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Weekly Recap: Bananas Start 2nd Half of the Season with Colossal Crowds in Week Full of Wins

Written by Biko Skalla:

 

The Bananas went 19-3 in the first half of the season, clinching the CPL’s first playoff spot as the best team in the league. The only thing that changed in the first week of the second half was the crowds, who continued to grow as the guys kept on winning. A 3-0 week of league play, plus a return to Banana Ball for an exhibition with the Catawba Valley Stars made for a wild week of action.

The guys closed the first half with a sweep of a doubleheader in Lexington County on Saturday, got Sunday and Monday off, and then welcomed the very same Blowfish into Historic Grayson Stadium to kick off the second half on Tuesday. As at it should be each and every evening (yes I mean even when there isn’t a game going on), it was Bark in the Park night, and obviously the team had to introduce their bat dog to all the puppers who came for the game…

Tyler, You Haven’t Seen Anything Until You’ve Seen People Speaking in Tongues in a Backwoods Oklahoma Church, Gillum, and Corey, I Wish I Could Wear My Fourth of July Outfit Once a Week Throughout the Year, Pye, called on Nathan, I Get More Fired Up When I Nail the Player Dance Than If I Escape a Big Jam on the Mound, Dettmer, to start. The freshman out of College Station continued to absolutely shove on the mound, only giving up 3 hits over 5 scoreless innings and was honestly a great teammate too, only striking out 1 Blowfish batter so his boys behind him could have some fun and record the other 14 outs. The terrific outing brought him to 16 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched for the Bananas, with only 1 earned run for a very modest 0.50 ERA.

He didn’t have to sweat on the mound either, as the Bananas went buck wild with a 7 run 2nd inning. The scoring began with a Ty, I was Born to Play for the Bananas, Jackson, 2 run single, bringing home Bryson, I Swear I’ll Stop Cursing When You Put Me in Videos, Bloomer, and Tristan, Yeah I’ve Played in the Rogers Centre Twice but I’m Really Not a Big Fan of Toronto as a City, I Mean It’s Not Even the Capital and They Think They Get to Run the Whole Country, Peters, which led to a wild ride for Bryson through the stands…

The exclamation point on the scoring onslaught was a Danny, I Can’t Believe Strickland Just Thought This Had a Chance to go Out, Oberst, who clubbed a no-doubt 3 run homer for his team high 3rd bomb of the summer…

With a 7-0 lead, Maceo and the lads did their best One Direction impersonation which in hindsight was basically the nail in the coffin for Lexington County…

The Nanners got an insurance run when Jesse, I Want My Mullet Back, Sherrill, drove in Ty with an RBI single in the 4th. Andrew, I’m the Best Color Commentator on This Team, Armstrong, and Nolan, Honestly I Feel Like My Hair is Slept on When People Are Discussing the Best Do’s Here, Daniel, each gave up one run while combing for 7 strikeouts over 4 innings of relief as the Bananas won 8-2, improving to 20-3 on the summer. Christian, Mine As Well Call Me Avatar Cause My Slider is an Airbender, Dearman, did some serious investigative reporting and got the low down from fans on their thoughts on the ballgame…

60 Minutes worthy level of journalism. With the guys off on Wednesday, they had an evening practice and then a video shoot for the Sandlot scene that went out this morning!

Unfortunately, there was a riff in the locker room before the game against the Bacon on Thursday as some say a prank was taken too far…

Once the ball was removed from the Jell-O, Ryan, Opposing Hitters’ Bats Are Basically Made of Jell-O Right Now, Kennedy, tossed 4 scoreless frames (what else is new), giving up just 3 hits while striking out 5. Basically all the Bananas pitchers’ stats are bonkers right now, but Kennedy probably takes the cake with his 18.2 innings thrown on the summer without giving up an earned run and striking out 25. Woof!

Once again it did not take long for the Nanners to get the bats rolling. In fact, Cole, All I do is Hit, (At Least When I’m Not Pitching, Because Obviously I’m Pitching at That Point in Time, but When I’m Not Pitching I Think it is Fair to Say That All I do is Hit), Kitchen, wasted not a moment at all, lining the first pitch he saw for a leadoff double in the bottom of the 1st. What followed was an Eduardo, The Skis, The Skis, We Do As We Please, Malinowski, single, Danny got plunked to load the bases, and then Livan, Cole’s Not Gonna be the Only 2-Way Player on the Team by the End of the Week, Reinoso, lined a 2 run single to left. Then Bryson singled, setting up a Bill, Man I Had Some Great Moments This Week Why Does This Have to be the First Time I’m Mentioned, Knight, strikeout (sorry Bill). Clarno walked to load the bases and Bill, I Swear Nanner Fishing Really Works, Leroy, promptly unloaded the bags with a bases clearing double. The fun was far from over though, as Drew, You Should Probably Take Your Starting Pitcher Out Now, Yniesta, knocked the Macon starter out of the game with an RBI single, and then Cole greeted the new arm with an RBI single to bring in Drew who had stolen 2nd (yes that was his 2nd hit of the 1st inning).

The boys took an inning off before plating 4 more Bananas in the 3rd, highlighted by a 2 run triple from Eduardo and capped off by a Danny RBI single.

