Thursday, May 31, 2007

Knights Ready To Continue Winning Ways



A Public Service Announcement From TIPS and Roger Clemens In Association With "SC Knights PSA's"


LOS ANGELES, CA - The Knights will look to come back from a week off and defeat the South Bay Storm. The First Place Knights are 5-2 on the season and have a 1 game lead over the Yankees and Cubs in the National Division. The Knights will be without leagues leading hitter Rod Boaz who is being courted by most of the top MLB teams.

First Pitch 2 pm - SP (Knights) Tony Sulser
Culver City Stadium

Monday, May 21, 2007

Lean Knights Get Mean In 7-6 Victory

CULVER CITY, CA - After dropping two games in a row for the first time this season the Knights needed to get back on track. But early on this looked like it would be a difficult task versus the hot hitting Brewers. But Rod Boaz was up to the challenge. The Knights originally had Tony "El Toro" Sulser penciled in as the starter but he was a late scratch and could not be found for comment after the game. Rumors swirled throughout the clubhouse of a Trade. Our crack reporting staff is working on this and other possible moves before the trading deadline.

Sunday the lean Knights were without Ryan Brooks, Mike Vogel, Josh Steiner, Pete Nelson and the aforementioned Tony Sulser. So Boaz got the spot-start after struggling in his last outing versus the Cubs, Boaz knew he had to be on his game versus the heavy hitting Brewers.


The Game began as an old fashioned pitchers dual. The Brewers pitcher Justin Halpern matched Boaz inning for inning both allowing 1 hit over the first 3 and striking out 5. But the Brewers took advantage of a rare Boaz walk and their first hit of the game by center fielder
Joe Howard taking a 1-0 lead. With the way Halpern was pitching it looked as though that was all the Brewers would need to win this game. Then in a surprise move the Brewers removed Halpern for a reliever who immediately gave up a solo shot to Steve Fike who connected on his first of the year a laser over the 365 mark in right field. Just lik that the Knights were back in the game and giving Boaz some much needed run support.


As Boaz creeped up on the 100 pitch count in the top of the 5th, he hit a rough patch. Making what looked like pretty good pitched according to K-Zone, the walks equaled another run for the patient Brewer hitters, but not before Boaz could record his 10th strikeout of the game (the 8th time he has done this in a Knights uniform). Boaz left the game on the hook for a hard luck loss.

But Kevin Murkey had other ideas how this game would end. After an Erik Barber walk and steal of second. Murkules unloaded with every bit of his Spartan Like strength hitting a no doubt home run well over 400 feet landing 30 rows up in left field. Murkey did his patented Sosa like hop out of the box even adding in a new dance step that may get him a call from the "Dancing With The Stars" producers for next season. Murkey's blast gave the Knights a 3-2 lead going into the top of the 9th inning. Knights skipper Ryan Saul let Steve Fike who tossed 2 solid innings attempt to finish the game out, but had Mr. Game Over Kevin Murkey in the wings waiting in case Fike got into trouble.

The Brewers wasted no time connecting on 2 straight singles putting players on first and third with no one out. Saul went to the bullpen and brought the home run hitting closer in. Murkey got the groundball he wanted, with the middle infield playing DP depth, Barber was able to get the ball but had a problem on the transfer which allowed the tying run to score and putting the leading run at second base. The Brewers then channeled their inner Tony Gwynn, poking two hits to the opposite field between first and second. The third hit was ruled an error by the official scorer but looked to me to have taken a bad hop and hit Boaz directly in the throat, saving a run but allowing the runners to move up. So with the bases loaded the Brewers kept the pressure on hitting a deep sac fly to Ryan Saul in Rightfield who decoyed everyone by pretending he didn't know where is was then at the last second leaping far to his left to catch the ball. All in all the Brewers scored 4 runs but left the bases loaded, so the damage could have been worse.

The Knights had one last at bat to snatch this game from the dark depth of defeat. Colyn Van Buren had his coming out party hitting his second basehit of the day and in a rare display of blazing speed Van Buren stretched a sure single into a double. He was removed for a pinch runner as he needed oxygen and a bottle of water, stat. Halvorsen who had struck out 2 times on the day (his first two of the season) hit a hanging slider into center field for a base hit plating Saul and bringing the Knight to within 2 runs. Fike, anxious to continue this hit parade and get him off the hook for the loss hit the first pitch he saw into left field putting the tying run at first base. After another Boaz strikeout (this time his own), Erik Barber stepped up and hit a routine ground ball to the right of the shortstop. What looked to have been the second out turned into a bases loaded situation because Barber flew down the line beating the throw by a step. Bringing up the Murkules for another shot at infamy. Murkey wasted no time smashing a single into left center scoring both Halvorsen and Fike, tying the game and giving the Knights the winning run at 3rd with 1 out. The Brewers opted to walk the bases loaded and bring in their rightfielder to give them 6 infielders.

