The Juice: A Softball Blog

Juice Squeezed

Slump-busters live up to name in 24-4 victory

So much for beginner’s luck. In the team’s second outing, the Los Angeles Juice suffered a decisive loss to cross-town rivals the Slump-busters.

Looking to redeem themselves after last week’s pummeling at the hands of Nexus Films, the Juice arrived sharply dressed in trademark orange-and-white unis. Their first inning at bat produced some contact but didn’t translate into baserunners. Things went downhill from there.

Juice pitcher Chris Redman had trouble finding the plate all night and loaded up the bases with walks on a few occasions. Redman didn’t get much help in the infield, where numerous routine grounders were bobbled. Third baseman Joe LaMonica, a veteran ball player, had some trouble keeping it together tonight and overthrew a few close plays at first. Later in the game, second baseman Ian Gould (a standout last week) seemed to let his emotions get the best of him. After an outburst in the top of the fourth following a ground-out, Gould went on to misplay a ball the next inning and became visibly agitated. Neither LaMonica nor Gould could be reached for comment.

Though their fundamentals weren’t exactly on display, it wasn’t all bad news for the Juice tonight. The team did make a go of it in the fourth, thanks to 2 RBIs from benchwarmer Devin Barry. (They would go on to score 4 runs in all, all in the fourth inning.) One of those runs driven in was left fielder Ben DeGrootius. Though Degrootius was coming off a quad injury, it didn’t seem to slow him down any tonight. Along with the run he scored, he made a few good grabs in the outfield. His only misstep the whole game, in fact, came when he tripped behind the backstop while running out to act as third-base coach. He was later seen icing his left wrist.

Following the game, which was called on account of time in the fifth inning, Juice team captain Mike Wells made an attempt to keep team spirits up. In the locker room, Wells stressed that the team’s goal was to have fun, and that they were succeeding in that regard. He also reminded his teammates that their opponents have had more experience with the particulars of the game of softball. Wells then asked for a committment to more regular practice sessions and more time at the batting cages.

In that same postgame meeting, some Juice players suggested cultivating a deeper bullpen, a call that may be answered in the coming weeks by Barry. When asked after the game if he might make an appearance on the mound in the near future, Barry had this to say: “I want to do whatever I can to help the team out—get the bomb in the pickle barrel, you know, give the skipper what he needs.” He added, “We just need to start swinging the bat. We’ll be fine. it’s a long season.”