Number Two Team in the DMV Beats Wolverines 2-0

The South County Stallions, ranked second by the Washington Post in the entire DMV*, had to scrap for a 2-0 win over the spunky West Potomac Wolverines.

(*In this case, DMV stands for District, Maryland, and Virginia, although for these purposes it means the greater D.C. area.  Being second in the entire Division of Motor Vehicles is only noteworthy if you need a new license or registration; it means little for softball.)

The Wolverines may well petition the Language People to rename the "Butterfly Effect" as the "Umpire Effect," because much as the beating of a butterfly's wings may cause the weather pattern to result in a hurricane, the umpire calling an obvious "strike three" as "ball one" may have irretrievably changed the course of the game tonight.  Of course, given that the Wolverines were shut out, perhaps not.  (Note to readers: You have to admit the first sentence of the definition of "Butterfly Effect" in the link above is very cool.  My promise: this is the penultimate geek out of the article.)

Until the lead-off Stallion batter in the bottom of the fifth, pitcher Jayne Orleans and the rest of the West Potomac defense faced the minimum twelve batters in the four prior innings.  Jayne got two quick strikes on the lead-off hitter, and then threw a thigh high strike that smacked crisply into catcher Torie Bolger's mitt for strike three.  Except the umpire called it ball one.  The Wolverine fans were incredulous.  Your intrepid reporter confirmed with team sources close to the plate at the time that the pitch in question was right over the middle of the plate.  (Editor's note: you are not exactly hiding your source very well.  Reporter: Don't give our readership so much credit.  After all, they ARE reading this rag.)

Of course, the very next pitch was smacked into left for only the second South County hit of the game.  That was followed by two more hits driving in the two runs plated by the Stallions for the game.  It makes one wonder what would have happened had the called ball one not become momentum for South County.  Normally I like butterflies, but now I just want to punch one (there's a reason Muhammad Ali never said "float like a bee, sting like a butterfly).  

All that said, it was a great game, crisply played.

The South County pitcher was on fire, striking out seven of the first eight Wolverine hitters.  Only Raven Williams' soft single to right center in the second inning stopped the Stallions from three perfect innings.  Raven was the next Wolverine to reach base when she rocketed a double to the left corner in the fifth.  Alas, Nikki Minnis' speed to leg out an infield single in the sixth proved to be the third and last Wolverine hit/baserunner of the night.  

Meanwhile, the Wolverines were playing shutdown defense.  In the home half of the first, the second Stallion batter blasted a double to deep right center.  The next hitter blooped a soft liner toward right field that was easily caught by 2nd sacker Kate Gregory.  The 3rd base coach exhorted his runner to "go, go, go" which means it must have been opposite day, as thanks to that bad advice the runner on second was easily doubled off by Kate on a throw to Nikki.  I'm still trying to figure out who was more surprised by the double play -- the 3rd base coach, the runner, or Kate when she turned and saw the runner nearly to third on a relatively routine out.  (Editor's note: If this were a real website, we'd have an interactive poll so fans could vote on which of the four was more surprised; those three or Johnny Manziel for falling until the 22nd draft pick.  Reporter: Well, we're the Pinocchio of sports journalism.)

The Wolverine infield kept gobbling up grounders, with the occasional flyout or popout mixed in just so Raven did not get every putout (she did get ten putouts).  For instance, in the bottom of the third, Kate made a nice running catch of a little flare headed for trouble behind first base.  

Raven earned the "best job of backing up your teammate" award so far this year when a spinning fair popup squirted out of Torie's mitt, right into the arms of the alert first baseman.  Raven's catch kept the score at 2-0 in the fifth.  

For those who believe in numerology or need a Lotto number, my scorecard for the bottom of the sixth provides a weird symmetry.  South County grounded out in succession to Nikki, Annabelle Miller, and then Kate (all getting the assists on throws to Raven).   Thus, my defensive scoring notes are:

• 6-3
• 5-3
• 4-3

(Okay, so maybe I'm the only one to geek out on this.)

Jayne had one strikeout (should've been two, I'm telling you!), but more importantly, she did not walk a single Stallion.  They only had four hits on the game, just one more than West Potomac, but South County did knock three of their four in a row.  Just as importantly as no walks allowed by Jayne is that the defense played another error-free game.  

Wolverine Whispers: Authoritative sources have confirmed for me that the completion of the storm delayed game from Monday night against Annandale (Wolverines lead 6-1 with two outs in the Atoms 4th inning) will be Saturday morning at 10am.  Or 9am.  (My sources are authoritative, but not in agreement.  In theory, the Big Manig will email us confused parents with the correct restart time.)

Don't believe everything you read. . .apparently the c-stores in Annandale are NOT being closed down, so coffee will be readily available on the morning you had hoped to sleep in because on Sunday morning you either have to get up and help fix breakfast in bed (dads) or eat breakfast in bed (moms).   Just remember readers, there is one Mother's Day and one Father's Day each year, but no Children's Day, because EVERY day is Children's Day.