Statistics
These are final team statistics through August 2, 2005 (14 games played).
For individual team member stats, go to the players page.
Team Totals :
| GP | H | AVG | 1B | 2B | 3B | HR | OB | OB% | SAC | K | LOB | ||||
| 14 | 314 | .556 | 247 | 37 | 17 | 13 | 347 | .614 | 6 | 115 | |||||
| 4/26/05 vs Academy | 0 | - | wins | - | - | by | - | - | forfeit | - | - | W, 1-0 | |||
| 5/3/05 @ Franklin | 1 | 23 | .548 | 14 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 25 | .595 | 1 | 10 | W, 2-0 | |||
| 5/9/05 @ XComm | 1 | 13 | .419 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15 | .484 | 0 | 6 | L, 2-1 | |||
| 5/17/05 vs NCC | 1 | 37 | .673 | 27 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 40 | .727 | 1 | 8 | W, 3-1 | |||
| 5/31/05 vs PBJ | 1 | 23 | .535 | 16 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 28 | .651 | 1 | 10 | L, 3-2 | |||
| 6/7/05 @ Art Museum | 1 | 23 | .561 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 26 | .634 | 0 | 8 | W, 4-2 | |||
| 6/14/05 @ Academy | 1 | 22 | .537 | 19 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 27 | .659 | 1 | 10 | W, 5-2 | |||
| 6/21/05 vs Franklin | 1 | 18 | .529 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 20 | .588 | 0 | 7 | W, 6-2 | |||
| 6/28/05 vs XComm | 1 | 18 | .500 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 19 | .528 | 0 | 3 | L, 6-3 | |||
| 7/11/05 @ Daily News | 1 | 18 | .486 | 14 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 20 | .541 | 1 | 9 | L, 6-4 | |||
| 7/12/05 vs Daily News | 1 | 20 | .526 | 16 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 22 | .579 | 0 | 11 | W, 7-4 | |||
| 7/19/05 @ PBJ | 1 | 16 | .432 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 16 | .432 | 0 | 8 | L, 7-5 | |||
| 7/26/05 vs Art Museum | 1 | 25 | .581 | 17 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 27 | .628 | 1 | 10 | L, 7-6 | |||
| 7/28/05 @ NCC* | 1 | 37 | .740 | 29 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 37 | .740 | 0 | 6 | W, 8-6 | |||
| 8/2/05 @ PBJ* | 1 | 21 | .568 | 20 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 25 | .676 | 0 | 9 | L, 8-7 |
* indicates a 5-inning game * indicates a 1st-round semi-final playoff game
Team Per Game Averages and Single Game Extremes :
Team Zoo Fun Facts:
[Defensive]
Team Zoo turned 2 double plays.
[1] In the 1st inning of game 4 vs. NCC, Pitcher Ken Pelletier fielded the ball with 2 runners on, threw to Will Kafes at 3rd for a force, who threw to Sal DiStefano at 1st base for a long and expertly executed double play, aided by a slow runner at the plate.
[2] Chris Law caught a tough fly ball in left field in the 7th inning of game 5 vs PBJ and threw to Greg O'Neill at 3rd, who forced out a runner who had left the bag and couldn't make it back in time.
Team defense was big this year as we had 6 games where we allowed less than 10 runs - games 4,6,7,8,11&12 - where we gave up 6,7,6,7,4&8 runs. This happened only twice in each of the last 3 seasons, and the 4 runs we allowed vs Daily News in game 11 is the best team defensive effort in our CCSL history and our "runs against" average per-game was less than our "runs for" average for the first time ever.
According to their team captain, of the 21 outs we recorded against Daily News in game 11, 16 of them were fly ball outs. That's nice catchin'.
In game 2 @ Franklin, we had a tenuous 1-run lead going into the bottom of the last inning, where Pitcher Todd Sinander struck out 2 batters (his only 2 of the game), including the batter representing the winning run (with the tying run on 1st), with 2 outs.
