BATS TURN BACK THE CLOCK IN 17-5 VICTORY OVER ANGELS

 

LAKE IN THE HILLS — The Bats defeated the Angels, 17-5, on Sunday morning at Plote Field while introducing their vaunted 99-Defense to the baseball world in the second inning.  Rob Matassa (1-0) held the Angels to 5 hits while walking 4 and striking out 3 to gain the 6-inning complete game victory.  Greg Kaczmarek led the Bats hitting attack with 4 hits, 3 runs and 3 RBI, while Earl Blankenship and Harry Mielke each collected 3 RBI to add to the onslaught.

 

After Matassa set the Angels down in order in the top of the first, the Bats responded with 4 runs in the bottom of the inning.  Walks to Matassa, Tom Klauba and John Eisenmenger loaded the bases for Kaczmarek who responded with a one-out 2-run double scoring Matassa and Klauba.  One out later Mielke drove home Eisenmenger and Kaczmarek to give the Bats a 4-0 lead.

 

In the second inning the Bats unveiled their 99-Defense — John Reincke (1B), Denny Prosperi (2B), Ron Skrabacz (SS) and Tony DiBlasi (3B) — a group so named for their combined 99 years of participation in the Northern Illinois Mens Baseball League.  The 4-0 lead helped to take some of the pressure off the foursome whose average age on game day was a youthful 69 years 345 days.

 

DiBlasi joined the Bats franchise 24 years ago in the team’s inaugural season of 1998 when they were known as the Diamondbacks.  Prosperi joined the team in 1999 and Skrabacz in 2000, 23 and 22 years ago, respectively.  The three have been teammates ever since.  Reincke did not join the Bats until 2016, but he joined the league in 1992 when it was first established as the McHenry County Mens Senior Baseball League.  He served as league commissioner from 2000-2009 and was part of the Barrington Redbirds club (later the Braves) for most of his career, a span of 30 years. 

 

The four have been league mainstays for more than two decades — a cumulative 99 years leading to the 99-Defense moniker.  This season, however, injuries have limited the playing time of DiBlasi and Skrabacz, while Prosperi was basically a retired player still on the roster and Reincke missed the first half of the season.

 

The inning played out better than the veteran quartet could have imagined as the Angels scored only one run on their watch.  Second baseman Prosperi, just two weeks shy of his 75th birthday and making his first appearance of the season, cleanly fielded the first batter’s groundball and threw to Reincke at first for out number one. 

 

Matassa struck out the next Angels batter before Ted Dinkelman and Jay Cosgrave lined two-out singles to left field. Bats left fielder Klauba made a nice diving stop of the second hit to hold the runners at first and second.  A bouncer to third was then picked up by DiBlasi, but the throw to first skipped past Reincke allowing a run to score and leaving runners at second and third.  The next batter was retired on a ground ball to Skrabacz — playing shortstop for the first time since 2010 — who miraculously got the throw all the way across the field without bouncing it.  The 99-Defense left the field with their pride intact and the Bats still leading, 4-1.

 

L to R:  John Reincke, Tony DiBlasi, Denny Prosperi, Ron Skrabacz

 

The Bats collected only 3 hits in the bottom of the second, but scored 8 runs to build a 12-1 advantage as the Angels pitching staff assisted with 7 walks and several wild pitches in the frame. 

 

In the fourth Jeff McClellan and Mike Steffy singled with two outs followed by Reincke’s walk to load the bases.  Blankenship’s 2-run single then made it 14-4.  The Bats closed out their scoring in the fifth with an RBI ground-rule double by Mielke and a 2-run single by Tom Paul.

 

The win improved the Bats record to 8-5 and helped them keep pace with the White Soxx (7-4) who defeated the first-place Marauders (8-3) on Sunday, 11-4.  The Bats and White Sox are tied for second just 1 game behind the Marauders.

 

The Bats next game is scheduled for 7:00 PM on Friday, July 30 against the Flyer’s at Plote Field in Lake in the Hills, Ill.  This is the rubber match of the season series as the Flyer’s won the first game, 11-6, and the Bats won the second, 17-7.

 

BATS DROPPINGS

The Bats 8 victories in 2021 are the most for a Bats team since moving into the older division in 2004.  Their previous high for wins was 7, first accomplished in 2004 (7-6) and again in 2010 (7-11) …  The Bats have a 20-29 all-time record versus the Angels (known as the Mariners in 2006-07) following their 3-0 mark in 2021.  The Bats dominated the early years going 15-2, while the Angels controlled the next decade with a 27-2 mark going into this season …  Doubles by Greg Kaczmarek and Harry Mielke gave the Bats 29 extra-base hits for the season, their most since 2011 when they had 30 XBH in 18 games.  The Bats team record came in 2004 when the Bats pounded out 32 XBH in only 13 games …   John Eisenmenger and Matt Weiss lead the Bats with 10 walks apiece, the first players to amass 10 or more walks in a season since Ken Kozlik and John Moulchin each had 10 in 2009 …  Greg Kaczmarek became the 12th Bats player to have 4 or more hits in a game, a feat accomplished 17 times by those 12 players.  Only Don Gragnani (3), Ken Kozlik (3) and Tom Klauba (2) have done it more than once  …  Rob Matassa became the fourth Bats player this season with at least 3 walks in a game joining Matt Weiss (twice), Tom Paul and Mike Steffy  …  The world-renowned 99-Defense wasn’t done after just one inning of play.  Tony DiBlasi played another inning at second base, John Reincke played 3 innings in right field and recorded an assist to end the fifth inning, and Ron Skrabacz had an assist while playing second base on a 4-6-3 double play in the sixth …  Overheard in the Bats dugout: “You know you’re getting up there when you’re the participants in an Old Timers Game of a senior baseball league!”