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07/15/2024 02:33 AMThe goal of the Deep River Horseshoe players in Week 11 was to find shade, wear a hat, drink plenty of water, and put cooling towels on their necks, as temperatures approached 90 degrees.
For the third week in a row, there was a change at the top of the standings, as the Braves are back in first place. The Dodgers fell to second place after their loss to the Rockies, the surging Orioles came within a point of sweeping the Yankees, and the Pirates, Angels, and White Sox all won 5-1. The White Sox, Pirates, and Braves all topped 300 points. The top ten teams underwent another shuffle, while the bottom eight remained stagnant.
The third place Yankees got off to a terrible start, losing their first two games to the Orioles by an average of 18 points. Their scoring woes continued into the next two games, and they had their best chance for a win in game five.
The Yankees had a three-point lead going into the last box, but Orioles’ John Durinick and Ed Turner both tossed ringers. It was then up to Yankees’ Damin Roberts. Needing four points, he only tossed a ringer, and the game ended in a tie. The Orioles won 5.5-0.5 and moved into third place, while the Yankees plummeted to ninth.
The Dodgers, who were in first place, were looking to widen their lead as they took on Mike Didomizio's (Wethersfield) Rockies. However, Didomizio had other ideas. With his season best series of 140 points, 37 ringers, seven doubles, including a 40-point game, he was the "A" division’s second leading scorer. The Dodgers were unable to get a win until the fourth game, which they won by one point. Each Dodger had two games where they only scored 19 points. Despite his two 19-point games, Dennis Allen's 90 point series was the second leading "C" scorer. The Dodgers fell back to second place, one half game behind the first place Braves.
When the Red Sox faced the Braves, the match featured two of the league's top scorers in No. 3 Bill Beckwith vs. No. 4 Mike Zanelli Jr. Hoping not to suffer the same fate as in Week 10, Beckwith's Red Sox got off to a quick start, winning the first two games, but Zanelli’s Braves responded by winning the next two.
The teams went on to each win three games. The best part of the match was the head-to-head matches of Beckwith vs. Zanelli and Red Sox’s Scott Allen Jr. (Deep River) vs. Braves’ Warren Bellows (Waterford). After three games, Beckwith and Zanelli had each scored 98 points, but Beckwith beat Zanelli 136-126. Beckwith was the third leading scorer for "A" division.
Allen beat Bellows 3-1, but Bellows edged him with a score of 110-107. Both players made the top three scorers for "B" division. With the split, the Braves regained first place, and they outscored the Red Sox 302-286.
Bob Cifaldi's Mets wanted to solidify fourth place in the standings, as they took on Mike Zanelli Sr's Giants. The teams split the first four games, and the Mets won the last two for a 4-2 win to keep them in fourth place. The scores of the "A/B" players were Mets 195 and Giants 196.
In their head-to-head matches, each team won three games, loss three games, and tied two games. One of the differences in the match was Mets’ Keith Toohey, who outscored Giants’ Gary Haney by 20 points. Another was Zanelli, who scored 36 points in each of his first two games, and then suddenly in his next two games, he added an extra half a flip to his toss and ended the day with a 119 point series - 14 points below his average.
Pirates’ Anthony Malerba went on to score a season best series of 119 points, 33 ringers, five doubles to lead the Pirates to a 5-1 win over the Rangers. He was the leading scorer for "B" division. The Pirates jumped from tenth to fifth in the standings, as they scored 311 points, topping 300 for the third time this season.
John Hutra's Marlins were looking to stop their downward spiral in the standings, and the White Sox were looking to ride their scoring wave of the week prior. The White Sox did their part, as Brady Miller and Peter Furmonavicius each had a season best series. Miller scored 127 points, and Furmonavicius scored 96 points. Hunter Beckwith had his second best series with 96 points.
The White Sox scored 320 points as a team and topped 300 for the second week in a row. The Marlins’ chances suffered another blow, then they were forced to use the blind score for Howie Fisher. Furmonavicius was the top scorer for the "C" division, and the White Sox won 5-1.
The Angels and Diamondbacks each had a substitute. Ray Smith subbed for Angels’ Kyle Wilson, and Frank Durinick subbed for Chip Goodrich of the Diamondbacks. The Angels won 5-1 and are now in a tie for sixth place. Brian Walsh of the Diamondbacks’ 88 point series was a season best, and he was the third leading "C" division scorer.
The Cardinals split with the Reds. Cardinals’ Kris Toohey was the top scorer for "A" division with a 154 point series - the second time he has scored over 150 points this season. The Cardinals are now tied for sixth place. The Tigers won 4-2 over the Cubs and moved into eighth place in the standings.