The quest for an undefeated season has ended quickly for the Resurrection Life Warriors after last night's 31-20 shellacking at the hands of Wooddale Mercy Rules. A couple of glaring things shined through on an otherwise rainy, soggy night: The Resurrection Life Warriors need to play much better defense to be considered a legitimate contender and Wooddale Mercy Rules is here to stay.
Rules asserted itself as the team to beat in sweeping a double-header over Rez Life and Wooddale Classic. Rules took advantage of every one of the Warriors' 10 errors. That is not a misprint. The Warriors committed 10 errors which led to 23 unearned runs for Rules. Rules, assuredly, would have scored more than eight runs had the Warriors played perfect defense, but the lack of quality defense was a disaster from the first inning on.
Expecting to play its first game of the year with excess players, the Warriors actually played 3 1/2 innings with just nine players instead of the 11 planned for. Minus one outfielder, the team stumbled a bit out of the gates. Wooddale sandwiched a single between two outs to start the game. With two outs, one on and no runs in, the flood gates opened in the top of the first. Wooddale then strung together seven hits to go along with three walks and four errors to plate 12 runs with two outs in the inning.
Rez was more than a little shell-shocked coming to bat in the bottom half of the frame. However, the lineup re-grouped and nearly had a huge inning, scoring four runs and leaving two on with the top of the order coming up. Austin Colby tripled off the right-field wall to start the inning and jogged home on Tim Jandro's line-drive single up the middle. After the first of Eric Johnson's three walks, Jeff Tenney flew out deep to right-center for the first out, pushing Tim to third. Adam Hey continued his torrid start to the season with an rbi-single to make 12-2. Logan Brincefield plated Eric with a single and Jeff Johnson followed with another rbi-single to cut the deficit to eight runs, 12-4 with one out and two on. However, that was all the team could muster as both Lee Valle and John Beintema flew out to end the inning.
The Rez defense continued its Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act with some Dr. Jekyll activity in the top of the second. After singles from Rules put runners at first and second with zero outs, the defense flashed some serious leather. Tim made a nice running catch in center for the first out and after another single loaded the bases, Austin and John ended the inning with a nifty 1-2-3 double-play, pitcher to home to first.
Revved up by the defensive display, the bats came out roaring with nine runs in the bottom of the second to take the lead 13-12 after two innings. Austin singled and moved to second on Tim's second single of the game. Eric walked again to load the bases for Tenney who cleared the bases with an absolute taser to the wall in center, plating all three runs to make it 12-7 with a guy on second. Adam kept the party going with his first homerun of the year, a two-run shot through the wind to left-center. Trailing by just three, Logan started the train with a walk and after an out moved to second on Lee's single. With two on, John placed a single on the grass to score Logan and put two on for Austin. Austin gave the Warriors its only lead of the game with a line-drive homerun to right-field to make it 13-12 Rez. Still just one out, Tim singled and after the second out he moved to second on Tenney's single. A fly-out ended the inning for the Warriors and Rules came to the plate trailing.
That did not last long as Mr. Hyde came out to play again in the top of the third inning. Four more errors in the second led to eight unearned runs and eleven runs total for Wooddale. Rules did knock out seven hits and took two walks to re-take the lead for good, 23-13.
Trailing by 10, Rez needed another solid inning. But, it wasn't to be as a roped line-out started the inning and after two singles a hard-hit double-play grounder ended the inning, 23-13 Wooddale.
Welcome back Dr. Jekyll in the top of the fourth. The Warriors' defense stranded a lead-off single with three straight pop-outs to keep Rules from putting the game away in the fourth. Rez had another chance to get back into it in the bottom of the fourth but the team wasted another good opportunity for runs.
Late-comer Bryan Christensen knocked out his first career Rez Life hit to start the inning (Congratulations Bryan!!). However, after Austin roped one off the wall in left, Bryan was thrown out at third base for the first out. A single from Tim plated Austin, but Tim was caught in a run-down and thrown out on the bases for the second out - neither of which came on defense put-outs. Eric coaxed his third walk of the game but a fielder's choice grounder ended the fourth frame with Rez still well behind, 23-14.
Two more errors and two hits allowed Wooddale to plate three runs in the top of the fifth, putting Resurrection Life in a must-score situation to keep the game alive.
Down 26-14, Rez needed three runs to keep playing. Adam singled and Logan walked to start the inning. After an out, Lee walked to load the bases for John who dropped another big hit into the outfield grass, scoring two runs and putting runners on the corners with one out. After another ground-out, Austin came up needing a hit to keep the game going another inning. He delivered a mammoth homerun off of a Durango in the parking lot to plate three runs and make it 26-19.
Wooddale wasn't amused and calmly scored five more runs in the sixth inning to provide a 12-run cushion going into the bottom of the final frame. Rez was unable to get anything going, leaving the bases loaded and plating just one run.
The final score was 31-20 and the loss marks Rez Life's second league loss in its last four games after running off 23 straight wins. Next week Rez plays Pax Christi at 5:50 on field #3. Austin Colby captures his first Player of the Game award with his 5-5 day, hitting for the cycle while scoring five runs and driving home six, on two three-run homeruns.
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