Centerfielder Chris Oberlin wildly threw a ball to Amy Ivins at 2nd that would have been a force out and ended the 5th inning vs. NCC in game 4, but the ball went out of the field of play and into THE STREET allowing the runners to advance to 2nd & 3rd with 2 outs; the very next batter hit a ball into centerfield that Chris fielded cleanly - he then proceeded to throw a straight shot to catcher Tara Brody, who caught it well ahead of the 2nd runner, barely moving an inch, and tagged him out at the plate for one hell of a redeeming play that only netted 1 run scored by the opposition.
Chris Law made several nice catches in left field during the 5th game vs PBJ.
Kristen Lewis hung in there and held on to a ball at 2nd base after trying to get a force out (but being denied) and tagged out the runner who had overrun the base trying to beat the force in the 4th inning of game 5 vs PBJ.
Kristen Lewis at 2nd and Greg O'Neill at 3rd had a PBJ baserunner in a rundown in the 6th inning of game 5, and though the savvy runner avoided the tag, he ended up at 2nd and not at 3rd.
Chris Oberlin threw out a runner advancing on a base hit at 3rd base with a great throw from right-center (almost beaning the runner in the head) and a great catch from Greg O'Neill at 3rd (who both tagged the runner and got the force on the bag) in the 2nd inning of game 5 vs PBJ.
Jen Robertson made several excellent plays at 3rd base in game 6 @ Art Museum, including a stabbing grab of a low line drive in the 1st inning.
In the 3rd inning of game 6 @ Art Museum, Jim Ronemus in right-center made a hell of a play catching a well-hit fly ball while falling on his ass (he was trying to get low to make the grab and slipped on the grass).
Later that inning, Jim fielded a single in center and threw to Will Kafes at short, who threw to catcher Tara Brody in plenty of time to make a great play and tag out a runner trying to score at the plate (earlier the same inning, Chris Oberlin had fielded a base hit in left field and threw a bullet to Tara in time to beat the runner but unfortunately she couldn't hold on).
Chris Law made a great play running down a sharply hit fly ball in left-center to cut down a rally in the bottom of the 7th, robbing an Art Museum batter who had earlier hit a 3-run homer of another probable home run in game 6.
Pitcher Ken Pelletier made all 3 outs on his own in the 2nd inning of game 8 vs Franklin, making 2 force outs at 1st on grounders and catching a solid line drive.
Chris Oberlin got a tag assist via Amy Ivins at 2nd base in the 6th inning vs XComm in game 9, gunning down a runner trying to turn a single into a double.
A gutsy but ultimately quite stupid batter from XComm tried to turn a double
into a homerun in game 9/inning 3, but we had him all the way as he wildly ran the bases - Chris Law fielded his hit in right, threw to Amy Ivins at 2nd, who threw to Greg O'Neill at 3rd, who threw to Tara Brody at catcher, where he was easily caught in a rundown (he had barely turned 3rd when Tara got the ball); he ran back towards 3rd and ended up about 10 feet out of the baseline to avoid the tag and knew he was out, and we were all wondering what the hell he was thinking.
Chris Oberlin forced out a slow-running Daily News batter in inning 2 of game 10 at 2nd base by throwing a bullet to Amy Ivins from left field before he made it there on his teammate's base hit. This happened again in game 13 vs Art Museum.
Jen Robertson at shortstop made all 3 outs (also the only 3 batters of the inning) in inning 3 of game 11 vs Daily News, 2 of them being solid ground outs to 1st (Sal DiStefano) and the other a pop out - she did the very same thing, this time with no assists (2 line drives and a pop out) in inning 2 of game 12 @ PBJ.
Catcher Jim Ronemus made a fantastic play at the plate in game 13 vs Art Museum, when he gave his body for the sake of preventing a run from scoring. Ryan Hodge fielded a single in right field, threw to pitcher Ken Pelletier in the middle of the infield, who rifled to Jim at home, where he caught it straight on while blocking the plate - and stood his ground as the Art Museum runner ran smack into him (so much for 'slide or surrender') full blast. I don't remember who went down and who didn't, but Jim held on to the ball and his manhood and made the out. Fuck yeah.
