VA Peninsula Kickball - Fall 2015 Week 2 Round Up

After rain washed out week 1, we finally got a chance to take the field at War Memorial Stadium for the Fall 2015 WAKA VA Peninsula kickball season. Each week, I'm going to do a quick run down of the results of the week and provide some commentary, notes, and rapid reactions. I won't necessarily talk about every team or even every game. With 9 games a night, I obviously can't see or hear about every cool thing that happened on a WAKA Wednesday. If I miss something, please feel free to post in the Facebook comments.

Results

Smokin' Bunts 10, Hot Dogs & Tacos 2
Foul Balls 7, Peanut Butter Jelly Time 3
Five Toe Death Kick 6, Chaotic KILFs 3
Rumspringa 3, Smokin' Bunts 1
Hot Dogs & Tacos 2, Peanut Butter Jelly Time 2
DCOMB 12, Foul Balls 0
Cardiac Arrest 2, The Situation 0
Kick Ass 3, WAKA'm To The Jungle 0
Fireballs 3, Alcobalics 0

News, Notes, & Observations

• We often talk about DCOMB's Mark Flores here in the blog and on 3 Up 3 Down. He's got a reputation as being one of the toughest pitchers in the league. Well on Wednesday, against the Foul Balls, he and Lisa Rock made history by pitching a complete 5 inning perfect game. 15 Foulies came up to the plate. 15 Foulies were retired. I've been playing WAKA VA Peninsula since the Fall of 2007, and to my knowledge, no one has ever had a 5 inning perfect game before (there have been 3 or 4 inning mercy/time shortened perfect games). It's just so difficult to lock down a kickball team completely. Amazing job by Flores, Rock, and the rest of DCOMB's defense. 
• Todd Schimmel broke his collarbone this summer in VA Patriot. You think he'd take some time off from kickball? Nope. While he's limited defensively, dude doesn't need a working shoulder to kick bombs. The slugger picked up where he left off last year, crushing a 2 run homer in DCOMB's win. 
• In 31 WAKA VA Peninsula games over 3 seasons, The Situation has earned a 27-0-4 record. They had yet to be defeated on a Wednesday night... until they played Cardiac Arrest. The defending Wentworth Trophy® champions played outstanding defense and capitalized on some aggressive base running by Josh Carr and Ryan Warner to earn the big opening night W. All offseason, CA heard the comments from people discrediting their spring championship as a fluke. With the DC circuit tournament being moved to the same date as our playoffs, many of the top teams were out of contention. This lead some to comment that there should be an asterisks put next to Cardiac's name when it's engraved. Granted, this was just an early regular season game, so it only means so much, but definitely a big statement to refute those who claim Cardiac's championship isn't "legit". They (we) are for real. 
• PBJT made their return to VA Peninsula action after 2 years and had a double header. In the 6:30 game, the Foul Balls took advantage of the relative inexperience of the Jelly (8 out of the 19 players on the roster are new to WAKA) to put up 7 runs. However, the team gelled as the night went on and earned a hard fought draw against HDT. Scott Harrell saved the game when he made a crucial throw home to prevent a Taco from scoring the winning run. Exciting way to end the game! 
• Fireballs captain TJ Guarry promised that the team would have a new look. I don't know if anyone expected it to be this:

• In the first inning, KA's Lisa Fabila caught a ball and quickly relayed it to Wes McClain, who nailed The Jungle's Randy Devlin at the plate. That would be the closest that WTTJ would come to scoring as they Kick Ass defense was on fleek from there on out. (Did I use that right?). Journey Thomas reached base with two outs late int he game. Eric Stevens came through in the clutch a few kickers later to drive her in. That's all the runs KA would need on the night.
• Dwight Polka had a big night for Five Toe Death Kick. He drove in 5 out of the 6 runs, including a long home run, in their victory over the KILFs. 
• The Rumspringa / Smokin Bunts game was a good one. I got to do some score keeping for it. Both teams played with a good, focused, intensity. The catchers for both teams stood out specifically for some really nice plays. In the end, the Bunts made a couple of mistakes and that was the difference.

Dottie's Photos

photos by Dottie Wentworth
Posted by WAKA Kickball & Social Sports - Hampton Roads on Thursday, September 10, 2015

There you have it. Lots of cool stuff happening this Fall. 3 Up 3 Down will be broadcasting live on YouTube on Tuesday at 8:30 PM. Matt Wellbrock and myself will be joined by DCOMB head coach Manny Zapata. We'll talk about all the action in week 2 and preview the upcoming games. Link to the podcast will be posted in the Facebook page Tuesday evening.

See you at the fields next week!