BSL Nights 2020 - Week 2 Recaps

Welcome back to the action everyone! With week 1 in the books and teams starting to realize their strengths/weaknesses their was a lot of good softball and a lot of clutch hitting. Teams seem to match up equally in terms of skill now the question is, how will the teams utilize their strengths and gain an advantage over one another? Does your team have what it takes?

We’ve got some hot Recaps for you below. Enjoy!

 Medina @ Lahore

 Lahore played host to the Medina in our first game and as expected this game started off with a bang. Sulemann “The Hammer” Mann stepped out to the plate and crushed a solo Homer to get Medina started. Immediately after that, Hamid Malik stepped into a 3 run homer padding Medina’s lead. Medina went on to mercy Lahore in that inning only to have Lahore came out and tie the game! Ismail Kara showed why Lahore picked him 2nd overall as he smashed a giant homer into LF finishing with 3 on the night (You owe us 3 lost softballs buddy!!). Omar Khatab complemented that clean up job with a solo smash of his own and that followed by a “solo shlam” by Shamil Khadaroo. 14 run scored in just the first innings. Now that’s what I’m talking about!! Medina’s offensive party continued as IQ Smash launched a HR to RF followed by an Aslam Abdullah HR to RF (first of his BSL career) pulling in 5 runs to Lahore’s 1.  Balls were just flying out of the park in this game as the wind was carrying everything.

Medina eventually separated themselves from Lahore and managed to gain a comfortable lead 18 to 11 going into the final inning (short game as game was called after 5 innings). With Medina up 6, they were looking to close out this game but Lahore had some plans.  They came out guns blazing as Nirvaan Latif and Ismail Kara smashed a pair of homers to bring this game within reach but Medina was able to hold off the onslaught as they ended Lahore’s night 1 run short of a tie. Bad guys take this one 18-17. With Medina’s offense flowing, their defense is getting bailed out game after game. Medina is looking to separate themselves and take that top spot but if they don’t figure out their defensive woes, they wont be enjoying this success for much longer. Lahore has got some serious fire power and have fallen just short in a couple of games being edged out by a run but we expect these guys to go on a serious run as they do every season. Question is, will history repeat itself or is Lahore ready to make a deep playoff run?

 Final Score: Medina 18     Lahore 17

 Game Highlights: 

• Sulemann “The Hammer” Mann with a solo homerun and 3 RBI’s
• Hamid “Super hot shot AGM” Malik with a run homerun
• Imran Qureshi AKA IQ Smash continues to take the league by surprise with another couple of HR’s and 6 RBI’s
• Aslam Abdullah with a homerun to RF and 3 RBI’s
• Omer Chaudhry with a solo homerun
• Abdul Murrad 3/3 with 2 RBI’s, 2 doubles and excellent play at SS
• Tanseer Khawaja – 2 for 2 and a double. Controlled the mound well on a windy night
• Ismail Kara – 3 Homeruns with 8 RBI’s
• Omar Khatab – 2 solo Homeruns
• Nirvaan Latif – Massive homerun in the final inning helping Lahore comeback. 4/4, 3 RBI’s
• Shamil Khadaroo – homerun with 2 RBI’s
• Zia Beg – Excellent pitching on a windy night
• Medina’s quote of the day “What did you have for breakfast today” - Total of 14 Homeruns in this game from 9 different batters

 

Damacus @ Medina

 In our 2nd game of the double header Medina was flying high coming into this game with 2 wins in a row looking to get some revenge on Damascus. Damascus was coming off a hard loss where they so nearly tied the game, rallying to bring the game within reach with just 1 out remaining.  As the home team, Medina took the field first and got butchered by the high powered offense of Damascus putting up 6 runs courtesy of a Safwan Khan power shot to the parking lot. Medina took to bat and immediately picked up 2 outs, expecting the inning to come to a quick close, guys were preparing to get back on defense only for the bats to catch fire and somehow find a way to mercy Damascus. The next few innings were quiet for Medina… like really quiet as they put up goose eggs while Damascus slowly added to their lead every inning. Fast forward to the 4th inning where Damascus put up 3 runs to extend their lead to by 6, that’s when the Medina’s bats woke up. Sulemann Mann smashed a big time double bringing in an RBI, Down to 2 outs, Medina rallied and pulled in 6 runs knotting this game up going into the 5th. With that momentum, Medina shut Damascus down and jumped back in the dug out where it seemed like they were dowsing themselves in kerosene because Medina came out on fire! Omer Chaudhry smoked one out of the park for a solo run but then the next couple of batters were quickly called out leaving Medina to rally yet again. As Medina tried to break the tie they had scored 3 runs with 2 runners on base. Aslam Abdullah was up and sitting at a full count when he connected on a perfect pitch and launched that ball into parking lot as he brought in 3 runs with his clutch shot. That would prove to be an important hit as it would stand as the game winner. Damascus had 1 more inning to erase a 6 point deficit. Playing from behind, Damascus fought hard putting up runs and getting batters on base. For a moment it looked like Medina couldn’t stop the offensive onslaught as 4 runs were brought in with just 2 more to tie but for a second game in a row Damascus couldn’t complete the comeback. Hats off to them as they fought hard both games and showed how resilient they can be.  Although this counts as a loss for Damascus, I think both games helped this team build character and realize that despite the losses, they are one of the best all round teams. just because they fell short today, doesn’t mean they wont learn from this. With Captain Safwan Khan and the 2nd best Chaudhry in the league (just kidding buddy) they are being lead by 2 of the best hitters in the league. Can Damascus rally behind Captain Safwan and turn things around in week 3? Can Medina keep up this offensive pace? Only time will tell as we wrap up yet another successful week of softball

