Statistics
Final team statistics through July 16, 2009 (14 games).
For individual team member stats, go to the players page.
Team Totals :
| GP | H | AVG | 1B | 2B | 3B | HR | SLG% | OB | OB% | K | ||||||
| 14 | 266 | .507 | 223 | 35 | 8 | 0 | .604 | 297 | .566 | 20 | ||||||
| 4/21/09 @ P&P | 1 | 17 | .459 | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .514 | 21 | .568 | 1 | |||||
| 4/28/09 @ Art | 1 | 18 | .474 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .474 | 21 | .553 | 2 | |||||
| 5/5/09 @ PTM | 1 | 36 | .655 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 0 | .800 | 37 | .673 | 3 | |||||
| 5/11/09 vs FI | 1 | 10 | .345 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .379 | 11 | .379 | 2 | |||||
| 5/12/09 vs Bish | 1 | 21 | .538 | 17 | 3 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 26 | .667 | 1 | |||||
| 5/19/09 @ ANS* | 1 | 36 | .679 | 29 | 6 | 1 | 0 | .830 | 38 | .717 | 2 | |||||
| 5/26/09 vs SPTR | 1 | 14 | .424 | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | .667 | 14 | .424 | 3 | |||||
| 6/2/09 @ Bish | 1 | 15 | .469 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .500 | 17 | .531 | 0 | |||||
| 6/9/09 vs PTM | 1 | 20 | .556 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 0 | .778 | 22 | .611 | 1 | |||||
| 6/16/09 vs ANS* | 1 | 24 | .533 | 21 | 3 | 0 | 0 | .600 | 29 | .644 | 0 | |||||
| 6/23/09 @ FI | 1 | 13 | .433 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .500 | 14 | .467 | 1 | |||||
| 6/30/09 vs Art | 1 | 11 | .393 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .464 | 11 | .393 | 2 | |||||
| 7/7/09 @ SPTR | 1 | 21 | .512 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .561 | 24 | .585 | 1 | |||||
| 7/16/09 vs P&P | 1 | 10 | .345 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .379 | 12 | .414 | 1 |
Team Per Game Averages and Single Game Extremes :
Team Zoo Fun Facts:
[Defensive]
Team Zoo has turned 6 double plays:
[1] With the bases loaded in the 4th inning of game 1 @ P&P, 3B Mike Brophy fielded a grounder, hit the bag for out #1 and rifled over to Doug Hunt at 2nd who made the grab for the 2nd force at 2nd.
[2] Doug Hunt turned his very own double play in the 2nd inning of game 5 vs Bishop's Collar, when he fielded a sharp grounder at short, tagged a runner from 2nd going to 3rd (who practically ran into his lap right as he fielded the ball) and then threw a strike to Tara Brody at 1st base for the 2nd out.
[3] Pitcher Mike Brophy picked up a short grounder in front of the mound, wheeled and rifled to Amy Ivins at 2nd, who turned it nicely to Tara Brody @ 1st (aided by a slow batter) for a textbook 1-4-3 double play in the 3rd inning of game 6 @ Academy.
[4] Amy Ivins outdid us all with a self-made double play in the 6th inning of game 6 @ Academy. She made a full-out running grab on a looping pop fly at 2nd base, which caught the baserunner at 1st totally by surprise (since he was halfway to 2nd) and she simply kept on running to 1st (she was headed that way) to get the second out. And as we didn't play a 7th inning, her play ended the game!
[5] Todd Sinander caught a fly ball in center with runners on 2nd and 3rd in the 3rd inning of game 8 @ Bishop's Collar, then tried to throw out the runner tagging at 3rd - his throw was a bit short, fielded by pitcher Doug Hunt, who nailed the other runner trying to tag from 2nd to 3rd, with a great catch and tag by 3rd baseman Andrew Mehalick.
[6] Ken Pelletier fielded a sharp grounder at short, tossed nicely to Amy Ivins at 2nd, who turned the DP beautifully to Mike Brophy at 1st for a textbook 6-4-3 in the 6th inning of game 8 @ BC.
