Ann Arbor, MI – After two months of perfect kickball, the Shrimp Fried Rice were unable to hold off a fully loaded Notorious P.I.G. (2-4) team (formerly the Kickball Kangaroos). After falling behind 13-0 after three innings, the Shrimp comeback fell far short, although they managed to fend off the mercy rule. Said Shrimp manager Justin Hetherman, “Too many times this season, we’ve struggled a bit early on. This time it was too much to overcome. That’s not to take anything away from Notorious P.I.G. They played a tremendous game and might just be the best team we’ve faced all year.” With a small, mid-inning rally, the Shrimp (6-1) managed five runs but fell 14-5, the first loss in franchise history.
After not playing a night game since the middle of May, the Shrimp opening lineup clearly struggled defensively in the night’s park lights. The outfielders especially struggled to catch pop-flies, misjudging the depth and letting it drop over their heads or ten feet in front of them. “Those are balls we usually catch,” said Hetherman. “But I’ll take the blame for that, as I didn’t put together a great lineup to start the game. I definitely undervalued how good they were. They made us pay.” After a season with little frustration, the struggles started affecting the dugout chemistry, with bickering and mid-rotation lineup changes that hadn’t appeared before. “Hopefully it was just a bad week. Most of us hadn’t played in a couple weeks,” said thirdbase Karen Mandarino. “We can’t have that the next two games, with the quality of opponents we have coming up.”
The last two games of the season pit the Shrimp Fried Rice against the other teams with one loss in the league. This week is the MyBuys (5-1), who knocked off presumed favorite Jiminy Kick It last week. The MyBuys only loss was to Notorious P.I.G. in June. The game is scheduled for Friday at Veterans Park field 2 with opening pitch at 6:15pm.