Sunday March 16 Early Edition

Bud's Boys March On

Reports on Thursday and Friday Results and more from my 1973 baseball journal.

We played all 5 days this week as the weather held off until Friday night. Certainly, hope all escaped any damage from the storm. 

Thursday Medalist Day

Several players threw their hat into the ring in an attempt to claim Medalist Honors. Doc and Leroy came in with impressive +4 performances in the lead threesome only to see Allen follow their group with his +5. Group 3 produced a +6 from Randy for the top score with only team 4 left to finish. Glen and Shelly came through with plus scores, but it was Roger's +7 that carried the day. He not only earns the Medalist event but also leads the FBT sweep. 

Marty's CTP prevents the Royal Flush.

Friday March 14

All 3 teams got some money back on Friday Rabbit Day.

Doc's 4th CTP of 2025 is the saving grace for his team.

Glen's birdie on #9 wins the Rabbit and contributes to a victory on the Front 9.

KZ's Medalist best +6 propels his group to wins on the Back 9 and Total.

Doc proudly poses where his tee shot on #7 ended up.

Seconds later, Doc poses where his next shot landed.

He did save a bogey.

                                       I-SC Hoosiers Part 4

As I stepped into the box to lead off the inning, Urhahn must have already thrown 120-130 pitches. He had struck out 12 and walked a few batters as well and this was our 5th time through the batting order.

He tried to get ahead with a first pitch fastball, but it just didn't have the usual heat on it, and I laced a low line drive right between 3rd and short for a leadoff single. Coach Willie preferred a sacrifice to a steal attempt, so I waited for the bunt before heading to 2nd. Turns out no bunt was attempted as the next 4 pitches were wide of the plate for a walk. Our third-place hitter rapped a ground ball to second. They got the force at 2nd, but he beat the throw to first leaving us with a first and third situation with only one out.

Kelly raised several eyebrows when they chose to intentionally walk our cleanup hitter to load the bases. The strategy seemed to work as Urhahn notched his 13th strikeout for the second out.

This brought up Lynn Ward, the one responsible for recruiting me to join the team. Though he batted in the 6th spot, he led the team by far with a near .500 batting average. Naturally, the count reached 3-2 as Lynn fouled off a couple of good pitches to stay alive. Being so close to scoring, I even thought back to my little league days when we would steal home when the catcher returned the ball to the pitcher. Their catcher was tempting me by lobbing the ball back a couple times but I resisted the likely disastrous urge to break to the plate. It's just that I wanted so badly to score. Finally, on the 8th pitch, Lynn took what looked like a borderline pitch. As I was running on the pitch, I was so close to the plate when the umpire DID NOT raise his hand for strike three. It was ball four and I touched the plate for a 2-1 lead. 

Clearly rattled, Urhahn walked the next batter, and our lead was now 3-1. Glen Ward, the other brother who twisted my arm, promptly singled for the fourth run. Lynn was thrown out at home to end the inning, setting up the bottom of the tenth.

It was true that every time Kelly batted in the bottom of the 7th, 8th, and 9th, we faced the pressure of our season being over. It is also true that they never threatened, going down in order each inning. 

Just like the previous 3 innings, Kelly went down 1-2-3 to end the game.

Jim had just pitched 10 masterful innings, striking out 15 batters and allowing only 2 hits. Only 1 after the first inning.

The favorite to win the State Tournament was out. Only 8 teams in the State remained. We would play for the Regional Championship against the  Hayti Indians who were waiting for us with their Ace rested and ready.

I guess the word to describe what we were feeling was surreal. We would not be heading home but spending the night in Van Buren to play Saturday afternoon.

Obviously in our day there were no travel teams or tournaments that required spending the night, so this was a new experience for most of the players. The first new experience was a trip to the local Van Buren Cafe where we received an allowance for our food (I am thinking it was 3 to 4 dollars which was more than enough for most of us back then. If you went over, you had to pay the difference).

Wouldn't you know who we met as they were leaving the cafe. Several of the Hayti players couldn't wait to shake our hands with the biggest grins on their faces and Thank Us for beating Kelly. A cockier bunch of a**-holes you have never seen. Their main obstacle to the State Tourney was gone. They felt their ticket was already punched. I seem to remember one of our Seniors respond, "See you tomorrow."

I remember that breakfast on Saturday morning. Not because of the food but because of the deer in the headlights look most of our players had when the waitress asked, "How do you want your eggs cooked?" I solved that by saying scrambled instead of "like my mom makes them". I know we were a bunch of rubes but, again, this was a new experience for many of us. I have no memory of what we did between breakfast and pre-game, but we were loose and ready when game time finally arrived. We drew the visitor side of the scoreboard again and I waited in the on deck circle as Randy Gardner warmed up. He seemed to throw as hard or maybe even harder than what we had faced so far. He was clearly trying to show off with his last couple of warmup throws by airing it out with all he had. The ump shouted "Play Ball!"

As I Stepped into the box, the Hayti catcher spoke. Jerome Maxie was a very large African American who played nose guard for the Indians football team. I think he may have played for SEMO as well.

He was crouched and with a very large toothy smile said, "Heyyyyyy Grasshopper!" That was my un-asked for nickname that unsurprisingly originated from the Ward brothers and was overheard during the Kelly game by some Hayti players. "Better start swinging now if you want to hit this guy".

Well, I was never so sure as to what a first pitch would be. He was clearly going to try to intimidate and certainly show off with a first pitch heater.

Taking the advice of the catcher, I literally started my swing before the ball left his hand. Bat met ball and screamed down the left field line, barely fair. A stand up double to start the game. Seething, embarrassed that I had pulled the ball on his fastball, he tried to throw the next 2 pitches even harder. Maxie couldn't block the wild throws and 3 pitches into the game we were up 1-0. As much as I remember the beginning, the details of the rest of the game are sketchy. According to the newspaper, we collected 7 hits and led 6-1 at one point and held on to win 6-3. The article gave much praise to our pitcher who obviously pitched well. I also remember they hit several line drives that settled into our gloves. One wry comment I remember from one of our sarcastic teammates was that our shortstop would have to restring his glove after snagging so many hard line drives. I spoke with him just a few years ago and his memories of that game are also sparse. What he does remember are the line drives.

The game was over, and the Cinderella story was still alive. Only 4 of the original 178 teams were left, including the I-SC Rams.

I also remember the ride home from Van Buren. I am sure when the prom committee chose the date, nobody expected us to be playing in the State Tournament the day of the prom. Our left fielder, one of my long time best friends, was going to drive his Dad's car home and said I could ride along. I quickly agreed as I knew he would get home faster than the school bus. His Dad was going to ride home with someone else so it would just be his mom and one other passenger. The other passenger was my track coach's wife. How uncomfortable.

By now track season was over of course. The Coach and I resolved our issues and though I couldn't grasp his advanced methods, I did manage to tie the school record. I also added a foot to the record my Senior year and held the record for several years until it was broken by my first cousin Kevin.

But I still couldn't reach the 12-foot mark my Coach did as a high school freshman.

Anyway, we were Springfield bound. We were now the first I-SC team in any sport to reach the State Finals.