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The Roger Report, Spring 2013

1) U.S. Exporters vs CCSP-Ballers played on 04/02/13

The Bungalow Exporters rallied from behind in both games to earn a tie in the opener and a win in the nightcap in the cold weather of the earliest start in Arlington history.

The cold weather hardened the balls causing them to easily sail over the fences. After weak hitting in the first game by Roger Morse, he made a strategic decision to substitute late arrival, Zach Moore, in the last inning. It was a stroke of genius as Zach stroked the ball deep over the center field fence for a 3-run dinger to tie the game.

The Exporters survived some early season defensive rust to win the second game marked by Jason Boyd’s 3 home runs. Zach also put one out in game 2 as both clubs had hit their allotment. However, two other shots over the fence turned into outs as we had achieved our maximum. That included the first shot over the fence by Roger in several years. Huy Trinh followed Roger’s out in the last inning by drilling a ball in the left field corner and scampering around the diamond, clearing the bases with his 4-bagger.

[Editors note #1: Jason Boyd tied the team record for most home runs hit in a single game with three shots in game two. This is also the second time Jason has hit three in a game, lifting him over five other team sluggers who acheived this mark only once.]

[Editors note #2: Beware! Disqualified home runs are registered as "swinging strike outs" in the scorebook! However, the official score keeper will be happy to accept cash bribes to make those ugly strike outs disappear from the final totals. Negotiations will begin at $20.]

2) U.S. Exporters vs Fifth Base played on 04/09/13

They were a pair of ugly games with us winning ugly in the bottom of the last inning in the first game and 5th Base winning ugly in the bottom of the last inning of the second game. It was a game of small ball and silent bats in game one. Later, we saw more of the bats, but poor defense let the game slip away.

3) U.S. Exporters vs Waterproofers played on 04/16/13

The Exporters exploded for 22 runs in game 1, spraying the ball all over the outfield. In game 2, we seemed to only hit grounders to the shortstop as we hit into 8 fielder’s choices. Jason Boyd went on a rampage with 3 HR’s, 2 doubles and 9 RBI’s. He would have hit more, but we used up our 3 HR allotment as Brian Garst, Tiko Descalzo and Zach Moore also hit taters.

4) U.S. Exporters vs Arlington Metz played on 04/23/13

A Tale of Two Games Again: Once again the Exporters play a good first game and couldn’t continue it into the second game. We exploded for a 15 run last inning in game one. In the nightcap, we went back into hitting into too many fielders choices. This week saw the return of Chris Chaisson after he returned from his tour of duty in Vienna, Austria.

[Editors note #1: Jason Boyd and Rich Bernstein tied the team record for the most runs scored in a game (5) during the first game of the evening. Nice job!]

[Editors note #2: The team record for most runs scored in an inning is 18, accomplished on 9/27/2005 against the CCSP Slyders. The U.S. Exporters won that game 43-6).]

5) U.S. Exporters vs Aww Yeah played on 05/03/13

We had 10 at the field. The county’s rover can verify we were there.

Jay Hatfield wrote: Congratulations on the forfeit wins on Friday night! Those are always "manager wins" in my book! Hooray!

6) U.S. Exporters vs A-Town played on 05/14/13

A couple of tough games against a heavy hitting team.

In game 1, they put 8 over the fence. Luckily, only 4 counted for homers. Game 2 was not pretty as we failed to get men on base and move them around. Two tough loses.

NOTE: Jason was ejected in game 2 in the 5th inning.

7) U.S. Exporters vs Chico's Bail Bonds played on 05/21/13

We had a pair of well-rounded wins against a good Chico’s Bail Bonds team with 4 lefties in their line up.

We had good hitting throughout all of our line up. Game 2 saw us use our 3 home run limit efficiently to plate 10 of our runs. That game also saw Glen have the rare 3-pitch inning in the 4th.

8) U.S. Exporters vs Gray Plant Mooty played on 06/04/13

The Bungalow Exporters survived the night toughing out two gritty wins over GPM.

Game 1 began with only nine men and Zach arriving in the third inning. Chris, Brian and Roger accounted for the allotted three homers.

Game 2 opened with a slugfest. The Exporters used up all three homers in the first inning with Huy, Zach and Chris hitting them. On Huy’s second trip to the plate that inning, he hit another over the fence for the final out. Tiko opened the second inning with another one over the fence for an out. However, the team held off a late surge by GPM to hang onto the victory.

The rained out games from 5/28 have been rescheduled for 6/25 at 6:00pm at Virginia Highlands. Barring anymore rainouts, the league has tentatively scheduled the playoffs to begin on Tuesday, July 2 at Virginia Highlands with additional games on Tuesday, July 9 and Saturday, July 13.

The Commissioner announced that the extra games that would not count were the ones played the week before Memorial Day. For us, that means our 2 wins over Chico’s Bail Bonds on 5/21 will not count in the standings for us. Several teams in different leagues also had extra games and the Commissioner designated in advance that the games that week would be the ones thrown out for all teams in our situation. [Editor's note: Bizarre...]

On the request to replay the forfeited games, the poll was closely divided with strong opinions on both sides. I could not take wins off the board when it appeared we would be very short of players for a Friday or weekend games when they would have been rescheduled. We will keep the wins and the forfeits stand.

9) U.S. Exporters vs Foul Balls played on 06/25/13

We started the first game with only 9 players before Max joined us in the 3rd inning. We had a decent game going and then gave it away in the last inning. In the second game, we fought back in the final inning to tie the game and then held off the Foul Balls in the bottom of the 7th. We ended the game with a double play to save the tie.

