Schiffman’s Timely Hitting and Ruda’s Live Arm Carry Team to Victory.


An eighth inning bomb by Scott Schiffman proved to be the difference as Team Bean Roger held off a Team OK rally to win by the score of 16-14.

With one man on in the away eighth - in a game that seemed to be well in hand already – Schiffman clobbered a 3-2 pitch to deep center to make the score 16-9. Although unimportant at the time, those two runs proved to be the difference as Team OK mounted a rally against complete game winner Mike Ruda, plating five runs in the final frame.

Ruda gave up 12 hits while striking out 14 in his complete game effort, but in the final frame looked like a different pitcher than the one who kept the opposition scoreless from the fifth to the eighth. With the bases loaded and what was thought to be the tying run only 12 feet from home (on third base), Ruda was able to pop up Bryan Harris to end the game.

Team OK was only able to muster runs in three innings, but managed substantial damage. They scored two, seven and five runs in the second, fourth, and ninth innings respectively. Aside from a few error-assisted rallies, Ruda looked mostly in control. Throwing a hard fastball for strikes, complimented by a hard curve, he’s sometimes one of the more difficult pitchers in the league to hit.

One batter who seems to have his number is Brian Mangan, who went 2-3 with two walks. A late arrival, Mangan was slotted in the seventh slot to the protests of some Bean Roger members. He batted nonetheless, and laced a two-out double off the top of the wall, plating two to give OK the only lead they would have. Also producing for OK were Jose Lopez – who had two hits and two walks to break out of a season-long slump – and Joe Lee, who had two hits and scored three times.

Soon after Mangan’s double, OK starter Mark Rubin was victimized by shoddy fielding and coughed up the lead. Rubin, who got knocked around in this game worse than in two earlier appearances, went six innings before leaving down 12-7. He was baffling the Bean Roger hitters until the sixth, when things began falling apart. Bean Roger put 6 runs on the board in Mark’s final inning, low-lighted by an unbelievable bases-loaded, three-error, inside-the-park homer by Schiffman.

On a two strike count and with two outs, Schiffman bounced a ball past the first baseman that was fielded cleanly by RF Larry Siu for a two-base error. On the relay throw in, Schiffman tried for third while the runner ahead of him, Mike Ruda, held up. Alertly seeing two men at the same base, Mangan relayed a bad throw to 3B Girish Jattani that was allowed to roll to the wall. Girish hastily made a throw home to try and nail the runner, but it was offline and Schiffman completed his trip around the bases.

There were several defensive gems again this game, but surprisingly enough, this time the headliners were not made in the infield. Two spectacular throws from the outfield, one by Bean Roger CF Kevin Chau and one by Siu, and a catch out of play by Chris Plakas nailed their respective runners. OK’s Siu made a throw from right field that was right on the money to C Ben Nadado, who hardly had to move to apply the tag on a sliding Jason Cohen. It was a bang-bang play, and therefore disputed, but Siu was in relatively deep right and was right on target.

Chau - who seems to be a regular contributor to this section – had to make a shorter throw than Siu, but it may have been equally impressive. Naijia Huang put a ball into the right-centerfield gap that would have ordinarily reached the wall. Huang rightly was trying to stretch that single into a double, when Chau was able to use his great speed to knock the ball down. Turning, he unleashed a laser to 2B Cohen, who applied the tag to Huang as he slid.

The last play was a culmination of years of attempts at this very play. Bean Roger member Plakas was playing out of position at first base when Mangan popped up out of play on the first-base side. Plakas had the presence of mind to trail the pop-up as it tailed away from him, running through the doorway in the fence to catch the ball. 

Late rally.
Scott homer.
Ruda CG.
Defense – Kevin throw on Naijia, Larry throw on Cohen, Chris in foul territory.