We loaded up the gear and headed up the 14 Freeway to play a new team in the 20th District called Little Rock. They had just opened a new High School. They were a young team and I expected us to sweep. We did. Little Rock had lost a game earlier in the season to Woodland Hills West (El Camino Real) by a score of 35-0! Yeah, that is not a misprint…..they lost a game 35-0!
They had a new baseball field. The problem with the field was that it didn’t really have any real dirt. It was kind of a sand-like substance. Their infield was kind of like a beach. Ground balls wouldn’t roll all the way to the infielders. Guys trying to slide into bases would come up about three feet short. And watching our guys run the bases that day was like watching slow-motion replays. This sand-like stuff was slowing our slow guys down!
We took the opener 14-3. John Rogers picked up the win on the mound with HACK getting the save.
Yves had three hits…one of them a triple.
Yvan Moreno doubled. HACK doubled.
Mike Parker tripled, singled and had four RBI.
“B” chipped in a couple of base hits.
But the first game heroics went to BullOxen. Four for four with a triple, two doubles, a single and two RBI. He even drew a walk in the fifth inning and guess what he did? He stole second AND third base!
In the second game, we gave the ball to Eric Cadena. It was more of the same as we won 12-3. Cadena went five innings and picked up the win.
HACK went three for four and doubled.
Moreno tripled.
Rogers tripled.
Yves doubled.
Mike Parker, Taige Webster and Larry Kimbell all singled.
But again, the big story was BullOxen. He was three for three and drew a walk. A double, a single, and the longest homerun ever hit by a Verdugo player.
How far did he hit it? I’ll get to that in a minute. Let me put it to you this way…..there was no homerun fence there. There was another playground way the hell out there in left field. He hit that ball and we all saw where it landed…plus it rolled like forever. By the time the left fielder picked the ball up and had it in his hand….BullOxen had already crossed home plate and was making his way towards the dugout.
I made sure we were all in agreement about where that thing landed. And when the game ended, I walked it off. I have some pretty long legs. But I still didn’t want anyone trying to say I was “padding” how far it went. So I took some very LONG, exaggerated strides as I marched it off when the game(s) had ended. We figured for everyone of my strides it was the equivalent of ONE yard. We walked it off. It took 170 of my long strides to reach the spot where the ball had landed. Do the math! That ball traveled at least 510 feet until the laws of gravity pulled it down. And that was just where it landed! It probably rolled another 60 or 70 feet to reach the playground!
In all, BullOxen was seven for seven in the double-header. Hit for the cycle. A homer, a triple, and three doubles. Add in the two walks and he reached base nine for nine on the day. Plus five RBI………
Pretty sick.
While I expected us to sweep that day and for our hitters to kind of feast off of the young pitching staff at Little Rock….seven for seven is still seven for seven. Hitting a ball that travels over 500 is still a ball that traveled over 500 feet. You can’t take that away from him or minimize the day he had. Kind of like those 20 strikeouts he had earlier in the season for us from the mound!!! You can’t take that away either.
I mean….510 feet until it landed! Dude, that’s how far I hit my SIX IRON!!!!
Also, in the second game of the double-header an all-time Verdugo record was set. Larry Kimbell…..that’s right….my boy Larry Kimbell threw out THREE guys stealing from behind the plate! The record may have been broken by Thunder in ’92 or ’93, I’ll be checking the books like a hawk!
Of course, how hard is it to gun a guy down when he’s running through sand!!! But Kimbell did shoot ’em down that day!
Just like that we were 10-6 and right back in the playoff hunt!!
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