In the 4th inning of game 14 @ NCC, Jen Robertson at short tracked down a bloop single in left and threw to home, where pitcher Ken Pelletier cut it off and let the runner score (inevitably) but threw back to Will Kafes at 3rd and picked off another baserunnner trying to advance.
Chris Oberlin made two solid force outs from the outfield in game 15 @ PBJ in the playoffs - their leadoff hitter is a superfast pull-hitting southpaw, so Chris shifted into very shallow right field every time he was up, and fielded 3 of his 4 hits - flubbing the first, forcing him out at 1st the second time and forcing out another baserunner at 2nd the last time.
We held teams scoreless in 40 out of 92 innings in the field.
We gave up more than 4 runs in any given inning only 11 times out of those 92.
Our worst defensive effort was giving up 6 runs (twice, in game 3 @ X-Commerce and game 13 vs Art Museum).
Chris Oberlin has made 2 wild throws from the outfield trying to get force outs at 2nd base that resulted in at least a few runs scored (games 4&8).
Chris Oberlin & Chris Law had a bit of miscommunication in the outfield in the 1st inning of game 8 when a pop fly landed smack in between them - Chris O called it but it was drifting right to Chris L, and then Chris O thought Chris L said something so he let it go, also realizing that Chris L was closer, but Chris L didn't actually say anything and thought Chris O was going to come get it. But he didn't. At least a couple runs scored for Franklin.
Outfielders Chris Waldron and Chris Oberlin each had well-hit fly balls get over their heads (but shouldn't have) in inning 5 of game 12 @ PBJ, resulting in what ended up being the go ahead and winning runs (3 total).
Pitcher Ken Pelletier struck out 5 batters.
Pitcher Todd Sinander struck out 3 batters.
[Offensive]
Team Zoo hit into 6 double plays (3 against XComm in game 9!)
The first one was a doozy. Ryan Hodge was on 2nd and Jim Ronemus was on 1st when Tara Brody hit a grounder to the left side of the infield with nobody out. For some reason, Ryan decided not to go anywhere, and when he didn't run, Jim followed suit and stayed at 1st. After some royal confusion by all runners and fielders alike, Ryan and Jim were both forced out and Tara remained on 1st.
The second double play was eerily similar - Greg O'Neill was on first in the 2nd inning of game 9 and Ken Pelletier hit a really hard grounder to first, where the XComm fielder made a great stop. Greg had started to run but when the fielder got the ball, Greg instinctively turned sharply back to the base, but it was a live ball and had obviously hit the ground. Greg was toast.
The very next inning of game 9, with Todd Sinander on 1st, he tagged up on a Chris Law fly ball to right field and was easily tagged out by a good throw. We're still figuring out why he tagged up and who told him to go. It looked like Greg.
In the 5th inning of game 9 vs XComm, Ken Pelletier was on 3rd when Sal DiStefano hit a hard shot to short, who made a good catch and was able to throw back to 3rd and tag up Ken, who made a hell of a valient effort diving back to the base.
We don't know why this keeps happening, but in game 10 @ Daily News, Tara Brody hit into a fielder's choice double play, when the pitcher forced out Ryan Hodge at 3rd and then Jim Ronemus at 2nd, who sort of forgot to run there. There may have been some confusion on the number of outs. Says Jim.
The 6th double play we hit into hurt badly - Todd Sinander lined out and Jim Ronemus got doubled up at 1st to end game 13 vs Art Museum (Todd was the winning run).
Our best offensive inning saw us score 12 runs on 15 hits while putting 18 batters at the plate in inning 1 of game 14 @ NCC, including a grand-slam by Sal DiStefano & a 3-run homer by Chris Oberlin, also including the first 8 batters getting base hits (and all scoring runs), and leaving the bases loaded at the end of the inning.
Every batter in the 11-player lineup @ Franklin in game 2 had at least 1 hit, and every batter except 1 had at least 1 RBI or run scored.
All 11 Team Zoo players had at least 2 hits and scored at least 1 run (while 10 of 11 scored at least 2 runs AND had at least 1 RBI) in game 4 vs. NCC.
Every batter in the 11-player lineup had at least 1 hit in both games 6 & 13 against Art Musuem.