 Game Highlights: 

• Imran Qureshi – 3/3, 4 RBI’s
• Omer Chaudhry – Solo Homerun
• Aslam Abdullah – Game winning Home run – 4 RBI’s
• Mo Kala – finally making his presence felt – 2 Doubles, 4 RBI’s
• Jay “The Mechanic” Ahmed – Rock solid in RF with some nice catches
• Umair Ashraf – 1/1, RBI
• Fawad Shaikh – 1/2, 2 RBI’s
• Sunny – Great play at SS with some nice throws to home
• Tanseer Khawa – Excellent pitching to go with his 2/3 at bat and 1 RBI
• Suleman Mann with a very timely Double – 3/3, 1 RBI
• Aatif Parvez – 2/3, double, 1 RBI
• Safwan Khan – Homerun and 4 RBI’s and excellent catches in the OF
• Hassan Chaudhry – Homerun and 4 RBI’s
• Excellent pitching by Abbas Allidiina – 3/4 at bat with 3 RBI’s
• Imran Merchant – 3/4 and a double
• Hassan Afzal – Big time double with 2 RBI’s
• Farooq Sani – 2/3, 2 RBI’s
• Riyad Ramjaun - 2/3 at bat and a walk

 

Cordoba @ Lahore

With Lahore starting the season with three straight losses they felt this game was a must win. Lahore only has one win against Cordoba in the past 3 seasons so the odds were already against them. The game started with Cordoba putting up 4 hours courtesy of back to back smashes from Ahmad ‘Crazy’ Ammad and Bilal Javed. Lahore chipped away in the bottom half of the first inning with a towering shot by Omar Khattab (first of 4 home runs this game – yes you read that right – 4 home runs!). Zia Beg continued to be a calming force on the mound with stellar pitching, and helped his own cause by going 3/3 with 2 doubles and 1 RBI. Cordoba continue to chip away at Lahore’s lead with a home run by Zain Khiji to get them within 1 run. Lahore broke it wide open in bottom of the 4th inning with potent hitting from Shamil Khadaroo and Ismail Kara. Hamza Waheed kept Cordoba in it with strategic pitching as much as possible. Mohammed Ali Pasha showed his age and left the game with a lower body injury (just kidding brother – inshallah you are well). Lahore pulled through with a win and glad to get that monkey off their backs.

 Game highlights: 

• Omar Khattab – 4 home runs, 8 RBI (yes, 8 RBIs)
• Ismail Kara – 3 RBI
• Shamil Khadroo – 2 doubles, excellent defense
• Amir Khalil – 3/4, 3 runs
• Zia Beg – excellent pitching, 2 doubles
• Everyone on Lahore recording a hit
• Bilal Javed – 2 home runs, 2 RBI
• Ahmad Ammad – 2 home runs, 5 RBI
• Abdul Butt – improved hitting, double
• Ahmed Butt – top tier outfield defense

Cordoba @ Damacus

Damascus entered week 2 on a high, entering as the only undefeated team, while Cordoba was also on a high, fielding their entire team this week with suspensions out of the way.  Damascus started off sluggish while the high-flying offense of Cordoba was on display at the get go.  2 innings into the game and Cordoba were up 10-0 as Damascus was struggling on the mound with the hard winds blowing.  Meanwhile, Hamza Waheed was making his season debut after nursing a finger injury the past few weeks and looked stellar on the mound.  As you can expect, Bilal Javed hit his usual HR but Cordoba now looks like they have another HR hitter in Zain Malik.  Zain hit a monster HR and drove in 3 to put the boys in Yellow up.  Not to be outdone, Damascus started clawing their way back and shutting down the opponent’s offense, as the 2 teams entered the final inning with only 4 runs separating them.  Some costly errors by Damascus in the field allowed Cordoba to add another 4 as Yousaf Chaudhry had a great day at the plate going 3-4 and driving in 2.  Down 8 with 1 inning left, Damascus did everything in their power to overcome the deficit.  GM Safwan Khan led by example as always, knocking out 2 more HR’s in this game, while Abbas Allidina hit 2 more himself.  A furious comeback was 1 run short as Cordoba was able to stop the bleeding just in the nick of time winning the game by 1.  With Cordoba at full strength, their season outlook is on the rise.  Damascus on the other hand need to clean some things up defensively, but the team showed a lot of heart, making it a game at the end.

• Zain Malik with his 1st BSLN HR and driving in 3, while locking down 1st base;
• Bilal Javed driving in 6 runs on the day;
• Yousaf Chaudhry batting 2-3 with 3 RBI’s and commandeering the outfield;
• Hamza Waheed making his season debut as pitcher and striking out 3;
• Safwan Khan with 2 more HR’s to add to his season tally;
• Abbas Allidina driving in 6 and hitting 2 HR’s;
• Imran Merchant with stellar play at SS while getting on base all 4 AB’s;