Tara Brody made a great stabbing catch of a lazer line drive at 1st base in the 2nd inning of game 1 @ P&P.
Chris Law, making his debut start at short stop, made a great diving grab on a grounder for a force at 2nd, plus a sweet catch on a sharp liner, all in the 5th inning of game 1 @ P&P.
Joe Stevenson in left-center and Mike Brophy at 3rd each owned an inning of game 2 @ Art - Joe making a couple of nice catches in the 1st and Mike making a couple of tough plays look routine by nailing a couple of batters @ 1st base in the 4th inning.
Joe Stevenson made a great tag at 3rd after a base hit into the outfield was fielded by Todd Sinander, who rifled to cut-off Amy Ivins at short, who got the ball straight to Joe perfectly, where the out was made.
Both Jenna Blough (who had never before played 2nd base) and Martha Vaca at catcher (who doesn't see a lot of fielding action) made great force out plays in tough conditions in game 3, including Martha's own call of "OUT!" at home with a runner coming right at her face.
Todd Sinander made a great running catch in game 4 vs Franklin, all the while dodging other outfielders from the overlapping/adjoining field! He also made another sweet running catch in game 5 vs Bishop's Collar.
Ken Pelletier @ home (from the mound), Chris Oberlin @ 3rd (from left field), and Amy Ivins @ 2nd (from 2nd) [in descending order of awesomeness] each made running tags on baserunners in game 4 vs Franklin.
Bill Larson in right made 2 great plays in game 5 vs Bishop's Collar, running down a looping fly ball and then cooly making a force out at 2nd after a sharp base hit into right field.
TZ made a few nice, though irregular, force outs in game 6 @ Academy - Mike Brophy on the mound made a force at home to Jenna Blough with the bases loaded to prevent a run in the 1st, Chris Law @ 3rd got a force @ 2nd to Amy Ivins after fielding a tough grounder with a man on 1st (2nd inning), while Doug Hunt made a throw (from his knees!) to Chris Law @ 3rd for a force after fielding a wicked ball at short in the 5th.
Moments after turning a sweet double play in game 6 @ Academy (see above), Amy Ivins at 2nd ended the 3rd inning with a superb, backpeddaling, over the head grab of a pop fly.
Joe Stevenson showed off his arm strength in the 6th inning of game 6 @ Academy, fielding a base hit in left-center and gunning down a runner at the plate with a no-hop strike to pitcher Mike Brophy covering home. Gotcha!
Pitchers Ken Pelletier (1st) and Mike Brophy (7th) both made great catches of bullets hit right at them in game 7 vs Tap Room.
Chris Law in center field was involved in a few nice plays in game 7 vs Tap Room - making a nice running catch in the 1st, getting a close force out at 2nd while falling down to the ground (catch by Liz Vetrano) after a base hit in the 3rd, and assisting on a tag play at 3rd base by hitting the cut-off after a single, when Doug Hunt at short rifled to Mike Brophy at 3rd to nail the advancing runner.
Doug Hunt at short stop made a couple of perfect force outs at 1st on tough ground balls, in the 5th inning of game 7 vs Tap Room.
Amy Ivins proved her wingspan is greater than a penguin's when she made a hellacious stabbing grab of a hard grounder to her right (reaching across her body) and then stopping, turning and throwing the runner out by a hair at 1st, covered by Mike Brophy, all in the 3rd inning of game 8 @ BC.
Ken Pelletier, making a rare return to short stop, made a couple of great plays scooping up a couple of tough grounders with sharp and on-target throws to 1st for easy outs in game 8 @ BC.
Joe Stevenson in left and Liz Vetrano in right each made sweet catches (Joe, backpedalling & Liz, running in) in game 9 vs Please Touch. Joe also made a nice force at 2nd base (via Amy Ivins) from left field.
The TZ infield (especially Andrew Mehalick @ 3rd and Ken Pelletier on the mound) made many good plays on grounders, getting many force outs in most of their chances. Short stop Chris Law barely missed a force throwing from his knees after corralling a tough ground ball.
