Thursday, June 7, 2007

Four Juggle Ball, Three Score

Wilfan's note: This has nothing to do with the W.I.L. but it's a great little minor league story so I'm posting it nonetheless.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio, July 13. — Did you ever see a ground ball turned into four errors and three runs in a baseball game?
Zanesville’s diamond fans did tonight in an Ohio State League tilt between their Dodgers and the Lima Terriers, in a game the Terriers won, 14-5, incidentally.
The ball-juggling occurred in the first half of the second inning. Lima's Wayne Reside and Van Hoff walked and Ray McLeod grounded to Zanesville's Red Hughes at first. Hughes fumbled (error No. 1) and Reside romped home as the ball trickled through to the outfield.
Rightfielder Lou Ott retrieved it but threw wild to third base (error No. 2) and Van Hoff scored. Leftfielder Bob Sloss grabbed up the sphere and whipped it back to Joe Stefano at third and he muffed it (error No. 3).
Then Shortstop Jim Masser tried covering third as McLeod (the guy who hit the ball in the first place) came scampering into the bag. But Masser dropped the ball, too, (error No. 4) and McLeod trotted in to complete the circuit on his grizzly grounder.
During that hectic second frame, the Dodgers sprinkled in another miscue and Lima whammed out four base hits to manufacture nine runs. Dodgers added three more errors before the merciful ninth inning and Lima was charged with five.

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