Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) stepped up for the Republicans when they needed it in Wednesday night’s Congressional Baseball Game against the Democrats at Nationals Park.
In the top of the first inning, with Democrats loading the bases and threatening to gain the upper hand early, Pfluger spotted a rocket down the third base line and acted. The 47-year-old congressman stretched out his glove to snag the ball, stood up, and dove for third base with a Democratic runner inbound.
Pfluger got the final out, fist pumping as he stranded several Democrats on base with the Republicans riding the momentum to a 13-2 win over the opposing party. The win is the GOP’s fifth straight in the rivalry.
The Congressional Baseball Game is a long-running annual tradition between the parties. It has been played since 1909, and the Republicans hold the all-time record.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said before the game that they sold over 30,000 tickets and raised around $2.79 million for charity.
Rep. Roger Williams (R-TX), a former player in the Atlanta Braves minor league system, coached the Republicans, while Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) led the Democrats. Before the game, Williams sardonically emphasized scoring more runs than the other team, while Sanchez believed their freshman newcomers could make a difference.
After Pfluger’s camera-snapping catch, the Republicans took advantage. They grabbed five runs in the first two innings as pitcher Rep. Chris DeLuzio (D-PA) lost control of his command in the second.
While the Democrats knocked in a pair of runs in the third inning to keep it competitive at 5-2, the GOP piled on another eight runs in the fifth and sixth innings to seal the game at 13-2.
Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), who said he threw seven strikeouts in the game, said after that he wished they would have hit the ball better but acknowledged they turned it up in the fifth and sixth innings. He added that Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), who played right field and caught a ball near the end of the game, was the most valuable player.
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Steube knows what he will do after the game, which saw both teams’ mostly middle-aged participants dart around the diamond for seven innings.
“I am going to take an ice bath tomorrow,” he said.
