Dodos are Heating Up!

Coming off an 0-4 start, Dodos Baseball has won two straight games, making their record 2-4 after a 21-9 taming of the Cougars on Sunday. The Dodos unveiled a new lineup which featured Shane Shoemaker as the leadoff batter. Shoemaker made the most of his move up the lineup, smacking the first pitch of the game back up the middle for a single. After a flyout to left field by Dustin Burke, Chris "The Hitman" Hems (just awarded the nickname, now it's stamped and certified) continued his hot streak, lacing a single off Cougars' starting pitcher, Kyle Booth. Booth would then issue a walk to cleanup hitter, Jason Butter, then throw a wild pitch, allowing Shoemaker to score from third. With runners on second and third, fresh back from his stint coaching little leaguers, LF Matty Lane smashed a 3-2 pitch in the gap, scoring Hems and Butter before Lane hustled into second with a standup, 2 RBI double, his first of the year.

Looking to continue the dominant pitching from last week (Shoemaker CG), Shaun Stephans (1-2, 14.44 ERA) took the mound for the Dodos. Coming off a sub-par outing two weeks ago against the Tribe, Stephans pitched his best inning of the season, striking out the first two batters looking before getting Josue Iniguez to flyout to center to end the inning. Dodos lead after one inning, 3-0.

The second inning began just as good as the first for the Dodos, as Troy Warn, Sr. hit a ball in the hole between first and second, just out of the reach of a diving Dominic Smith for a single. Charles Dethloff was up next. Behind in the count, 1-2, Dethloff smoked a line drive to center, putting runners at the corners. Dodos' catcher, Andy Gerber stepped up to the plate with no outs and placed a "seeing-eye single" in the 5-6 hole, scoring Sr. and advancing Dethloff to second. After an infield fly out from the bat of Shoemaker, Burke lashed a laser line drive that went over the center fielder's head, scoring Dethloff and A. Gerber as Burke slid into third with his first triple and 2 RBI on the season. Burke would then score went Hems hit a line drive single to left before the Cougars managed to retire the side. Stephans would continue to pitch well in the second inning, getting the first two batters to ground out to second and short, respectively. Following a dropped pop up in foul territory by Butter at first, Kasey Funes doubled in the gap, only to be caught in a pickle taking too big of a lead off second base, ending the inning with the Dodos up 7-0.

Third inning action began with a pitching change, as the Cougars replaced Booth with Ronald Romero. Romero would walk the first batter, Lane on four straight pitches before settling down and recording a strikeout to DH Rick Jarakian. After Sr. hit a fly out to right field, Lane stole second base, putting Dethloff at the plate with two outs. Romero hit Dethloff with a 3-1 fastball, then he would balk the runners to second and third before a pass ball allowed Lane to score. A. Gerber would notch his second RBI single of the day when he hit an 0-1 fastball into the outfield, scoring Dethloff. The Dodos were cruising along 9-0, as Stephans retired the side in order with two pop ups and a called third strike.

A leadoff 2-2 single by Chris Hoffman would be all the offense the Dodos could muster in the top half of the fourth, but the Cougars were ready to get on the scoreboard. With the count at 2-2, Trevor Boynton was hit by a pitch, then Stephans' next pitch was sent over the fence in left center for a 2-run home run by the twelfth hitter in the lineup, Anthony Murphey. Trailing 9-2, Cougars' leadoff batter Jason Griffith was hit with the next pitch, then stole his way to third from first on two pitches. Stephans would calm a bit, recording two straight strikeouts before an RBI single by Booth. Another single and two walks would follow, loading the bases with two outs for Cougars' pitcher Romero. With the count at 2-1, Andy Gerber caught Funes taking too big of a lead (AGAIN!), but Dodos' 1B Butter mishandled the throw and missed tagging every runner possible, including Booth, who managed to score from third before the next batter would strike out to end the inning with the Dodos leading 9-4.

