July 15, 2015 at 3:06 p.m.
Wet and wild showdown
Snowhawks fall to Dazzle's Demons 12-6; game called in eighth inning
Wet and wild showdown
Forty-five minutes of rain heading into Monday night's game made field conditions extremely poor. Snowhawks players were digging trenches near third base to drain excess water on the field before play began.
"The rain got us and it got everybody good," said Jeff Smith, Snowhawks playing manager. "That field definitely was the worst I'd ever seen it, definitely the worst we've ever played on it. When you have to dig a trench to get the water out before we even started that's something we've never had to do before,"
After some field maintenance the Snowhawks hosted Dazzle's Demons, a team that came into Snowshoe Park experienced in snowshoe baseball.
The team is comprised of hardball players from the Rhinelander area. Five players on the Dazzle's roster are former Snowhawks. The team is named in honor of a former snowshoe player, Dennis "Dazzle" Robinson, late father of Jesse and Jamie Robinson, both of whom play for the team.
"He was a third baseman and that was back in the '80s and '90s," Smith said. (Dazzle was a) very good player, very well liked by everyone here. He played for quite a few years and he was not (one of) the founding members but he definitely was a player that played with a good team at that time. He was a part of the old-timers team all through the 2000s that I knew him."
After his passing the family made a donation to the Snowhawks for new bleachers at Snowshoe Park.
"We have a bleacher fund that's set up kind of in his name also, the Dazzle Bleacher Fund," Smith said. "We're going to be getting aluminum bleachers probably for next year. I think we've got enough money saved up where we are going to get all new seats."
Jesse Robinson said the family donated $500 toward the new bleachers.
"It was the proceeds from my dad's funeral that we gave to the Snowhawks and they called it the Dazzle Bleacher Fund," he said, adding, "the Fourth of July game people have to bring their lawn chairs because there is not enough bleacher space."
Dazzle's Demons started the game plating a pair of runs from the Robinson brothers but the Snowhawks answered back with two of their own in the second. Donnie Moore and Bryan Jacquest scored on a pair of singles from Alex Bailey and Billy Kuckkahn.
The third inning brought a little controversy to the field. Snowhawks' Derek Young reached on a throwing error and came around to score on a double from Todd Niemuth. After much confusion on the field the home plate umpire called Young out at home plate even though there was no play made and the run was taken away from the Snowhawks.
"What happened is, some of us from a few years back, there was a rule (put in place) that the whole plate and the black (mat surrounding) was part of home plate. So, home plate and the black is all in one. That way you don't have to step on the catcher's feet while he's guarding the plate. It avoids collisions," Smith explained.
"They (Dazzle's Demons) knew that Derek didn't hit the actual home plate so they questioned it and the ump actually saw that and called him out."
Smith said the team and umpires plan to have that rule figured out before next week to avoid further confusion.
Although Young having his run taken away would not have changed the outcome of the game, it did put a quick end to a rally the Snowhawks had going with two outs in the inning and could have changed the momentum of the game.
"There was men on. We had a couple pretty good batters coming up in the lineup too, so it was not only one run that was taken away it was kind of like the whole rally," Smith said, adding that even though the loss of the run was hard to swallow, he thinks his team had other opportunities they were unable to capitalize on.
"That was a tough thing to have taken away but the game was still tied basically at that point or close to it and we had to get hits and they just didn't come," he said.
The game remained tied at 2-2 until the sixth inning when the rain picked up. Dazzle's Demons plated five runs before having the rally called on the five-run rule, in back to back innings in the sixth and seventh. The Demons managed to limit the Snowhawks to four runs during that time, giving the Demons a 12-6 lead after seven innings of play.
As the rain became heavier and heavier, the Demons went to bat in the top of the eighth inning. The Snowhawks recorded the first out and then Jamie Robinson came to bat and on the first swing the wet bat went flying down the third base line, narrowly missing Snowhawks' third baseman, Smith. It was then the game was called, giving Dazzle's Demons the win.
Jesse Robinson said he would have liked to keep playing.
"I wanted to keep playing but bats were flying," he said.
Smith agreed that it would have been nice to continue.
"We would have liked to have been able to get the chance to come back, because we can sometimes do that, but in all fairness, everybody had to play in the same thing," he said.
The Snowhawks have played Dazzle's Demons for nearly 10 years now and up until this year have won every contest.
Robinson said he's been waiting for this victory.
"We've gotten close so many times and last night was finally the time we did it," he said.
Smith said the Demons will be back next year and he really enjoyed playing them regardless of the chaos of the weather and the call at home plate.
"They'll be invited back every year. They are a good bunch of guys. I enjoyed playing them last night," he said. "They are a lot of fun."
As for next week the Snowhawks will go on to face Happy Daze in the hopes of holding the team's losing streak at two games and walking a way with a much-needed win.
Lindsey Nylund may be reached at [email protected].
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