July 5, 1995

Fair Oaks shortstop Dennis Hunt tosses the ball to second baseman Reagan Reynolds to start a sixth inning double play in Post 383's game Sunday against Elk Grove. Post 383 won the game 13-3 to sweep the three-game series from Elk Grove and move to 14-5 on the season. Photo by John Blenkle

F.O. Post 383 sweeps Elk Grove
By Joe Blenkle/Sports Editor
(This article originally appeared in the July 5, 1995 edition of The Orangevale News)

Improving its winning streak to seven games, the Fair Oaks Post 383 American Legion baseball team swept Elk Grove over the weekend to up its record to 14-5. During the seven-game stretch, Fair Oaks has outscored its opponents 100 to 31 with lopsided 19-3, 22-7, 16-0 and 13-3 wins along the way. Last Wednesday, Post 383 made short work of National Division opponent Winters with a 22-7 victory. That set up Fair Oaks' sweep of Elk Grove this past weekend, with Post 383 winning a Saturday doubleheader 16-0 and 6-4 and beating Elk Grove 13-3 in a single game on Sunday.
Andy Tews pitched a two-hitter in Saturday's opener and also contributed a home run. Fair Oaks had 10 hits in the game and capitalized on eight Elk Grove errors.

American Legion - Post 383
Date	Opponent	Score
5-31	Fort Sutter	W, 15-6
6-3	Charles Eggen	L, 8-6
6-3	Charles Eggen	W, 5-4
6-4	Charles Eggen	W, 12-6
6-8	Roseville	W, 12-8
6-10	El Dorado	W, 9-6
6-10	El Dorado	W, 7-5
6-11	El Dorado	W, 13-2
6-18	Cordova	L, 6-2
6-18	Cordova	L, 2-0
6-21	Post 61	L, 3-1
6-23	Cordova	L, 3-2
6-24	Haggin Grant	W, 10-7
6-24	Haggin Grant	W, 14-7
6-25	Haggin Grant	W, 19-3
6-28	Winters	W, 22-7
7-1	Elk Grove	W, 16-0
7-1	Elk Grove	W, 6-4
7-2	Elk Grove	W, 13-3
OVERALL: 14-5 LEAGUE: 14-5

    In the second game, Elk Grove managed to out hit Fair Oaks 11-7, but Post 383 scored all six of its runs by the third inning and held on for the win. Jarred Hunt picked up the victory with relief help from Brian Malchow in the sixth. Tews, Jason Wilkerson and Garrett Schoenfelder all had doubles for Fair Oaks and Schoenfelder also collected three RBI.
    Post 383 continued to punish Elk Grove pitching on Sunday, jumping out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Schoenfelder was on the mound for Fair Oaks, sending Elk Grove down in order in the first and striking out three in the second inning after a leadoff hit. In the bottom of the second, first baseman Eric Henrikson led off with a home run over the left field fence to give Post 383 a 1-0 lead. The next two batters recorded outs, but then Schoenfelder walked and shortstop Dennis Hunt doubled over the head of Elk Grove's right fielder, who seemed to have troubles the whole game figuring out where the ball was going to land. Schoenfelder came in to score and then catcher Shawn Lucchesi got a hit to center to score Hunt for a 3-0 game. With second baseman Reagan Reynolds at the plate, Lucchesi sole second and Reynolds wound up walking to put two runners on. Both scored as center fielder Kevin McKeown doubled to center, giving Fair Oaks a 5-0 lead.
    Elk Grove got one run back in the top of the third, but Fair Oaks came back in the bottom of the fourth to score three more runs for an 8-1 lead. Reynolds led off with a grounder to short that was bobbled slightly allowing Reynolds to beat the throw to the bag. With McKeown at the plate, Reynolds took off and McKeown slashed a hit by the shortstop sending Reynolds all the way to third. With Tews at the plate, McKeown stole second and then Tews flew to left, allowing Reynolds to tag and score for a 6-1 lead. Henrikson then doubled off the left center field fence to score McKeown and with Malchow at the plate a wild pitch sent Henrikson to third. Malchow grounded to first allowing Henrikson to come home and score Fair Oaks' eighth run of the game. Wilkerson followed with a ground rule double to right, but was left stranded as the next batter grounded out.
    Elk Grove got another run in the top of the fifth and sent a new pitcher to the mound to face Fair Oaks in the bottom of the inning. Post 383 promptly scored two more runs off the new hurler, for a 10-2 advantage. With two outs, Reynolds got a bad hop single over the head of the third baseman and then scored as McKeown tripled down the right field line. Tews followed with a ball to third that was booted allowing McKeown to come in for Fair Oaks' 10-2 lead. Tews tried to make it to second, but was out, ending the inning.
    Fair Oaks scored two more runs in the bottom of the sixth as Malchow and Wilkerson drew back-to-back walks with one out. A wild pitch with Schoenfelder at the plate advanced both runners. Schoenfelder struck out, but the next batter, Hunt bounced the ball over the fence for a ground rule double, scoring both Malchow and Wilkerson for a 12-2 lead.
    Elk Grove scored its final run of the game in the top of the seventh on a leadoff home run, but Reynolds came back in the bottom of the seventh to send the first pitch over the left field fence for his third homer of the year, giving Fair Oaks a 13-3 lead. Jim Ott came in to pitch the eighth and ninth innings, shutting out Elk Grove the rest of the way.
    PLAYOFF PICTURE: Fair Oaks appears headed toward another playoff berth, but the picture for the July 19-23 playoffs is far from being decided. Interestingly enough, if the playoffs were to begin today, second place Fair Oaks (American) would meet third place Southside (National) in the opening single-elimination round. Through some quirk in the schedule, Southside is the only team Fair Oaks will not see during the regular season. Southside sports a losing record and "just supposing," if Fair Oaks were to get past them in the opening round, Post 383 could probably make it into the championship game. In our mythical playoff matchups, Fair Oaks would then play the first place National Division team - Post 61. Post 61 did beat Fair Oaks 3-1 during the regular season, but it was during the four game span when Post 383 was without some of its top players. A win over Post 61 would probably throw Fair Oaks into a game against Citrus Heights. A win there would put them in the championship game, a loss would mean one more game - probably against a team they had already beaten, or one Citrus Heights had beaten. Assuming a win, Fair Oaks would enter the championship game and win or lose would advance to the July 26-30 Area 1 Tourney at Renfree Field. But again, the playoffs are still down the road and four teams are still battling for three playoff spots in the American Division.

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