Ken Pelletier made several great plays at short stop in game 10 vs Academy (and he only played 5 of the 8 innings) - making a great jumping grab of a bullet line drive, plus nailing a few force outs at 1st with some severely hard throws and close plays.
Bill Larson made a nice running catch in right field in game 10 vs Academy.
Todd Sinander had a bunch of nice catches in the outfield in game 12 vs Art Museum, including one that ended with him falling to the ground after a long run to the ball.
Amy Ivins at 3rd, playing out of position, made a couple of sweet catches on hardcore line drives in game 12 vs Art Musuem.
Joe Stevenson was all over the field in game 12 vs Art Musuem, making several nice catches, backing up a play at 2nd base with a nice flip for a force out in the 4th, and contributing to throwing out a runner at home after fielding a long base hit.
Short stop Ken Pelletier made the throw to home (after receiving the cut-off from Joe in the outfield) to nail the runner trying to turn a triple into a double, with a great tag applied by pitcher Doug Hunt covering home, in the 6th inning of game 12 vs Art Museum.
Pitcher Doug Hunt had 3 strikeouts.
Pitcher Mike Brophy had 2 strikeouts.
We held teams scoreless in 24 innings out of 92 in the field.
We shut teams down with seven 3-up/3-down innings.
We gave up more than 4 runs in any given inning 16 times in 14 games.
Our worst defensive inning was a 13-run lapse in inning 1 of game 11 @ Franklin.
[Offensive]
Our best offensive inning saw us score 8 runs on 11 hits, sending 14 batters to the plate (batting around, plus 3) in the 6th inning of game 6 @ Academy.
Nine of 11 TZ batters hit safely in game 1 @ P&P, with batters 1-through-3 going 9-for-12 with 8 singles and a triple, scoring 6 of our 7 runs and picking up 3 RBI (Oberlin, Law, Sinander).
All 10 batters racked up safe base hits in game 3 @ PTM, with 7 of 10 having 4 or more, and all players having at least one RBI or run scored (9 of 10 with 1 RBI or more, 9 of 10 with 1 run scored or more).
Ten of 11 TZers hit safely in game 6 @ Academy, with 9 of them having at least 2 hits, 9 having at least 1 RBI or run scored, and 5 players going 5-for-5.
Nine of 10 players had base hits (7 having at least 2), 8 batters had 1 RBI or run scored, all in game 9 vs PTM.
We had 12 of 13 (!) batters hit safely in game 10 vs Academy, 4 of whom had at least 3 hits, with 11 of the 13 having an RBI or run scored.
The offense finally picked up in game 13 @ Tap Room, when all 10 players hit safely at least once, and 7 of 10 having at least 2 hits. 8 players had at least 1 RBI or run scored.
In game 2 @ Art, it was batters 5-6-7 who carried the load, going 9-for-12 with 9 singles, racking up 5 of our team's 6 RBI and scoring 2 runs (Law, Brophy, Stevenson).
Chris Oberlin, Ken Pelletier & Mike Brophy each went 5-for-6 in game 3 @ PTM, plus Todd Sinander was 5-for-5 (with a SAC fly). They combined for 6 of the 7 extra-base hits plus 12 RBI & 12 runs scored. Chris Law, Amy Ivins & Joe Stevenson each also had 4 hits.
Chris Oberlin, Ken Pelletier & Mike Brophy each went 2-for-3 in game 4 vs Franklin in a game with few offensive highlights.
Ken Pelletier went 4-for-4 with 3 singles and a triple (1 RBI, 2 runs), while Doug Hunt (2 singles, double, 2 runs), Bill Larson (3 singles, 1 RBI), Joe Stevenson (3 singles, 3 RBI, 2 runs) and Chris Law (2 singles, double, 2 RBI, 1 run) each went 3-for-4 in game 5 vs Bishop's Collar.
FIVE batters went 5-for-5 in game 6 @ Academy: Joe Stevenson (4 singles, 1 double, 4 runs), Mike Brophy (4 singles, 1 double, 5 RBI, 5 runs), Todd Sinander (4 singles, 1 triple, 4 RBI, 4 runs), Chris Oberlin (2 singles, 3 doubles, 3 RBI, 4 runs) & Chris Law (5 singles, 7 RBI, 1 run).
