July 17, 2014 Santa Clara, CA -

You can excuse the capacity crowd at the beautiful ballyard at Mission College for their mistake.  Most thought they were watching Clayton Kershaw hooking up with King Felix Hernandez in an epic pitcher’s duel.  After all, going into the 6^th inning it was still a 4-3 thriller. But Upper Bella’s pitcher was not King Felix, and the Bugbuster’s big lefty on the mound wasn’t Kershaw. It was John Garza, fresh off his “Death Ride” bicycle endurance ride from last weekend. The multi-sport star switched gears (and uniforms) and returned to the mound as if he never left. Alas, his efforts were all for naught as the Bugs in the end were downed at the hands of Upper Bella, 7-4.  This was in spite of an infield defense that turned 4 double plays in defense of the stalwart southpaw.  

Nate Johnson did his best, as he was the only home town hero to garner 2 hits. Brother Craig Johnson moved into 25^th place on the all-time Bugbuster list with his 23^rd career double. Adam Chapa had the only other extra base hit, his 13^th career Triple, tying him with the immortal Treacey Elliott for 13^th place all time. Mike Ruberte had two ribbies, Brian Soria and Matt Thirionet had 1 each.  But offensively, the Bugs were, well, offensive.

The signature moment in the game came when the once mercurial Tony Telles banged what looked like a sure base hit into right center field.  Tony may have hit that rocket a bit too hard as Upper Bella’s talented outfielder charged the hit, and came up firing.  Telles reached back across the decades to find a glimpse of his once legendary blistering speed, but came up just a bit short.  The ball and Tony’s tiny toes reached the bag at almost the same time, with the emphasis on the word “almost”.  Umpire Kirby, making up for years of umpire abuse from Tony, added a bit of extra mustard to his call : “Out at first!”

The Bugbuster bats went strangely silent last night, garnering a mere 9 hits. Despite firing a nifty 13 hitter, #00 came away with a tough luck “L”. While addressing the press after the loss, Manager Soria motioned to his team enjoying the post game spread saying “When you have more pitchers of beer on that table than hits in the box score, you know you have a problem.”  After some polite laughter, a reporter asked Soria what he thought of his team’s execution.  Soria smiled and replied “I’m in favor of it.”