It was a tough night letting those games slip from our grasp. The loss was bad, but we fought back in the second game to get the tie.

10) U.S. Exporters vs CarPool played on 07/07/13

We started the first game in the hot sun. It ended in a downpour. We ended up playing the entire second game in a light rain which made outfield throws go wild with the wet balls. We played a good first game and then stopped hitting in the second game. However, it was enough to get us into the playoffs as the 5 seed.

Spring 2013 Final "Official Standings"*


By Points:
                    W   L   T    Pts   Win%
Paul J Corson      13   5   0    26   .72
A-Town             12   6   0    24   .67
CarPool            12   6   0    24   .67
Aww Yeah           11   7   0    22   .61
Bungalow Exporters  9   7   2    20   .56
Arlington Metz      9   7   2    20   .56
CCSP Ballers        9   8   1    19   .53
Chico's Bail Bonds  8   8   2    18   .50 

Waterproofers       8  10   0    16   .44
Foul Balls          7  10   1    15   .42
Gray Plant Mooty    6  10   2    14   .39
Fifth Base          6  12   0    12   .33
Open Season         0  18   0     0   .00

*(6/7/2013) The Commissioner announced that the extra games that would not count [because the Exporters had a 20 game schedule rather than a standard 18 game schedule] were the ones played the week before Memorial Day. For us, that means our 2 wins over Chico’s Bail Bonds on 5/21 will not count in the standings for us. Several teams in different leagues also had extra games and the Commissioner designated in advance that the games that week would be the ones thrown out for all teams in our situation. That leaves our ["official"] record at 8-5-1. [Editor's note: Our *real* record is 10-5-1]

The Spring 2013 Post-Season Playoff Tournament

1) U.S. Exporters vs Aww Yeah & 2) U.S. Exporters vs Paul J Corson, both played on 07/09/13

Exporters Cruise in Winner’s Bracket with Pair of Upsets!

In game one, the Exporters had just enough hitting in the opening game of the playoff tournament to hold off a tough young Aww Yeah team. The early start forced the team to begin with 9 players. Zach and Jason eventually filled out the roster. Max sustained a sprained wrist in the second inning allowing Jason to enter the game as a substitute. The team was able to hold off a rally in the last inning to sustain the win.

In the second round, the Exporters played their most complete game of the season defensively defeating the top seed of the tournament to advance in the winner’s bracket on Sunday. Outstanding catches were made throughout the outfield with the umpire closely checking for the ball as outfielder dove for balls. Dennis caught one deep in left field crashing into the fence ala Bryce Harper, but came up with the ball in his glove. Tiko and Brian also had diving catches. Dennis dove for another ball in front of him, but forgot to toss some dirt in the air to cover the fact that the ball slipped from his glove for no catch. Zach made an outstanding play on a grounder deep in the hole behind third base. After hitting two extremely clutch homers, Jason ended the game by snagging a hot line drive at third base. Defense like this held the high-scoring Paul Corson team to just 4 runs and scoreless in four innings.

Men – We are in the winner’s bracket and playing for hardware on Sunday. The updated brackets are attached. Our next game is at 3:00pm on Sunday at Virginia Highlands against the CCSP Ballers (#7 seed). It is a semi-final game. We played them the first week of the season and tied game 1 and won game 2. We can win this game. We need to play like we did Tuesday night.

Let’s win this tournament!

3) U.S. Exporters vs CCSP Ballers & 4) U.S. Exporters vs CarPool, both played on 07/14/13

We win!

BATTING
	Player		AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	Sacf	OBE	Avg	Obae	Slg	GW RBI	DP H	SO	UP	
  Bernstein, Rich	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1000	0	0	0	0	1	
  Boyd, Jason		14	6	11	1	0	3	15	0	0	0	786	786	1500	1	0	0	14	
  Chaisson, Chris	7	3	3	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	429	571	571	0	0	0	7	
  Descalzo, Tiko	14	7	10	2	1	0	7	2	0	0	714	750	1000	0	0	0	16	
  Garst, Brian		12	4	4	1	0	1	7	1	1	1	333	429	667	1	0	0	14	
  Maes, Glen		12	6	7	0	0	0	4	1	0	0	583	615	583	0	0	0	13	
  Mitchell, Dan		11	2	6	0	0	0	6	1	0	0	545	583	545	0	0	0	12	
  Moore, Zach		7	4	2	1	0	0	1	1	0	0	286	375	429	0	0	0	8	
  Morse, Roger		14	5	8	1	0	0	3	0	0	1	571	643	643	0	0	0	14	
  Neville, Andy		6	3	3	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	500	500	667	0	0	0	6	
  Potter, Dennis	6	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	167	286	167	0	0	0	7	
  Trinh, Huy		12	11	8	3	1	0	9	4	1	1	667	765	1083	1	0	0	17	
  Trinh, Thinh		13	3	3	0	0	0	1	1	0	1	231	357	231	0	0	1	14	
  Wagenblast, Max	11	5	7	2	0	0	5	1	0	0	636	667	818	1	0	0	12	
  Total 		140	60	73	13	2	4	60	13	2	6	521	594	729	4	0	1	155	

PTCHING
	Player	GS	CG	IP	RS	ER	HITS	BB	SO	W	L	ND	ERA	WIN%	Shut	HR	
  Maes, Glen	4	4	24	30	25	52	2	2	4	0	0	7.29	1000	0	NA	
  Total		4	4	24	30	25	52	2	2	4	0	0	7.29	1000	0	NA

U.S. Exporters Spring 2013 Post-Season Playoff Tournament Championship Team