All 11 TZ players in game 14 @ NCC had at least 1 base hit and run scored.
We scored at least 1 run in 5 of 6 innings at the plate vs. NCC in game 4 (in innings 1 and 6 we scored 10 and 11 runs, respectively).
TZ scored at least 1 run in every inning of the 5-inning game 14 @ NCC, including 12 in the first and 8 in the 5th.
The first 7 batters all hit safely in the 1st inning of game 9 vs XComm, all with singles, and the first 6 batters all scored.
We batted through the entire lineup (11 batters) in the first inning of game 12 @ PBJ, scoring 6 runs on 7 singles & a double. Too bad we couldn't score again until the final inning.
Ken Pelletier hit the game-winning RBI in game 2 @ Franklin, scoring Chris Oberlin for the 12th run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the 6th inning.
Jim Ronemus hit the game-winning RBI in game 4 vs. NCC in the very 1st inning, with a 2 RBI-single with 2 outs that scored Jen Robertson with the eventual winning run.
Jen Robertson hit the game-winning RBI on a 2-run scoring double in the 5th inning @ Art Museum in game 6, scoring Sal DiStefano with our 8th run.
Greg O'Neill hit a game-winning, 2-run triple in the 6th inning of game 7 @ Academy, scoring Chris Waldron with the 7th & eventual winning run.
Ken Pelletier hit the game-winner in game 8 vs Franklin with an RBI single in the bottom of the 6th that scored Chris Law with the winning run.
Sal DiStefano hit a bases-loaded, 2-run scoring single in the 3rd inning of game 11 vs Daily News, winning the game eventually with the 5th run scored by Will Kafes.
Ken Pelletier hit the eventual game-winning RBI in the 2nd inning of game 13 @ NCC with a 3-run homer, and Todd Sinander scored the winning run.
In the 6th inning of game 5 vs PBJ, Chris Oberlin advanced to 3rd on a base hit by Todd Sinander and had plans of going home but realized halfway there he wouldn't make it safely, so he went back to 3rd... just as Todd was pulling into the base - Todd then started going back to 2nd, so PBJ threw the ball back to 2nd from home, giving Chris a chance to try to score... the throw was off and Todd was safe, so they went back to home but Chris slid and narrowly avoided the tag to score the run.
In the 5th inning of game 7 @ Academy, something eerily similar happened : Chris Oberlin was rounding 3rd after a single by Will Kafes, but despite being waved home by the 3rd base coach he held up on a strong throw that would have beaten him home; by the time he got back to 3rd, Greg O'Neill (who started the at-bat on 1st base) was just arriving on the same base - Greg then ran back to 2nd just as Will was pulling into the base as well. The ball finally arrived and Will didn't have a chance to return to 1st and was tagged out. Both Chris and Greg scored on the next play (a 2-run double by Ken Pelletier).
Ken Pelletier pulled a muscle rounding the bases near 3rd but hopped his way home during his 6th inning homer in game 6 @ Art Museum.
Chris Oberlin had a bases-loaded, bases-clearing triple with 2 outs in the 2nd inning of game 8 vs Franklin (happily trying to make up for that fly ball he let drop in the 1st that scored a couple runs for them).
Greg O'Neill sacrificed his entire body to score a run in the 5th vs XComm in game 9 when he thought a throw was coming (they thought about it but knew he was going to make it) and slid - er, bounced - into home plate. He was completely airborn and basically landed on his leg. Check out the picture of his swollen shin in our photo section.
Jim Ronemus unintentionally did the same thing in game 10 @ Daily News, coming home on Chris Oberlin's double in the 4th inning. The throw came to home and Jim decided last minute he needed to slide, so he went head first. Well, head first, leg second, elbow third, knee 4th and arm 5th-ish. It wasn't pretty, but it worked! He beat the tag and scored the run and also scored a nasty elbow burn. See the pic in the photos. The Daily News pitcher told Chris Oberlin (standing on 2nd) "...that was entertaining!" after the slide.
Todd Sinander had 8-straight hits over the course of games 4,5&6.
Ken Pelletier had a 10-straight hits streak over games 3,4&6 (DNP game 5) and also hit another 16-straight in games 11 through 14.
