Sunday August 27:
The Sleepwalkers Division 3 team hosted the Division 2 MAFC Rangers in a friendly at the Izbeg field so both team could prepare themselves for the Fall portion of the Baseball season. Last minute holidays before school resumes resulted in both teams missing several key players but with both teams sporting many young & new players it gave everyone the opportunity to see what they could do playing a full game.
The Rangers prevailed with a 19-7 victory at the end of the 3-hour time limit but there were some good signs for the Szentendre team as they head into a full September schedule. Fifteen year old left-handed starter, Victor Turcsányi, pitched 4 full innings with 6 strikeouts (striking out the final batter in each inning) and kept the Rangers predominately right-handed lineup off balance with zero balls hits to the left side of the infield and only three hits over those first four innings. A few ‘unforced errors’ by Victor though with him having three of the Rangers batters at a 2-strike, 0-balls count and hitting them with the next pitch. With a little more work on his control Viktor is going to turn into a dominating pitcher in coming seasons. Both Christian Doser and Andras Radacsi camp in to pitch in the later innings and largely limited the Rangers to just a few scattered hits (once again too may Walks and Wild Pitches hampered the Sleepwalkers defensive capabilities).
It’s always tough on our field for the catchers when it is a hot day and Sunday was no exception. Starting catcher Botond Horvath had attended a week-long camp with the Reds organization a week ago and his work behind the plate (particularly catching Viktor’s low at-the-knees deliveries) is rapidly improving. He caught a hard foul tip right on the inside of the thigh in the late innings though so our centerfielder, Tom Benko, came in to catch the final two innings (unfortunately getting a foul tip off the side of the knee as well). Thanks for hanging in guys, with only nine players we needed you for the full game!
Offensively our hitters struggled a bit. Partly due to the timing being off due to summer holidays and the fact that they mostly hit from the pitching machine all summer. Christian Doser was definitely this weeks star at the plate going 3-for-3 with a walk and scoring on three occasions. With a league game coming up in two weeks a bit of live ‘Coach-Pitch’ should get the timing back.