Oh my. It's the bottom of the fourth. I have to admit I was thinking about going back to the lab. We -- The Grapes of the Wrath of Khan -- had been down 10-4, and weren't very solid defensively. I was looking for something positive to take home. There, Eric Bone simply *drills* a triple. A few errors by the other team -- De Guys -- and a single gets us a couple and loads the bases. Now, Michelle Withers at the plate: BOOM! She hits a screamer to left field. The ball skips past the leftfielder. This is interesting, I'm thinking. By the time is returned to the infield, Michelle has cleared the bases for a grand slam. I have to clear out the cobwebs now. I had lost track of the score, but I remember we were down 10-4 to start the inning. We could be close now. I checked, and MICHELLE HAD TIED IT, tied the score with the heart of the lineup up. Next, Ravi singles sharply into the hole at short. John doubles, suspiciously going the opposite way toward the rightfielder, who doesn't have much range. Their centerfielder helps out and quickly gets the ball back in before Ravi could round third. There's only one out; there isn't much point in risking having a runner thrown out at the plate yet. Sean O'Hare is up, in his first game for us, having already usurped Euge's shortstop position with a good round of BP. (Just kidding, Euge!) Sean hits a high drive down the left field line (more on this below), which I think was foul. Ravi, as the go-ahead run, tags up at third. The leftfielder probably should have let the ball drop, but he catches it, and Ravi scores easily. The game should have been over, but umpire-slash-IM-coordinator Jeff Wiltse was thinking there might be time for another inning. I can't remember ever wanting the 55-minute-rule enforced. The inning ended with no further scoring, with us up 11-10. We had more than exceeded the 55-time limit for new innings, and more importantly, both teams for the next game were ready. So that's how it ended: Grapes 11, Guys 10. The other team had won the coin toss and elected to bat first. Who knows if we could have blitzed them if they had last ups. I guess we'll never know. The lineup: 1) Eugene Han -- P/2B 2) Stacey Willis -- 3B 3) Michelle Withers -- LF 4) Ravi Kanthan -- SF/CF 5) John Slonimsky -- CF/P 6) Sean O'Hare -- SS 7) Eric Bone -- C 8) Jenny Mehren -- 2B/SF 9) Heather Feldman -- RF 10) Matt Drowns -- 1B Attendance was one. Paid attendance was zero. Some highlights: --John homered twice and doubled. One of the homers was towards that rightfielder, so that one was a little shady. --Michelle made some nice catches in the outfield. She made a miscommunication with CF Ravi in the top of the fourth, saying "You got it," and neither player tried for it. De Guys got some insurance runs in the fourth with that extra out. It could have been costly, but I'd say the grand slam made up for it. --Sean O'Hare had a five-minute at bat where he pulled just about everything foul. --Sean and Euge very nearly turned a picture-perfect double-play. The runner *just* legged it out. It was the correct call, but man, if there were style points... --Matt and De Guys' catcher took turns molesting each other. --I learned Stacey plays softball like she plays basketball. I don't think it was a coincidence any more that our basketball team kept almost getting to fights. As a team, we missed some grounders that we should have got. Rule One should be to knock down grounders, especially in the outfield, where there isn't another line of defense behind you. Assume the ball will take a bad hop, and be ready for it. Offensively, we hit a lot of grounders, which is good, but for a while, De Guys were making the plays. We hit a few too many lazy fly balls, but for some reason, a lot of these fell for base hits. The Grapes next play on Thursday at 3:30 against the DPhers. -Tapu