Buccos run down unlucky Stars

Photo above: The Fall Santa Ana winds blasting off the desert were dubbed the "hot breath of Satan" by Spanish missionaries and were associated with evil superstitions by Native American tribes before them.

With two outs and runners on first and second in the 6^th inning of a tie game, Hollywood Stars manager Frank Alfonso strolled to the mound, inquiring whether his pitcher might want to intentionally walk Dave Aguilar, 2 for 2 til then and pitch to me (0-2)instead.

“I wouldn’t pitch to him,” Dave’s brother Raul Aguilar called out helpfully from his perch on second base. “Dave’s the best clutch hitter in the league.”

It was hard to tell if Raul held that opinion in jest or in earnest to agitate the pitcher, Jack Stotler, whose high-arc pitches amid gusting Santa Ana winds in the Sepulveda Basin on Thursday had kept the Bucco lineup largely at bay in the LA County Senior Softball League contest.

Stotler elected to pitch to Dave who promptly punished the decision with a drive to left center that scored his brother with what proved to be the winning run in a well-played 7-5 game.

"I meant what I said about David. He has always been a great clutch hitter, as he really is the athlete in the family," Raul clarified later. "I’m just the kid brother that has to play or I would tell Mom."

Dave Aguilar then made the final out in the top of the 7^th, when he was perfectly positioned to catch a hard line drive to left off the bat of the Stars’ leadoff man, Bruce Ravid.

“He didn’t have to move an inch,” observed Bucco shortstop, Eric Badener. "(Ravid) was like, let me just hit this right to Dave.”

Credit Bucco outfield captain Norm Friedman for alertly advising Dave to cover the foul line, where Ravid often hits the ball.

“It was a very satisfying win,” Badener said, coming off last week’s mistake-ridden and poorly pitched one-run loss to the Dukes.

The margin of Thursday's victory may well have come down to the running game.

In the top of the 6^th, the Stars had a chance to pad their thin lead when John Morales lined a shot into left. Dave Aguilar fell trying to make a play on the ball, but Mike Pivarnick, backing him up, threw the ball to second just as Morales made a turn toward third. Gary Schwartz, who had a huge game defensively for the Buccos, took the cutoff at rover and fired the ball into the outstretched glove of Ernie Garcia at third base. Earlier in the game, second baseman Raul Aguilar, backing up first on an errant throw, easily threw out a runner trying to advance. Buccos backing each other was part of that ‘satisfying’ win.

So was the team’s own improving running game; the Buccos scored two runs on aggressive moves to home and had nobody thrown out on a running mistake.

It was needed because Stotler had held the Buccos scoreless for three innings with his variety of high arc pitches – he gets called for more “too high” pitches than any hurler in the League. He walked just two in this game.

Bucco pitcher Bill Tarrant was also effective, walking 1 and striking out two, despite gusting 15-mph winds blowing in from left field. The Fall Santa Ana winds blasting off the desert were dubbed the "hot breath of Satan" by Spanish missionaries and were associated with evil superstitions by Native American tribes before them.

One couldn't blame the snake-bitten Stars for feeling cursed. They fell to 1-5, with four of their five losses coming by three runs or less.

The Buccos are now 3-2-1 and tied for 4^th place in the standings with the Junkies and the Yankees. The Killebrews remain undefeated at the top of the league table.