Todd Sinander, Ken Pelletier & Chris Oberlin each went 3-for-4 in game 7 vs Tap Room, combining for 4 singles, 5 doubles, 3 RBI and 2 runs scored - unfortunately the other 6 players combined for 5 total hits.
Doug Hunt and Amy Ivins each went 3-for-3 in game 8 @ Bishop's Collar, all singles except for Amy's (and team's only) double.
Andrew Mehalick (4-for-4), Chris Oberlin & Ken Pelletier (3-for-4 each) combined for 10 hits (5 singles, 3 doubles, 2 triples [both Ken's]), 3 RBI [all Ken's] & 7 runs scored in game 9 vs PTM.
Joe Stevenson went 4-for-4 and Mike Brophy, Ken Pelletier & Doug Hunt each went 3-for-4 vs Academy in game 10, combining for 10 singles and 3 doubles, with 7 RBI and 7 runs scored.
Chris Oberlin, Mike Brophy & Ken Pelletier combined to go 10-for-13 in game 13 @ Tap Room, totalling 8 singles, 2 doubles, 3 RBI & 6 runs scored.
Chris Law hit the game-winning RBI in game 6 @ Academy, with a single that scored Chris Oberlin with our eventual winning run in the 2nd inning.
Chris Oberlin had the game-winning RBI in game 10 vs Academy in the bottom of the 8th inning, scoring Joe Stevenson from 2nd with a walk-off single.
Team Zoo was held scoreless in 57 innings out of 98 at the plate.
We hit into 14 double plays (3 in game 5!).
We batted into nineteen 3-up/3-down innings (FIVE in game 12!).
[Team Zoo Brings It]
TZ finally brought the pain in game 6 @ Academy. We tied or set season records in most offensive categories, and didn't even play the last inning due to darkness! They were outgunned a little (only playing 9) and we took it to them and took care of business, grabbing the lead in the 1st and never letting up, breaking it open with an 8-run 6th. Defensively, we threw out two runners (one force, one tag!) at the plate, turned 2 double plays and never let them score more than 3 at a time. Right on.
In our largest turnout of the season thus far (and messiest lineup card), 13 players combined for inspired play in an exciting game 10 vs Academy, with 5 lead changes and extra innings. After giving up 7 runs in the first 2 innings, Team Zoo settled down and shut down ANS with only 3 more runs in the following 6 frames, two of those being 1-2-3 innings. We triumphantly prevailed in the bottom of the 8th with 2 runs after going down by 1 in the top, for a thrilling walk-off ending.
[Things That Could Have Been...]
We got off to a blistering start in game 1 @ P&P, getting 6 straight hits out the box in the top of the 1st, scoring 4. We had a rough beginning in the field and were down 4-8 after 1. Our offense struggled the rest of the way, getting only 11 more hits in the 6 other innings (5 of those in our 3-run 5th) and we followed up our poor 1st inning defense with a righteously bad 12-run 2nd. Although, if you don't count that inning, we only lost 7-10, and hell if you ONLY count innings 3 through 6 1/2, we won by 1! We shored up our D after the 2nd, only allowing 2 more runs, including two shut-outs in their last two at-bats, which included a 1-2-3 6th (they didn't bat in the 7th). So, we got much better as the game went on, though we just couldn't produce the runs to make a game of it.
We figured things out defensively for game 2 @ Art, but the bats remained the same. With almost identical offensive stats to game 1, we didn't have the firepower to bridge the small gap Art opened up with a 4-run 4th. We had either a 1-run lead or the score was tied after each of the 1st three innings, but they scored 6 in their last 3 frames while we only managed 1 in our last 4. But we were always in the game thanks to our improved defense, with our biggest miscue being the 3-run homer we allowed in the 4th. We made almost all the catches we could get to and converted most of our ground-out chances in the infield, as well. As our hitting improves, we should see an uptick in runs scored, as we continue to strand lots of baserunners.
