Saturday's pregame festivities began at what felt like 5:30 a.m. That wasn't enough to prevent the Mudcats from either: A. Filming a rap video or B. Playing the Game That Has No Name But Involves Turning Your Hat Around When You Miss The Ball (informally called "The hat game"). If you're wondering, the idea is that every time you drop the ball, you turn your hat a quarter turn.
Meanwhile, some players took the opportunity to partake of the bounty in the dugout, which put most breakfast places to shame.
Unfortunately, one Mudcat snacking on his pregame meal made the mistake of saying, "Don't put this in the blog." I think we all know what that means. Given the early hour, it wasn't especially surprising that the Mudcats went through a scattershot round of pregame infield, thus proving the often-repeated theory that a perfect round of pregame infield often leads to shaky play in the actual game. Because once the game started, the All Blacks immediately fired off a 1-2-3 defensive inning and overall retired 12 of the first 15 All Navys that came to the plate.
"I like defense," Coach Andrew told the team after one particularly stellar inning.
"I like Doritos," replied Hayes, providing the type of non sequitur that only fans of the West Raleigh Mudcats would understand, and also illustrating that the association with the defensive player of the game award seems to be catching on.
"You guys made some great plays," Coach Andrew told the team after the game. "That one is on me. I made a couple of mistakes in that game, but you guys played awesome. And you hit the ball very well. The Scrappers made some great plays. You just have to shake their hands."
All players were awarded a helmet sticker for the solid effort. Zach (duh) and Christopher (diving tag at first) picked up extra stickers for outstanding individual efforts. Offensive player of the game honors went to Gavin, while Anthony picked up the defensive award and then got into the hot tub.
This weekend's three-game series continues tomorrow at 5.
Saturday's Mudcat scoring plays
Third inning
Gavin crushed a double to left, then ran the bases aggressively and was able to score on a fielder's choice.
Score after three innings: Mudcats 1, Scrappers 0
Seventh inning
Smiley led off with a double, which gave him a great vantage point to watch Zach hit. The best part about Zach coming to the plate: watch behind the fence. It looks like Waveland Avenue outside Wrigley Field out there, with numerous fans moving into position to try and catch a homer. They got their opportunity this time, as Zach launched his sixth homer of the season, this time to dead center. The scoring wasn't over, however, as Christopher doubled in JJ.
Score after seven innings: Scrappers 7, Mudcats 4
Saturday's Web Gems
- In the second inning, Gabe made a diving play of a pop-up at pitcher.
- In the third, Smiley covered a ton of ground to run down a pop-up, also at pitcher.
- Christopher made one of the toughest plays in the minor league, backing up and dealing with the slight drop behind the infield to haul in a pop fly behind shortstop.
- Showing the benefits of what happens when you work hard in practice, JJ played a flawless first base in the fourth inning.
- Anthony (brought to you by Doritos) ranged far to his right and got a force-out at second.
- Christopher showed good range at first base, then dove back to the bag to slap the tag on first base just before the runner arrived. It was the second time this season he's made that exact heads-up play.
| Saturday's line score | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H |
| Scrappers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 7 | 10 |
| Mudcats | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 13 |
Asher
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