New Look Jagernaut Week 1 Recap

The anticipation of the Jagernaut fall season was a lot higher than the floodwaters that didn’t devastate Virginia Beach last weekend (read: not high at all) as the new-look Jagernauts faced off against the old-look-but-new-personnel-and-not-really-rivals-because-they-are-fun-to-play-against-and-drink-with-and-generally-nice-people, the Chubby Gangsters.

Look at all of that sexiness in yellow!

There was a solid team effort on the Jagers as everybody on the sideline contributed in some form or another. Offensively, the game started off how games usually start off, with lead-off man Dan Moore getting on base and scoring thanks to Joe Mazzitti’s RKI. However, the threat in the first didn’t end as Alden Lawrence and Kevin Gitkos scored off of a deep double from Mike Ramey. Moore and Mazzitti tacked on 2 more runs in the fourth to bring the Jagernaut’s lead to a commanding 5 runs.

Defensively, the Jagernauts worked on an upgraded outfield scheme. Team captain (3^rd person alert) Justin Littell, along with Katie Litle lost a lot of sleep and neglected their personal hygiene coming up with an updated defense. Katie noted after the game, “It definitely paid off as we held the CG’s scoreless for probably the first time since we’ve been playing each other.” Pitching, as usual, was solid as starting pitcher Mike Seals and closer Alden Lawrence allowed no runs to score.

Alden Lawrence pitching and catching on the new-look Jagernaut defense!

Seals said afterward, “I took a lot of time in the offseason working on my pitching. . .In fact that’s literally all I have been doing since July. I’m a veteran on the team now. . .I’m gonna step it up a notch. I’ve got some new heat that the Peninsula division may not have seen last year. ” (Justin’s note: Color me impressed). However, the defense behind the pitching was unstoppable as Alden Lawrence, Justin Arrington, Trici Fredrick, Ashlee Gitkos, Kathleen Krohn, and Julie Kittelson all made catches to hold the CG’s scoreless.

Maybe it was starting pitcher Mike Seals’ “performance enhancing “arm band. . .maybe it was the shock of the CG’s seeing the Jagernauts in yellow uniforms…maybe it was the anticipation of a first week attempt to win the bar belt…maybe it was the anticipation of living up to their “Real teams of Genius” reputation, maybe it was this or this, but the Jagers looked good in Week 1.

Kathleen Krohn - Newest Jagernaut and Week 1 MVP

Kathleen Krohn won the first MVP of the young fall season, going one for one and having a critical catch in the outfield in the 4^th inning, in literally her first WAKA game. Said an overly ecstatic Krohn after the game, “I can finally cross ‘winning Justin’s MVP of the week’ fake award off of my bucket list! (Justin’s note: You’re welcome) I’m just glad I can contribute.” Welcome to kickball Kathleen! The final, the Jagernauts 5, Chubby Gangsters 0.

With Hurricane Irene gone and over with, the peninsula now needs to deal with Hurricane Jager (Justin’s Note: get it…because J is the next letter a hurricane will be named after…you see how I did that… OK I admit, but that was a once in a lifetime joke, and I was pretty proud of it) as week 2 brings the Jagers against a newly formed team full of seasoned veterans - Shake and Bake.

Holla' back people!