A's continue to struggle

The Wally's A's fastball club participated this weekend in the Blackburn Men's Annual Fastball tournament. In hopes of rebuilding their team confidence, the A's may have slipped into a deeper hole. The A's defence, which had been traditionally their strength, acted as their achilles heel during the weekend tournament.

Game #1 - A's vs. Stan's Diner

On Thursday night, the A's finally broke their hitting slump by outscoring their oppenents 13-4. This game was a huge confidence booster for the A's, although Stan's Diner was a heavy underdog. The A's came out swinging, and got key contributions from unlikely sources. Mike got his first homerun of the season, and the A's played a solid all round game. The game, however, was not completed without some controversy. While the A's were up by a fairly healthy margin, the third base coach gave Yves a bunt call at a poor time. The A's are usually better about their sportsmanship and hopefully the mistake will not happen again. Goodfellow seemed pissed about it and hopefully there will be any retributions in the near future.

Game # 2 - A's vs. Ball Bangers

I was not in attendance at this ball game, as I was celebrating a night out with friends after the company picnic. I heard that the A's were up 9-6, with 2 outs, in one of the final innings, when the Ball Bangers rallied to tie the game. Apparently, there was a fly ball out to the field that was misplayed by one of our outfielders that gave the Ball Bangers a second life. This error was critical in terms of maintaining our team confidence and points for advancing into the "A" side of the next round. The game ended 9-9 and cost the A's one very valuable point.

Game # 3 - A's vs. Guzzlers

The A's were in tough against the Guzzlers since the Guzzlers are currently leading the BMFL. In addition, the Guzzlers opened the game with 3 runs against one of the A's better pitchers, Denis "Pickle" McNicol. To his credit, Pickle stayed in the game and pitched solidly for the remaining six innings. The A's, with batting troubles in recent games, came back firing with some key hits from nearly all of the members in its lineup. The A's stormed on to win a 10-7 game. With another win, the A's can be playing on the "A"-side on Sunday.

Game # 4 - A's vs. Knights

With an ailing pitcher, the A's were not much competition for the good-hitting Knights. The A's defence was poor, and the bats were ineffective against Ryan Cox, the pitcher for the Knights. After a couple of innings, the Knights had blown their lead to 10-1 when the lights went out at the park. The lights were never turned back on. As it was already "lights-out" for the A's, the game was never resumed. In addition, Stefan Sklepowicz had a solid, line drive, 2-run homerun that deserves mention for the Knights. The A's were relegated to the "B"-side of the tournament due to this loss, and their tie against the Ball Bangers.

Game # 5 - A's vs. Blues

The first game of the "B"-side was supposed to be a great game. With these two teams chasing one another in the BMFL standings, this game had the potential to be a very fun game to watch and play in. In the first inning, Pickle pitched a perfect set and the A's bats were prepared to provide him with a lead. First pitch swinging, I pulled a ball to left-field into the gap where it slipped by the Blues' outfielder. With cheetah-like speed, I rounded the bases and walked to the plate with a stand-up, inside-the-park homerun. The A's continued to put pressure on, but failed to score any runs after they had loaded the bases. The game remained tight and close for a few innings, but then the wheels fell off. With some untimely errors and questionable calls from the umpires, the A's fell behind and could never regain their composure. The A's ended up losing 6-3 in a game that has created many questions leading into the final games of the season. The A's are barely playing as if they are in pre-season form. They need to pull things together if they plan on doing well this year in the playoffs.