B North 8/15
Softball… one of the last bastions of good humor, competition, and happiness these days where no drama ever occurs and everyone can get away from the world for an hour and 15 minutes to play in adult mens gym class for glory, pride and overcoming old age.
Game 1: Bulldogs v Birdgang
In a battle to see which team that starts with the letter “B” is better, The Birdgang took the lead early and never looked back. They capped a 3 run first inning with a James Mclaughlin dinger and added 6 more in the 2nd to build a nine run lead via the bottom of the order all reaching base and scoring. CC Witt cut into the deficit in the bottom half of the inning as he tripled and scored for the dogs. After a slow 3rd inning. The dogs would once again cut into the deficit as they plate 2 more runs in the 4th inning on singles. The use of the almighty sac fly would erase those runs though as the Birds add 2 more in the top of the 5th. Clawing back once more the Bulldogs add another run in the bottom half of the inning by way of a Mike Suda double but that would be all they can muster in this one.
FInal Score: Birdgang 11 - Bulldogs 4
Game 2: Birdgang v Misfits
Sometimes Summer softball can be super frustrating with vacations and players taking seasons off. This seems to be the case for the Misfits as they had to take 2 subs and an auto out in this one. Rico Jones scored the only run for the boys in red as they mastered the fly ball and had trouble getting runners on. The Birdgang had themselves a super slow start as well as they only had 2 runs over the first 4 innings by way of a Jason Mclaughlin dinger but they would break out in the 5th and 6th innings scoring 16 runs as nearly the whole lineup scored a run except for leadoff Anthony Ciliberto. During the torrid rally, James Mclaughlin led the way with a double and a dinger, Shawn Collins/Mark Rothenberg/Jason Mclaughlin/Alex Matteo/Andrew Hildeberg all added doubles and they would cruise.
Final Score: Birdgang 19 - Misfits 1
Game 3: Misfits v One Hit Wonders
The Misfits would fare better in this one as they smacked home 8 runs across 7 innings. Savvy veteran Walt Zolna scored 3 of the runs and smoked a double and team captain Joe Torres went off as he went 4 for 4 with three singles and a dinger. Tommy O’Neal also had a strong performance in this one as he went 3 for 3 with a sac fly. The One Hit Wonders didn’t go quietly into the afternoon though as they would plate a whopping 18 runs over 5 innings of mashing the softball. They scored 2 in the first on a Dave Ketterlinus double, 5 in the third on singles and back to back doubles from Bill Groff and Ketterlinus, 3 in the 4th on another Ketterlinus double, and 8 in the 5th by way of doubles from Luke Suida, Adam Kotchetowski and Jack Stepnowski combined with a Jesse Grasso long ball.
FInal Score: OHW 18 - Misfits 8
***Wire2Wire would win their crossover game