The Nanners then got scoreless innings from Jared, The Biggest Birthday Boy in Chatham County, Beck, Dylan, Yawl Better Lookout for the Privateers Next Spring, Cunningham, and Davis, The Funny Thing is I Have Way More 2-Way Experience than Kitch or Livan so I Should Probably be Getting Some At-Bats Here, Hare. That set up Bloomer, who in front of over 4,000 fans, (by far the most since 2019), lined a gapper to right center field to bring home Danny, securing the 12 run mercy rule victory and improving his squad to 21-3. I was able to track down Bryson on the pedicab after the game to get his thoughts on the victory…

Also worth noting, Eduardo was 3-5 with a triple, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, once again confirming the Bananas Unpeeled bump, as Eddie’s podcast came out the day before his big day at the dish. It was hard hitting stuff, especially the deep dive we took into his fart into the mic…

On Friday, the Bananas had to ship up to Spartanburg, a troublesome task seeing as the last Friday trip to Historic Duncan Park took 7 hours. Luckily, traffic wasn’t close to as devastating and it ended up being just a pinch over 5 (could be much worse!). It was Joe, Man Am I Excited that Luigs is Pitching in an Exhibition This Week so I Can Finally Enjoy Leading the League in Strikeouts for More Than a Day or Two, Miller, on the mound. Joe was pure electricity as per usual, throwing 5 shutout innings and only allowing 1 hit while striking out 6 to leap frog Kyle again and take a 40-38 strikeout lead atop the league.

The Nanners pushed their first run across on a 2 out RBI single by Livan in the 3rd inning, bringing home his Erskine teammate, Drew who had led the inning off with a base knock. The big time insurance came in the top of the 6th inning, as Zane, I Could Probably Pass as a 15 Year Old, Denton, bombed an RBI double to right center field bringing home Tristan. Then with 2 outs, Clarno, Yniesta, and Turner, “This is a Pretty Decent Time to Dial up My First Hit of the Summer, Right?”, Pruitt, all stroked 2 out singles (“back to back to back, and belly to belly to belly!” – John Sterling voice) to push the lead to 5-0.

I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but that was more than enough for Quinn, I Hope the Coaches Know I Nearly Hit .400 in Legion Ball Incase They Ever Need a Pinch Hitter, Mason, and Matthew, The Mellow Fellow, Steidl, both threw 2 scoreless innings of relief, Steidl striking out 4 and Mason striking out 3, as the Bananas improved to an satisfactory 22-3 on the season.

That set us up for the first Banana Ball game on Saturday since the Premier Series in March! They were the same Fourth of July jerseys the guys sported on Thursday night, but they got a hype video this time around because they were all being auctioned off during the game…

As enormous as the crowd was on Thirsty Thursday, they went over that mark again on Saturday night, as the line to get in before gates even open at 5:30 was pretty bonkers…

The boys were facing off against the Catawba Valley Stars, led by the great Marvin Speaks who created the Stars back in 1983, making them the oldest Summer Collegiate Baseball Team in North Carolina. Shoutout to Coach Speaks and his squad, because between Kyle, I Cannot Believe My Strikeouts Tonight Won’t Count for the League Stats, Luigs, and the Catawba Valley pitchers working incredibly quickly too, it was by far the fastest game of Banana Ball I have ever seen. We cruised through the fist 5 innings in less than 50 minutes. Just absurd! Kyle in his own right was magnificent, throwing 5.2 scoreless frames while striking out 6 and allowing only 1 hit.

The Nanners drew first blood in the 2nd inning, when Clarno, going full psycho mode into the box, (Stone Cole Steve Austin-ing two Banana Cream Sodas, smashing his bat in half over his knee just to grab a new one, and swinging that new lumber with a scowl on his face and a new Gary Sheffield-esque stance), lined a 2nd inning walk off single to right field to bring home Eduardo and give the Bananas a 1-point lead. It was still just 1-0 until the 6th when Eddie walked home Bryson from 1st base to walk off the inning. In the 7th it was Clarno all over again, mad as can be in the box, tattooing an RBI double off the left field wall to bring home Tristan and take a 3-0 lead. The Stars would scratch a point off in the 8th off Dearman who walked a pair with 2 outs, which is basically an automatic run in Banana Ball. They would get one more point on 2 runs scored in the 9th, although one was unearned off of Livan who was making his first Nanners appearance on the mound and honestly looked pretty darn sharp. Andrew Armstrong came in to record the final out, as the 9-inning game wrapped up in an insanely fast 1 hour 45 minutes, and then it was fireworks time after the Bananas 3-2 victory.

Some of the wildness of the evening included two proposals (both successful, phew), as well as Danny being Clarno’s personal bat caddy at home plate, Nick also fielding a grounder at 1st base with his barehands because his glove was in his mouth, (he was quite sure Kyle was gonna strike the guy out), Drew taking an at-bat shirtless (the crowd LOVED it), and three crazy run celebrations with twists I never saw coming. It was pure action packed fun from start to finish, and I was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the broadcast. Here are the two successful proposals for a nice heartwarming wind down from the mayhem of it all…

And here is the real treat to end the weekly recap on the right note: an electric look at the sights and sounds of the evening…

The Bananas pack their bags and head to Macon today, for a July Fourth showdown with the Bacon. I’ll be there ready to rock and roll with a 6:50pm pregame show, as the Nanners try to win their 6th straight CPL game and continue to dominate the Race for the Golden Spork!

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