Chris Oberlin made 13-straight hits over games 5,6,7&8.
Greg O'Neill had 8-straight hits over games 7&9 (DNP game 8).
In Team Zoo's CCSL history since our inagural season in 2001, game 2 @ XComm was the first time we'd never had at least 1 extra base hit, and also the first game ever that Chris Oberlin did not get a base hit (he didn't start and went 0-2).
We left 2 runners on base in each of the first 5 innings in game 11 vs Daily News, and in innings 3,4,5,6 vs Art Museum in game 13.
Team Zoo was held scoreless 41 innings out of 93 at the plate.
We batted into 11 3-up/3-down innings (3 straight and 4 total in game 9 vs XComm).
Amy Ivins got forced out at 2nd after a single by Jen Robertson to left field, preventing a run from scoring in the 5th inning of game 7 @ Academy.
Tara Brody got forced out at 2nd base after a bloop single by Chris Oberlin in the 2nd inning of game 10 @ Daily News - she held up a bit in case it was caught.
Amy Ivins stranded 3 baserunners when she left the bases loaded with an inning-ending pop-out in the 1st in game 7 @ Academy.
Ryan Hodge left the bases loaded when he ended the 1st inning of game 14 @ NCC with a fielder's choice.
Sal DiStefano got caught in a rundown rounding 3rd in the 3rd inning of game 14 @ NCC and eventually was tagged out (partially by our own players who were supplying their team with pitcher/catcher).
In the final game 15 @ PBJ in the playoffs, we had 2 painful baserunning errors - Ken Pelletier was sent home by base coach Todd Sinander while he was rounding third after a shot into deep center in the 5th, but 2 great throws by PBJ beat him to the plate by a mile and he was forced back to 3rd, where after a brief rundown he was tagged out. In the final inning, after leading off with a single, Greg O'Neill got tagged out rounding 2nd after Ken Pelletier's single to right, leaving Ken on 1st with 1 out instead of himself being the tying run on 2nd with nobody out.
Sal DiStefano, Will Kafes, Tara Brody, Ryan Hodge, Amy Ivins & Todd Sinander each struck out 1 time - until this year we'd had only 1 strikeout in our 5-year CCSL history, and that was last year (the first year of the called strike/pitching mat).
[Team Zoo Rocks The Casbah]
In game 2 @ Franklin, we were down 8-1 after 2 innings but then buckled down and shut them out 3 innings straight (3,4,5) while scoring 11 runs to take a brief 12-8 lead, and holding them off in the last inning after they got 3 in the 6th to cut the lead to 1.
After losing the lead and going down 4-5 in the 3rd inning of game 6 @ Art Museum, we held the fort and only allowed 2 more runs the last 4 innings and scored 8 of our own to pull out the game.
Down 0-2 after 2 innings in the deadliest dead heat of summer in game 7 @ Academy, we scored 4 runs in the 3rd to gain a lead we would never relenquish, winning 9-6 in a defensive struggle.
Against Franklin in game 8, we were down 0-4 after 1, 4-5 after 3, 4-7 after 4 and 5-7 after 5 but scored 3 in the bottom of the 6th to take the lead and shut them down in the top of the 7th (including the 3 batters at the top of their lineup) to eek out another close game.
After giving up 2 runs in the top of the 1st in game 11 vs Daily News, we scored 2 in the bottom and then 7 more the rest of the way while only allowing 2 more 1-run innings by them (and we didn't bat in the bottom of the 7th) to claim a well-played victory.
[Things That Could Have Been...]
We had leads of 2-1 after 1, 5-1 after 2, 7-5 after 3, and 10-8 after 4 against PBJ in game 5, but couldn't hold on down the stretch as they pulled out 11 runs in the last 3 innings and we could only manage 1.
Against X-Commerce in game 9, we were down, then we were up, then we were down, then we were up - leading 8-7 in the top of the 7th, but we couldn't hold them and our own rally fell short in the bottom of the inning and we lost 10-12. We'd never lost to them by less than 7 runs before.
