Yes-sir-ree. Our old friends from Quartz Hill were next on the schedule. But guess what? This was a HOME GAME at STENGEL! The first home game we played at Stengel Field in Verdugo history. In ’90…we drove up to play Quartz Hill and we ruined their day with a 13-12 victory. See our earlier post “Hey 2-3 Your BARN’S ON FIRE!”
The victory over Quartz Hill in ’90 was clutch. They went 19-4 that year and made the playoffs, but when we left the field that day….well, let’s just say Quartz Hill HATED US!
And they definitely REMEMBERED what had happened the previous summer, and clearly wanted a piece of us.
The funny thing about this game was that the original guy we were ragging on about his “Barn being on Fire” was no longer number 23. He was sporting a different jersey on this day. They had the same uniforms they had worn the first time we saw them but this guy was wearing number 21 today. It didn’t take us long to figure out who he was and in true Verdugo fashion BullOxen reminded him by saying “Hey 2-1….your BARN’S STILL ON FIRE!” God these guys hated us.
J.R. Workman got the start on the mound for us. We still have to call him J.R. at this point because we had not nicknamed him “Hack” yet.
Quartz Hill jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a couple of unearned runs.
In the bottom of the second, Big Moose ripped a double, and John Rogers sacrificed him over to third. And here’s a blast-from-the-past name for you here….ELMO Geoghegan (who was our shortstop that day) grounded out to score Moose. We trailed 2-1.
J.R. came out after four great innings. He only threw 46 pitches. We brought in BIG BRECK in the fifth. Big Breck was breathing some fire that day as this was his first appearance of the season for us and he was well rested after throwing plenty of innings that season at the High School.
We made our move in the bottom of the fifth.
Brett Miller singled and stole second. Eric Cadena walked. Yves Brancheau laid down a beauty of a bunt single. And Robb Turner hit a clutch double to right-center to drive in two and give us a 3-2 lead. BullOxen then had a Sacrifice fly that scored Yves and we led 4-2.
Big Breck was totally breathin’ fire! He had that big leg kick going and retired the first 10 hitters he faced, mowing down four of ’em on strikes.
They did score a run in the eighth, but that was all the noise they could muster against our pitching that day.
Big Breck retired the side in order in the ninth….striking out the final two to seal the win.
AHHH Verdugo!
Workman and Breck had combined for a three-hitter…with NO walks!
We made the most of the six hits we got and were back above .500 at 2-1.
Yeah, no matter how hard that guy tried to NOT be number 23 that day we still knew who he was. You just can’t hide from Verdugo. And who knows? By the time he got home after the long drive from Stengel Field………maybe his Barn actually WAS on fire!
Ahhhh!
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