Jason Butter would redeem himself, hitting a single and stealing second to open the fifth inning. Stephans would wear some slow pitch next, and then Matty Lane would work a walk from Romero. With the bases juiced, and nobody out, Jarakian stepped up to the plate. He sent the first pitch he saw on the ground to the shortstop, who flipped the ball to the second baseman for an out. The ball would be thrown in the dirt to first, which allowed Butter to score and the inning to continue as Jarakian was safe at first on the throwing error. Sr. would then strikeout, followed by a pop up in shallow right, caught by the second baseman to bring the Cougars to bat. Stepahans' last inning of work started rather ominously when the Dodos' pitcher would surrender a single and a walk to the first two Cougars' batters. He worked Boynton to a full-count before getting him to flyout to left. Stephans walked the next batter, loading the bases. The Cougars made a controversial move when they added a player to the lineup to bat next. That backfired when he struck out looking on three straight pitches and the next batter, after fouling off four pitches in a row, popped up to Dethloff at third. Threat averted.

The sixth inning would yield pitching changes for both teams, with the Cougars bringing in Josue Iniguez to start the inning. He proceeded to retire the Dodos in order, striking out one. The Dodos would send Sr. to the mound, in just his second outing of the season and first since game one. Sr. would start off shaky, walking the first batter, then giving up back-to-back singles to the three and four hitters before settling down and getting Jorge Iniguez to strikeout. Trailing 11-5, the Cougars would get a hit batter, an RBI single and sacrifice fly to center to add two more runs before Sr. tallied another strikeout to end the inning.

With one out in the seventh, Shoemaker would double off the wall in left, trotting into second as he was fooled by the trajectory of the ball. Two batters later, Hems would stay hot and lace another RBI double, scoring Shoemaker from second base. Butter grounded out to short to end the visitor half of the seventh inning. Sr. would step it up this inning, recording two strikeouts before getting a pop up to third to end the inning. Dodos lead 12-7.

Cougars' reliever Chris Simons would take the hill to start the eighth. He walked the first three batters (Stephans, Lane & PH Tony Ross) on twelve straight pitches before Sr. hit a 2 RBI single, scoring Stephans and Lane. Dethloff would then hit a 1-0 single, loading the bases for Andy Gerber. Gerber would draw an RBI walk before his brother, Ken, popped straight up to the pitcher. Bases still loaded, Hoffman stepped up to the plate and was hit with the second pitch, scoring a run and prompting the Cougars to make their fifth pitching change of the game. New pitcher Anthony Murphey would use his first pitch to hit Albert Hernandez, forcing the 17th run of the game across home plate for the Dodos. Shoemaker hit a 2-RBI double and Hems would add a 2-RBI single before the Dodos nine-run eighth inning would come to and end with the Dodos up 21-7.

With the three hour time limit rapidly approaching, Sr. got the leadoff batter to hit a grounder to Dethloff at third. Dethloff charged the ball and sent the throw into the runner, narrowly avoiding a collision with replacement 1B Ross. The runner reached third on the throwing error and the next hitter, Smith, hit a single to score Griffith. Two more singles and a sacrifice fly would score one more Cougar run before Sr. would get Romero to flyout to lane in left to end the game and get the first save of the season for Sr. and the Dodos.

On a side note, the Dodos' 21 runs scored was more than the GBT basketball team scored, even though they somehow managed to win, 20-17. Eww!

Fantasy Performances of the Day: Shoemaker 3-5 (2RBI, 2 2B, 3R, K); Burke 1-5 (2RBI, 3B, R, K); Hems 4-5 (4RBI, 2B, R, SB); Butter 1-4 (2R, BB, SB); Stephans 0-2 (2R, BB, HB, K); Lane 1-1 (2RBI, 2R, 2B, 3BB, SB); Jarakian 0-3 (K); Warn, Sr. 2-4 (2RBI, 2R, K); Dethloff 2-3 (3R, HB); A. Gerber 2-3 (3RBI, 2R, BB); K. Gerber 0-3 (K); Hoffman 1-2 (RBI, R, SB, HB); Hernandez 0-1 (R,RBI,HB,SB); Ross 0-0 (R, BB)--Stephans (W) 5IP, 4R, 3ER, 5H, 5BB, 2HB, 7K; Warn, Sr. (SV) 3IP, 5R, 3ER, 6H, 2BB, HB, 4K

Dodos next game is at oak Park High, 2PM versus Regulators. Regulators are 5-1 and in second place. This is sure to be a good game as the rising Dodos take on one of the top teams in the league.