A win atlast.. Desis 8 - Lutherans 6

Champagne flowed, and confetti streamed down as the Desis finally got a win on the board. Celebrations that began friday night, continued throughout the weekend, till the late hours of sunday night. And a win which was a total team effort.

Being the home team, we batted first, putting on 3 runs in the first innings. As has become a habit, Amit got a base hit, followed by Leena, and Appu, and very soon, most of top order batting lineup had a go at the mediocre pitching from the Lutherans, where they walked two, and struck out none, in the top of the very first inning.

Lutherans scored one in the first inning with Karthik pitching real well, I took a catch in the outfield, and Appu catching one at shortstop, one got tagged out. Our second inning, we scored 3 more, with Preetu getting walked, Venu getting a base hit, and I dont remember the rest.

Lutherans put on 3 runs in the second inning, with some powerful hitting, and a couple of fielding errors on our side.

Top of the third, Dumma scored a run, and one more run was scored. Desis were leading 8-4 when the Lutherans got the last inning to bat.

We get one out, we walk one, Lutherans score twice, and this is when the unthinkable happened. The batter hits directly to Appu at short-stop, he throws to Leena at second base, getting the second out of the inning, and she throws to Dumma at first to get our first two-outs, and we had won!! What a way to win!! yooohoooo!!! Great team effort!!!!

Celebrations and team photo-ops followed, and we took our celebrations to the Tied House in downtown San Jose.

A good win, and with this, we are placed perhaps third in the overall standings, with 1 W, 2 T, and 2 L's.

Another tie.. Desis 10 - Westgate 10

Talk about improvment.. after losing to Westgate 0-13 in our season opener, we bounced back with a superb performance to tie the game 10-10. Trailing by four runs at the bottom of the last inning, we scored 4 runs in the final inning, before getting out with Leena at a scoring position.

Apurva's big hit into center field started a run fest, when 3 people scored in the first inning. Due to some slopping fielding, and some walks, we allowed Westgate a few more runs than they actually scored. Anjali started off as the pitcher, and Karthik came in a relief pitcher in the final inning to clean up the Westgaters.

Venu was in the batting lineup today as a designated hitter, as Shrisha was a no-show, and he got two base hits, and had a run in his debut. Chethan coached the team from outside due his fractured wrist. His parents showed up to support the team. Thanks uncle, and aunty.

Westgate doesnt have any big hitters, with none of their batters hitting deep. Strategy for the next game against Westgate could be:
* No deep fielders necessary, get in closer to cut-off the runs.
* Control the wild throws.
* Pitch consistantly, and get them to hit the ball.

Good job, Desis. We are a much improved team, and we can take the game to the Lutherans on friday.

Battling lineup for Game 4

3B Amit
2B Leena
SS Appu
SP Anjali
LF Naveen
DH DJ
CF Karthik
CA Sammy
1B Ranjeet
OF Srivalli
DH Robert/Shrisha
OF Preeti

Coach Chet isnt playing today, as he has hurt his wrist. Lets go guys, lets win one for Coach!

Midweek practice (Monday, Aug 16 2006)

Practice session planned for Aug 16, at Central Park in Santa Clara. Message from coach:

Hi Everyone -

That was a gutsy performance last Friday night. First time under the lights and we jumped out to a 4-0 lead!! They came right back and took the lead, but we kept fighting to stay in the game. We improved on our baserunning! ! And....we are getting more patient at the plate, too. We are on our way to a victory very soon......I can feel it!!

But, we do need to work on some fielding stuff, so i was hoping to spend Wednesday evening practicing our relays from the outfield. I think we were a bit disorganized once the ball got thrown in from the outfeld, so we'll try to make sure everyone knows where to be. We won't be spending much time on hitting, especially since it's getting dark pretty early these days. But, the batting cages on Almaden Expressway is open 'til 9:30, so we can definitely swing by there later.....

Game 3 .. Desis 6 - Hitech 20

Final score: Desis - 6, Hi-tech - 20

Since we were the home team, we started off by scoring 4 runs in the first inning, with Amit, Leena, Chethan, and Anjali scoring! Great start that! The team was energetic, and it felt awesome to be hitting, and scoring.

Hi-tech scored 3 runs in the first inning, but came back to hit a 10 runs in the third inning, which deflated us. Eventually, we scored two more runs, Leena scoring twice, and Dumma getting me home. Hi-tech has some great hitters, they hit at will, and they started avoiding the left field and started hitting only to right field. Even their women hit like men.

We dropped a few catches, lost our cool, and eventually the game.

Anjali did a great job pitching. Kudos, Anjali!

This calls for a few practice sessions. Next week, might be some fielding, and catching practice, and perhaps a visit to the batting cages?

Batting lineup for game 3

And a few words from Coach:

A few tips/suggestions:

(1) If you have a 2-0 (2 balls and no strikes) count while at-bat...... ..do not swing!!! Let the pitcher throw a strike before you take a swing. Then, if you have a 3-0 count, do not swing!!! Let's try this for tomorrow.

(2) we need to learn how to slide. In both our first two games, we ran past 2nd base and were tagged out. I'll get there early tomorrow and go through some sliding drills.

(3) Outfielders. ....first step is BACK on a fly ball. If the ball is hit on the ground to you.....get down on one knee...


Here's is tomorrow's lineup....fiedling positions subject to change, of course...
------------ --------- --------

3B Amit

2B Leena

SS Chethan

SP Anjali

LF Naveen

RF Preeti S.

1B Ranjeet

OF Srivalli

CF Karthik

DH Preeti A.

DH Shrisha

CA DJ

Tomorrow's game is at 8.10PM (Aug 11)

We play Hi-tech manufacturing at 8.10PM tomorrow night (Aug 11). See you all at the ball-park by 7.30PM.

Last friday game results: Westgate beat Hi-tech 3-1. And we tied Lutheran 4-4.

The game was a tie...

.. hey Appu, Anjali, Amit, and Robert, incase you are reading this, here are the scores. We tied the game 4-4, after an hour and an extra innings. Everyone on the team got a base hit, DJ, Srivalli, Dumma, and someone else (sorry, I dont remember who it was) scored. All the runs came in the same innings, when the whole team got on base sometime or the other. Way to go, team!! You rock!!

Karthik did an outstanding job pitching, he struck out 3, and only gave away one run for a walk. Compare this to the past game, when we gave away 8 runs to walks. Awesome job, dude!

The Desi Nationals played at a much better level, with some great catching, some crisp hitting, and a good show on the field. We looked like a totally different outfit from the team which played last week.

And we capped it with a small celebration, thanks to Sammy, Karthik and Rishon, accompanied by Michelob and Heineken, and some spicy food from Shan. And with some entertainment from Tore-y (Chethan's Accenture buddy).

Awesome job, folks!! Have a great night!

Batting order for tonite's game

SP Karthik

2B Leena

SS Chethan

OF Preeti S.

LF Naveen

-- DJ

1B Ranjeet

OF Srivalli

3B Shrisha

OF Preeti

-- Venu

CA Sammy

Some great softball pitching tips

There are some awesome tips here. Might come in handy to all our pitchers.

Starting 12 for Game-2 (against St.Timothy's Lutheran)

Chethan (SS)

Preeti S (CA)

Karthik (SP)

Leena (2B)

Naveen (LF)

Srivalli (LCF)

Ranjeet (1B)

DJ

Shrisha (3B)

Sammy (CF)

Venu G.

Preeti A (RF)