Up stepped A-Train Austin Hurwitz... he took a moment and looked up into the sky, he his destiny, but with great power comes great responsibility. After looking horrible on 2 straight swings he worked the count back to 2-2 then hit what can only be called a dead duck into shallow leftfield. Barber did not hesitate to tag and use his speed to easily beat the throw home giving the Knights the win!

The Knights will take a week off and be back out at Culver City Stadium against the South Bay Storm. More on the developing Sulser story this week...

I'm Max Mercy and I'll see YOU at the ballpark.

Monday, May 7, 2007

Knights Struggle To Score Runs & Make Routine Plays, Other Than That They Look Great!

GLENDALE, CA - The Knights Baseball club has been known to go through it's up's and downs during a season. These are usually brought on by a lack of focus and losing the "power of intention" that they have relied on to reach the height of Adult Baseball stardom they have reached.

This lack of focus can manifest itself in a number of destructive ways, the most terrifying of all is the dreaded mental error.

Traditionally, the number of errors was a statistic used to quantify the skill of a fielder. However, fans and analysts have questioned the usefulness and significance of such a practice. The error has some flaws as a metric for fielding skill. Notably, mental misjudgments, such as failure to cover a base, are not considered errors, but can still be just as costly.

Despite a gutsy performance by Tony Sulser (2-1) on the dirt hump for the Knights, El Toro hit the 120 pitch mark in the 6th inning and was forced to give way to Lefty Steve Fike. Sulser was given his first loss of the season even though he only surrendered 3 earned runs in his 6 innings of work. Fike continued the solid pitching but was let down by a smattering of bad bounces and Knight SNAFU's. To the Astros credit they continued making contact and forcing the Knights to make the plays. Constantly staying out of the double play with hit & runs and straight steals.

The Knights offense starting out healthy scoring 3 runs and taking a 3-1 lead. But soon after found themselves hitting and running themselves out of possible big innings. The Knights hit into a season high 4 double plays. After only losing by 6 runs when all was said and done, any of those innings could have been the big one that turned it around. But alas, they are left to wonder what could have been. And they will have to wonder for 2 weeks as there next game isn't until May 20th.

To check out all the Photos From Sunday's Game Click Here.


Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Knights Lose To Lovable Losers


CULVER CITY, CA - Knights hit a speed bump on their way to the championship Sunday. This speed bump had a name, The Culver City Cubs. The Cubs, sans Steve Bartman, took it to the Knights right out of the shoot on Sunday, putting together a nine hit eight run performance against the shorthanded Knights.

After proving that they had the capability to comeback score runs on every pitcher they had faced the Knights went cold against the Cubs starting pitcher Jimmy Crackkorn, only scoring 3 runs over 8 innings. The Cubs however got to starting pitcher Rod Boaz right out of the gate and poured on 8 runs over 4 innings on 8 hits taking advantage of Boaz's 4 walks. Boaz also stuck out 7 in his 4 innings, but had trouble keeping the ball down which meant that the Cubs only hit 3 ground balls during the game.

Closer Kevin Murkey came in and worked 3 strong innings allowing 0 runs and 1 hit. Murkey kept the Cubs at bay but the Knights were never able to capitalize. The Knights threatened a few times to break through, Boaz knocked Halvorsen in twice on his way to a 3-4 game raising his batting average to an amazng .722 (13-17) on the season with 11 RBI's. The combo has been money for the Knights, Boaz has knocked Halvorsen in 8 times in the first 5 games of the season.

The Knights were without the dedicated services of Erik 'It's Green Up Here' Barber, Austin 'A-Train' Hurwitz, Tony "Fisherman Bob" Sulser, Colyn 'Mystery Man In the Mystery Van Buren, Steve 'Rage Against The Machine' Fike and Josh 'Wedding Bells' Steiner.

The Knights hope to get back in check with their winning ways on Sunday afternoon versus the Astros who they beat earlier with a JWill Game Winning hit in the bottom of the ninth.

First Pitch: 2:00 PM
Location: Stengel Field
Capacity: 1,800 (so get the early, because the best seats go fast)