By Dave Hoffenberg
Things are really heating up as the regular season cools down. The Killington Resort Team handed Garlic McGrath’s its first loss since June 8. It’s a significant loss because it gave the resort team the tie-breaker over G.M. in its head-to-head series now being 2-1 in favor of K.R. Congrats to K.R. for taking their first ever number one seed. The last time these teams met, G.M. took the low scoring affair 9-6 and K.R. took the high scoring one 20-18. It seems that high is where K.R. likes to be as this time they won 21-15. It was a great start for both team with each scoring four runs in the first. K.R’s Nate “The Stud” Stoodley blasted a three-run shot in that. K.R. went down 1-2-3 in their next ups but G.M. rolled along with six more runs; two of those behind a bases-clearing triple from Zach “Cookie” Cook. K.R. batted through their order in the third with a singles hit parade to tie it at 10-10. G.M. could not match that and went scoreless with a “Cold Beer K” by Denel Mcintire. K.R. was on fire and kept the hit-parade going. All G.M. could do was wave and watch it go by. K.R. exploded for six more runs with three of those off a monster home run by Evan Anderson. Cliff Melendy drove in a run to make it 16-11. K.R. could not be slowed down. Manager Matt Kinsman drove in two of his team’s four runs in the fifth to stretch their lead 20-11. G.M. scored two in the fifth and two in the sixth to reduce the deficit to 20-15. Coach Jeremy Prior drove in the two runs in the sixth. K.R. added one to make it 21-15 but Kinsman also struck out and added a “CBK” to his stats. G.M. had no answer and suffered the loss.
The Resort kept things rolling with wins over Clearly Moguls and the Killington Deli to end their regular season at number one. The C.M. game featured substitute pitchers on both sides with Justin “Bad Boys, Bad Boys” Guth for K.R. and Jeremy “Jackie Blue” Livesey for C.M. The game started out tight and ended with K.R. blowing it wide open. It was tied 7-7 after four innings. Guth lead off the fifth with a big “Cold Beer K” looking and then the team followed with outs. DJ Dave Hoffenberg led off the fifth with a foul out but his team was able to take the lead 8-7 when Neal “Fly Like A Birdie” Giberti drove in a run. The wheels fell off the blue wagon for C.M. in the sixth when K.R. fired up the hit machine and batted through their order for 11 runs. K.R. took this one 21-11. Jackie Blue was able to add “CBK’s” to Corey Stearns looking and Matt Peters with a foul-out. Guth was able to foul-out “Tall” Tom Gilligan in back-to-back at-bats.
The Resort started out hot against the Deli who came out colder than Vermont in January. The first inning was base-hit city and an error parade. K.R. scored eight runs and never looked back. The Deli’s Phil O’Brien had a ball pop right out of his glove for one error and then Keith “Bubba” Lazarczyk was burned with a double over his head. They had that lead up to 11-0 in the third off of two nice looking sacs. The Deli’s Craig Brothers was a “D” machine in that inning catching all three outs. The Deli finally got on the board in the bottom of third when Chris “Alfie” Alf blasted a home run driving in Rob “Rambo” Ranberg for his team’s only runs of the game. Things got confusing in the fourth with the old “How Many Outs Do We Have” game. Nobody knew and teams were leaving and coming but in the end there was no confusing a 12-2 mercy loss for the Deli.
Clearly Moguls blew the doors off the Outback with an 18-1 four inning mercy win. Ronzoni Hacker delivered a “CBK” to their very first batter, Forrest Baker. Steve “Wheels” O’Neil, although getting shelled, was able to deliver two “CBK’s” to Russell “The Love Muscle” Dalglish swinging and looking. Brett “Mr. Pink” Regimbald went yard on the short porch in right. Hunter Pike had a three run inside-the-park home run and Tucker joined him with a two run. The Outback had a bright spot in outfielder Jonathan White who robbed Tucker Zink with a leaping web gem catch. C.M. may have found another ace in the rotation since Regimbald came in for relief and shut the door. He gave up no hits, no runs and two walks for the best E.R.A. on the team. O’Neil had a chance at a hit as he shot one right back at Regimbald but he snagged it and sent O’Neil packing. They completed the season sweep but the Outback put up a fight this time and kept it low scoring at 7-1. Maybe that was because new pitching ace Forrest Baker was on the mound? Daglish snapped out of his slump going two for two with a walk and two runs scored. Jackie Blue pitched this game and set the tone early when he struck out the very first batter, Jonathan White, looking. He delivered two more “CBK’s” with one of those being to Baker. DJ Dave suffered his first strike out of the season at the hands of Baker who also delivered a foul out to Jeremy “12-Pack-Jack” Livesey who got the win. Regimbald came in for relief but was pulled after he couldn’t get the first batter out. His era is still at zero because it was later charged an error. Judd “Relief Ace” Washburn came in and shut them down 1-2-3.
The Killington Deli solidified their number four seed with a 5-1 win against Max team. There were a lot of “CBK’s” to go around in this one. The Deli’s Chris Alf, Matt “Ajax” Anderson and Rob “Rambo” Ranberg all suffered one. Ajax was “En Fuego” on the mound limiting Max Team to only a couple of hits. The Deli added one more win over Max Team last Wednesday to complete the season sweep. This game was closer than the score 7-1. Max Team had the first lead 1-0 in the second and had a chance for more but the guy with the best name in the league, Xavier Van Den Boogaard, or XVDB for short, struck out with two on to end the inning. Things got worse for XVDB in the third when Anderson burned him with a shot over his head for a bases clearing triple. The connection of the game was Anderson to Pete Melluzzo. They had four attempts at a double-play. Three of those they just missed getting the runner at first. In the sixth they finally beat the runner but Nathan Brady Crain dropped the ball and they came up empty on double-plays but they got the win.
Garlic McGrath’s ended their season with two big mercy wins over the Deli (20-6) and the Outback.
Final regular season standings:
Killington Resort 13-2
Garlic McGrath’s 13-2
Clearly Moguls 10-5
Killington Deli 5-10
Max Team 3-12
Outback Wolf Pack 1-14
Schedule:
Wednesday, July 27
Winner’s Bracket Game 6:30 p.m. Killington
Loser’s Bracket Games 5:50 p.m./7 p.m. Bridgewater
Post Game Party w/ Drink Specials and Giveaways at Outback Pizza 8-11 p.m.
Monday, Aug. 1
Loser’s Bracket Games 5:50 p.m./7 p.m. Killington
Wednesday, Aug. 3
Best of Three Championship 5:50 p.m./7 p.m. Killington
