Coach: 10, Oxford Blues 8

The Oxford Softball Blues finished their last game of the year on Monday evening with a close loss to Coach. The team started out strong by giving up only one hit in the first inning and putting the pressure on Coach right away. The Blues suffered a few errors and base running mistakes in the middle innings but were able to work around them. Overall, the defensive effort had a much crisper feel than games of the past. Relays from the outfield were on target and infield throws to first were sharp and confident.

The Oxford offense kept their bats level and racked up their hits with proper placement. In the bottom of the seventh inning they cut the Coach lead down to two runs and loaded the bases to give the team something to cheer for. The Blues also riled up Coach's comically intense captain we will refer to as Mr. "Two Dead!". The rally fell a little short but it was an exciting and tense end to the season.

Looking back, the game sort of served as a microcosm of the entire season. It started a little sloppy, we got it together and played tough after we settled down, there were a couple of heartbreaking moments, but in the end even though we lost we went out on a high note.

The Blues went to Jake's after the game to complete their perfect 12-0 season record of going out after every game this year. It's a record that the entire team and fan base should be proud of. Although the official record of 1-11 isn't that impressive, it should be noted that the team lost five of the eleven games by 3 runs or less.

The team took it up a notch for the season finale post game celebration. There were blue cheese shooters, beer pong battles, dancing, a boiler maker, and multiple rounds of Goldschlager.

With the 2008 regular season in the book, the Blues will now begin mental and physical preparations for the blowout that will be the 4th Annual Oxford Blues Softball Banquet at the Astoria Beer Garden on August 15th.

Michelle's pics from Jake's can be found here. Click on the photo above for a link to Jared's photos (which include a few from Friday's game).

CSTV Slammers: 13, Oxford Blues: 0

The CSTV Slammers won our 13 team division last season for a reason. Their methodical line drive base hits up the middle were unstoppable and put them out to a quick lead. On the other side, the Blues were in a funk and failed to get a runner past second base during the entire shortened five inning game.

However, the quick finish gave the Blues enough time to have a team scrimmage (Iron Unicorns vs. Evil Blues) and prepare for tonight's (Monday) final game of the season against Coach on North Meadow field #8 at 5:30. Coach is 3-7-1 on the season so they are much closer to our competition level and it should be a close game.

There aren't any pictures from the game this week, possibly a blessing, so click on the photo above for Michelle's pics from the more important part of the night.

Translate This: 17, Oxford Blues: 10

Tuesday evening's game started out well once again for the Blues. However, once Translate This got warmed up they showed why they are the fifth place team in the league by belting out Ruthian home runs. Oxford was solid, yet a little out matched, on offense and defense.

However, the Blues (motivated by Joe "What Bag?" Jackson's awesome blue kicks with blue laces) ran the bases better than their opponents. Even though we were aggressive on the base paths it was under control and I don't believe anyone was thrown out while going for an extra base. Translate This was not so much under control. They were thrown out at least twice while being greedy. Once, on the end of a double play that started with a leaping catch in center field by Kyle "KT" Taylor.

Our next two games are on back-to-back workdays, this Friday and Monday. We hope to see you all there for the furious end of the season. Thanks goes out to Michelle for taking these photos of the game.

We went down to the village after the game to enjoy some cold beers and watch mixed martial arts and the MLB All-Star game at the Slaughtered Lamb. While sitting next to this life-size rotating werewolf display, we discussed awful tooth-related stories and sleazy college friends.

Oxford Blues: 11, Telerep: 17

Jared sent around a link to his always impressive photos from Thursday's game which included a succinct recap of the game.

Game 9

Through inning 5, a win. Considering that a fair amount of our games this season were over by inning 5, that's pretty confident play. But then in the 6th, Telerep found some holes and bust the game open. Final score, 11-17. I showed up late, and it's a sore memory anyway, so I've minimized game photos and maximized Jake's photos. Typical Blues bollocks, for hours & hours.

That sums it up pretty well. We continued to hit well as a team with the bottom of the lineup extending many rallies. Our defense improved since last week and was able to convert more of the "easy outs". There is still room to improve though and it seems like some extra chatter on the field might help everyone focus so that will be the goal for this week.

Here are a few of my photos before my camera died and also a great batch from Michelle.

Game 10 is Tuesday night at Chelsea Park at 5:30pm.

Oxford Blues: 17, Pirates: 19

The Blues had their game faces on (see above photo) for Wednesday's game but the Pirates' narrowly won the shootout. They scored 19 runs, same as last year, to topple the Blues 19 to 17. The Blues were also racking up the hits and scored 10 more runs than they did last year against the Pirates. They scored in every inning but one to make it a compelling back-and-forth game.

In the top of the sixth inning the Oxford Blues scored five runs when they needed them most to tie up the game at 15 all. The Pirates went on to score four runs in the bottom half of the inning though to take the lead. The Blues threatened in the top of the seventh but only scored two runs to end the game.

The bats are hot and the Blues haven't scored that many runs since last June, 16 games ago. The fielding was a little shaky but that's easier to work on and will hopefully come together for the next game against Telerep on Thursday.

The team hit up the usual haunt and got in some good Buck Hunter/Beer Pong/Foosball action. Here are the pics with a few captions.

KT's photos

Rae Rae's photos

Michelle photos

P.S. Brian's contribution of "Chelly Chell" as a possible nickname for Michelle reminds me that we really need to work on making sure that everyone has a nickname. That could be the inspiration that pushes us back into winning territory.