The King Hippos continued their winning ways against Blue Steel on Thursday when, shorthanded, they held on through a wet and wild match for a 6-1 victory.
The match started quietly as both teams acclimated to the slick surface and slippy ball. The Hippos had runners on in the first and managed to score two, but would’ve scored more had the Steel’s center fielder not wowed the crowd, reeling in a ball over his head.
The Hippos’ defense also held strong through the game, though the conditions did, at times, challenge them.
“It was a wet one out there,” griped catcher Squints. “But by the second inning, nothing was getting by me… or maybe the third…”
The Steel managed to pull a run back in the third, cutting the Hippos’ lead in half.
The fourth inning saw the Hippos break it open, however, as the offense advanced through the order for the second time, plating four runs on RBIs by Big, Squints and Catie.
It took the defensive highlight of the game, however, to prevent the Steel from rallying back in the bottom of the fourth.
With Blue Steel boasting runners at first and second with no outs, their kicker smacked a liner into left center. A hard-charging Aimee made the narrow catch in the dwindling twilight and got the ball to second to catch the runner off the bag. Big was then able to tag the runner going from first to second completing an unlikely and rare triple play.
“It would’ve been, like, 200 achievement points on Xbox Live!” crowed Big.
With vision becoming a problem on the darkening common, the Steel threatened again in the bottom of the fifth. At times, it looked like the royal blue might take some karma from their loss in the dark in the summer of 2008 final and convert a victory on Thursday.
However, the Hippos’ defense relied on their instincts and managed to frustrate the Steel’s efforts.
After the invigorating victory, the Hippos’ morale is high going into the final game of the regular season next Thursday.
Third baseman Fox was jubilant. “That Dalai Llama dude was lucky that Blue Steel only had to block a shuriken instead of stopping our herd of Hippos, because that guy would’ve been toast.”
"That was Magnum, you bombastic heliotrope," Tristan retorted.
"It was," stammered Fox. "I apologize, I was working with imperfect data."
“We all had to dig deep,” said game MVP Aimee. “We put on our game faces and embraced the monsoon. When things were looking grim with the conditions, the Hippos powered through!”
“The Hippos love playin’ in the wet,” agreed Asian.
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