havelock Hewes prevailed over Freddie Melendez, 12-7, in the first game of the 2014 season at the Heckscher fields. Hewes helped himself with three hits and three RBI, and Carl Weinberg smacked his 99th career HR, a solo bomb to left-center.

The second game was won by Sam Melendez, 4-3, over Jeff Appell. Melendez entered the final inning nursing a 3-2 lead, but Zach Nilva tripled to left, and scored on an infield grounder by Greg Hilska. Melendez escaped without further damage when Phil Ciccone's long liner to left landed in Matt Mishkin's glove. This set the stage for Chris Hall to hit a hard liner through the SS hole that scored Eric Schulman with the winning run.