In game 10 @ Daily News, after 3 innings and a 3-3 score, we couldn't keep up with them as they ran off 5 runs in the fifth (including a couple of shots into the outfield that went over our fielder's heads) and 3 more runs the rest of the way, while our rally in the last inning was 5 runs short - we did score 2 but left 2 more on base.
At PBJ in game 12, we scored 6 in the top of the first and still led 6-1 after 3 innings, but gave up 3 runs in each of the next 2 innings to relinquish the lead 6-7 after 5. We gave up 1 in the 6th and were down 2 going into the last inning, where we mounted a 2-out comeback with 3 straight hits - scoring 1 run, having runners on the corners and Will Kafes up to bat. Unfortunately, his infield single (and game-tying RBI) was called out by our own Chris Law even though the first baseman was outrageously obviously off the bag (Chris was watching the ball but not the feet) but since that was his call, it stood and we never know what may have happened after that.
Team Zoo rolled off 4 runs in each of the first 2 innings vs Art Museum in game 13 for an 8-4 lead, but gave up 6 in the next and 4 more to go down 14-8. We ran off 5 runs in the bottom of the 6th (with 2 outs!) to climb within 1 run, but in the last inning (after a valiant defensive stop in the top half), lead-off batter Todd Sinander (and potential game-winning run) hit into a game-ending double play.
In our first ever CCSL playoff game in team history @ PBJ in game 15, we never held a lead - however, we were never far behind and tied it at 5-all in the 3rd, and then trailed 9-10 going into the last inning. We had the tying run on 3rd, but ended the game with a fly out and stranded the potential game-winning run on 1st as well. Except for 2 innings in which PBJ scored 5 runs each (1st & 4th), we shut them down otherwise... only adding fuel to our frustrated fire. At least they ended up winning the league.
Our final 3 losses were each by 1 run. Ouch. We also lost another game by only 2, and won 2 games by 1 and 1 game by 3. We never failed to excite.
[Miscellaneous]
Academy forfeited the first game before 5 pm! We always desperately try to
field a team up until the last minute, which is 6:30.
NCC and PBJ both played with only 9 players (3 in the outfield) in games 4&5.
Art Museum must have had nearly 20 players in game 6. Damn.
We were blessed by the presence of Chris Waldron (former full-time Team Zoo member and current assistant curator of carnivores) for game 7 @ Academy (he was the extra-hitter the entire game and played the last inning at catcher) due to his fiance's car being in the shop - they had to share one vehicle so he kinda tagged along, and we needed her to make 10-players (and have a full outfield). Her being Kristen Lewis. He went 1-for-3 and scored 2 runs, including the game-winner. His first time up he scored, but as he was rounding third he tripped in the loose infield dirt and wound up on his ass with a leg full of sand and blood. He got up and scored that run, though. And returned for more games!
Things got really weird in the last regular season game (14, @ NCC) when only 7 of their players showed up - none of which were actually from the NCC. Two other organizations were supplying players for them, the Red Cross and Jewish Federation. We made a real effort to schedule that game and get people there, so we went ahead and played, but supplied pitcher and catcher for them (and eventually also a 2nd baseperson!) - technically a forfeit, but we only batted for us and vice versa. We started late and only got in 5 innings; we scored 12 in the first inning and it didn't seem fun or fair, and we sorta were taking it easy on them until they started scoring some runs and got within 7 (20-13), so we ran off 8 more in the last inning. Admittedly, the game was meaningless and did not effect the standings and my reasons for making up the game (it was originally rained out) were primarily statistical.
Team Zoo represented at the resurrected CCSL "All-Star" game on 8/23/05, where Chris Oberlin, Todd Sinander and Kristen Lewis played the entire 5-inning game (all of us in the outfield) and combined for 7 hits in 9 at-bats, with 4 singles, 2 doubles and a homer, knocking in 4 runs and scoring 4 as well, all the while making 7 catches in the outfield. It should be noted there were 4 players voted to the "All-Star" team by the our team (every member voted, sort of) : Chris O, Ken, Jen and Will. Unfortunately, not all were able to attend. It was originally scheduled a week prior but was rained out.
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Team Zoo 2005