Game 3 @ Please Touch was a hot mess, as we were bound and determined to play a complete game in a rain-soaked swamp - and then it rained some more during the game. Certainly helped by the novelty factor of them never having played us (and vice versa), plus the sloppy field conditions, made for some high offensive numbers on both sides. It was back and forth most of the way, down 6-7 after 2, up 12-10 after 3 and we clung to a 1-run lead after 4 (12-11). They got a slew of runs over th 5th/6th to get to 23, but we pulled off 9 of our own to get within 2 before the final inning. We scored a run and had the tying run on 2nd before we ran out of gas and lost the game 23-22. We scored more runs and had more hits than our previous 2 games combined, but we couldn't quite carry ourselves into another inning.
Game 4 vs Franklin (3-time defending league champion) started off nicely, with us holding their big guns to a measley 3 runs in the 1st and scoring 3 runs on 5 hits in our half of the inning. But, we didn't score another run, we went down 1-2-3 in 3 of the last 4 innings, and only managed 5 more hits the entire rest of the game. They only really had one big inning (8 in the 6th), but it was more than enough to crush us 23-3. They're very good.
We thought we had a great chance to steal one from Bishop's Collar in game 5, especially since they only played 8 the whole game, never had a catcher and only played 3 in the outfield, and their pitcher almost broke his ankle. We somehow managed to be down 14-5 after 4. We had another good start, getting 4 runs in the 1st on 6 hits to tie it up after 1. But we hit into 3 double plays in the game and couldn't get over the hump, even though we shut them down the last 3 innings. Our 6-run 5th (11 batters, 6 singles, 2 doubles) gave us hope but we floundered in the last two frames and lost by three.
The stars did not align for us in game 7 vs Tap Room - in fact, they were quite misaligned. A conflux of cancellations left Team Zoo shortened to 9 players for the first time all year, against one of the better power hitting teams in the league. They pretty much pummeled us in all directions and held our offense in check (they were up 25-0 at one point) in cold, wet conditions. And that was that.
An improved defense in game 8 @ Bishop's Collar couldn't quite cover for our impotent offense, scoring under 10 runs for the 5th time this year. They never plated more than 3 in any inning and we converted 2 double plays to hold them to 10 runs, but we managed only 15 hits and left 9 on base (including the bases loaded in our last at-bat) for our own meager score of 3.
As is our usual, one inning held us from making a game of it in game 9 vs Please Touch. We outscored them 5-3 over the last 4 innings, making great plays and shutting them down - it was the 8 runs they racked up in the 3rd that left us in the dust, after a promising start with 5 runs of our own in the 1st (they unfortunately got a nice 6-run starter in the 1st as well).
Game 11 was a rough one following our thriller in #10. We let a few sure-outs get away from us over the course of the 1st inning which led to a season-worst 13 run burst from Franklin. They let up on us a bit and we played better to only allow 5 more runs the rest of the game, but offensively we were never anywhere close to being in their league, as we only managed 4 runs and were skunked 3-up/3-down three separate times.
In a tight ballgame through 4, Art Museum finally pulled away with a 6-run 5th in game 12 to open up a 9-2 lead, and we couldn't recover. Defensively we played very well, though we sputtered offensively yet again, this time going down 1-2-3 in FIVE innings, and scoring 2 runs each in the other two.
We played one of our best games of the year in game 13 @ Tap Room (1st place team), using great pitching, solid team defense and good hitting throughout the lineup to actually take a brief 9-7 lead after the top of the 4th. We let the lead get away as they held us scoreless the last 3 innings and lost 16-9, but if it weren't for us leaving the bases loades twice and a few long balls of theirs getting over our heads, we could have pulled off the biggest upset in league history.
We were never really in game 14 vs P&P, though we didn't play terribly - we game up 6 in the first but settled down after that - our offense once again let us down, however, scoring a season-low 2 runs. Especially frustrating after playing so well the week before, we had to call in a favor from former TZ regulars "The Waldrons" to bail us out so we could field a full team, as 6 players were out of town or sick. Not the way we would have liked to end the season.
