every blowfish has its banana

Honestly, it must have seemed like some crazy karma coming to roost.
Last night, the Savannah Bananas had been the visitors on the Blowfish's turf.
Tonight, the Lexington County Blowfish were the visitors on Savannah's diamond.
In each case, the visitors scored nine runs to the home team's three runs.
In each case, the home crowd was privy to amount of havoc which can be wreaked by a pitcher who throws like he's at batting practice for his team. In other words, if the pitcher is pitching to instead of hurling at.
Last night, the game in Lexington, South Carolina, kept the visitors scoreless throughout five straight innings. Then, the Blowfish changed pitchers, putting in Bryan Callaly in the 7th and Jacob Rye in the 8th inning. Bad move, as the visitors - in this case, the Bananas - whupped up on them, taking three runs in the 7th and a fierce five runs in the 8th. That gave them a total of 9, including a single run in the 6th.
The home team - i.e., the Blowfish - had only three runs.
At least the South Carolina crowd had been able to be hopeful for the first six innings.
The Georgia audience at Grayson Stadium were never granted that option tonight.
It started off badly in the very first inning and never got better.

Here's what I'm talking about.
It's the first inning -
it's only five minutes after game start -
and the bases are loaded with...
Blowfish.
Worse yet, there are no outs.

Then, the home team pitcher -
that would be Jack Conlon, by the way -
walked that batter,
giving the visitors their first run.
Oh, that also left
the bases loaded with...
Blowfish.

By the time ten minutes had ticked by,
the first inning was still going
and the Blowfish had sent men across
home plate twice more.
Were they done yet?
No, not hardly.

Another three minutes elapsed and
another two runs had scored for the
visiting team.
Yes, that's right, another pair.
It was like women going to the bathroom:
the men seemed to only be able to score
two at a time.

The visiting team now had five runs
in less than fifteen minutes...
and still had no outs.
So the home team changed pitchers -
removing the starter in the first inning -
and brought in an All-Star, Jordan Merritt.

The new pitcher came in with two men still on base.
One of those men scored on a wild pitch.
The other man came in from a grounded out.
Now the visitors had a whopping seven runs,
but also two outs.
A moment later, the top half of the first inning had,
at last, come to an end, after 21 minutes of play.
The sold-out home crowd was stunned.

The situation looked pretty bleak for the Banana fans.
Let me rephrase that.
It was bleak for the Bananas baseball fans.
Those there for the Bananas circus didn't miss a beat.
But the baseball game improved in the 7th inning.
Finally, the bases were filled with...
Bananas!!! Hooray!

Then, lo and behold!
That solitary run scored in the 2nd inning
finally was joined by another,
this time one walked in by the pitcher.
It looked like the Bananas might be making
one of their late-game comebacks!

Yeah, that didn't happen.
This third, and final, run for the home team,
made by All-Star Ethan Baucom,
also featured a stellar double play.
One more out and these boys of summer
were well and truly done.

This was a seldom seen sight here in Savannah: our team shaking hands with the winners,
instead of being the winners.
Not that the sold-out crowd was there to witness it.
Nope, they had mostly left before the seventh inning stretch.
That's okay, those of us who love the game were still there to the very last out.
There's still another game coming along -
and Mister Willie and I will be there for it on Saturday!
(smile)