APEX — The Big Dogs were eliminated from the Apex Men’s Softball C-League Tournament in dramatic yet typical slaughter-rule fashion Tuesday night, falling 19-7 in six innings to the Rebel Alliance.
The Big Dogs jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first, but the Empire indeed struck back, tying the score with two runs in their first at bat and one run in their second, while buckling down on defense. They took the lead 5-3 in the third and never trailed afterwards. They added a two-out two-run homerun in the fifth inning, and then the floodgates opened in the sixth.
In a season marked by excessive fielding errors, mindless and uninspired base-running, and impotent bats, it was fitting that the season would end in similar fashion for the Dogs.Â
Storming back from a 7-3 deficit in the top of the sixth to even the score, the Big Dogs perhaps caught a whiff of momentum hanging in the chilly, damp late-night fog.Â
But their unlikely rally would just as quickly prove premature, as they soon collapsed miserably under the pressure of facing elimination, giving up 12 runs in the bottom of the inning to fall victim to their tenth salughter-rule game of the season. Perhaps even less remarkable was their inability to record even a single out while facing 15 batters.
Double, E4, single, E5, E6, texas-leaguer, E4, E4, E8, E4, single, E5, E6, single…then the season was on the line with the bases loaded.Â
Having a baseball mind and knowing the runner on third was all that mattered when trailing by 11 in a “slaughter” inning, 1B/DH Lucas Miller immediately called for the outfield to come all the way in and form a “wall” around the infield; there was only one play: at the plate. He tried to hastily explain that nothing could get through and that any fly ball scores the runner from third, so they had to play for the ground ball or line drive out at home. But they just didn’t get it.Â
Not that it would matter.
The last pitch of the Big Dogs season turned into a sharp, high liner down the right field line, easily scoring the runner from third and leaving these unlovable losers to contemplate what they would have to do differently in the fall to find that elusive second victory.
It must start with the simple principles of baseball: middle infielders that aren’t scared of the ball and actually try to get in front of it, pitchers that don’t deliver “meat,” leading off with speed rather than power, making contact with the damn ball at the plate, and not trying to make impossible plays on base hits where balls end up in left or right field. Other than that, the spring season showed tremendous promise.Â
They rallied twice in their last two games of the season, proving they had the tenacity to come up with big innings when most needed; this could prove to be a moral victory that a 1-16 record just doesn’t reflect.