The team posses from the bench as Bill waves his bat in the background. (Wolan)

Roster chaos! That expression alone depicts the scene on the Vet’s bench up to game time. With team captain Joelle out on vacation, former A’s skipper A-WOL found himself in charge of the Vets. But at game time, only 3 core players from the team showed-up: A-WOL, Rick Palma, and Bill.

As luck would have, Jason Beneit and his Tahiti Takeout team were at the ballpark playing a game before the Vet’s. The Vet’s enlisted their assistance to avoid the forfeit and the game was on.

Game 3 pitted the Vets against an equally matched “Meadwestvaco” team. Either team could win this match-up, but the team that played the best would prevail. The Vets won the coin toss but elected to bat first to square away a batting line-up and determine who would play what position on the field. After two quick outs by Rick and Bill to lead off the first, the Vet’s strung 3 singles together to load the bases. Jon G. walked to bring in a run and Lynn then hit a 2 RBI single. The M’s responded with 2 runs, including a solo HR into right field.

In the second, the Vets went down in order, and the M’s took advantage, scoring 3 runs to take a 5-3 lead.

The third inning featured an exciting hit by Bill. After Rick grounded out, Bill went to work slapping a fly ball into center field. The ball hit the fence and the speeding Bill rounded the bases for an inside-the-park (ITP) homerun. (It is unclear if the ball hit the sign in center field or the fence and bounced back onto the field. A loud “bang” was heard that would have been consistent with such an account.) The Vets scored another run on a Jon G. single to make it 5 all.

But M’s broke the game wide open in the third, scoring 8 times, which included a 3 run homerun. The Vets got back 3 in the fourth, which included a 2-RBI double by Rick, which scored the speedy A-WOL from first. After 4, the score was a bleak 18-8.

Though Vets went down in order in the fifth, they netted a 5-3 double play in start the inning, and Rick pitched a strike-out of a slugger on the M’s line-up. The Vet’s threatened to rally in the sixth, loading the bases for Rick Palma. Right slapped a line-drive down the line near third, but the third baseman made a terrific grab to rob Rick of at least a double and 3 RBIs.

The M’s would score 2 more times to beat the Vet’s 20-9.

After the game, Jason discussed how his team adapted to “sky high” pitching technique of the Always Growing team. “His pitches are hard to hit because they come-up ‘sky high’. However, the guy doesn’t through many strikes. Be patient and work the pitch count so it gets in your favor. Once he is behind, he will be forced to either toss a more hittable pitch for a strike or yield a walk.”

Andy Wolan is a reporter for MLSB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Softball or its clubs.