By DJ Dave Hoffenberg
It is hard to beat three teams in one night but Mother Nature did just that and reduced the number of games played for the top three teams. It didn’t matter to the Killington Resort team because nobody could catch them in first place. It did matter to Clearly Moguls and McGrath’s Sushi, and that led to an epic regular season ending battle for second place.
“Bus” Bob Schaffner put M.S. on the board first in the first with a fielder’s choice RBI. Pitcher “Ronzoni” Hacker kept the score 1-0 with two straight put-outs, stranding their runner at third base. Judd “The Bat is on Fire” Washburn gave C.M. the 2-1 lead with a two run scoring single. They had a chance for more but Angel Shannon hit into a double-play. The bottom of the order produced for M.S. as they regained the lead 4-2. Team veterans Jeremy “Bowling Champ” Prior and Jamie Rameau both scored a run and drove in a run. The bats quieted down for C.M. the next two innings and Russell “The Jinx Muscle” Dalglish suffered his first “Cold Beer K” in eight games. “Big” Josh Tarleton went hard for M.S. in the third for a 5-2 lead but they were held scoreless in the fourth and Rameau went out with a “CBK.” C.M. had their ups and down in the bottom of the fourth. Washburn blasted a right field home run to cut the lead 5-3. Rameau made a heck of a try for it as he caught it leaping over the fence but dropped it on his landing. They had a chance for more but Tucker “Beast Mode” Zink and Jackie “Blue” Livesey went down with back-to-back “CBKs.” C.M. turned on their defense in the fifth, shutting down M.S. 1-2-3 but could not score themselves and “DJ” Dave Hoffenberg also suffered a “CBK.” Owen “OhhhWhen” Murphy scored in the sixth to stretch the M.S. lead 6-3 and they had a chance for more but Zink made a web gem that is in the running for “Web Gem of the Year.” With runners on the corners and one out, Joe Montemurro hit a fly ball to left field that Zink caught and hurled all the way to third base for a rare double-play to end the inning. C.M. tied it 6-6 in the bottom after Will “The Retiring Thrill” Burdick hit a two run blast and Washburn added another solo homer. Zink was at it again, proving his worth as a very valuable outfielder to his team. He added another web gem in the seventh that is going to be tough to beat. It’s the best I’ve seen in my 12-year career. With a runner on first and one out, Schaffner hit a fly ball to shallow left field which appeared to be dropping but Zink made a running scooping catch and then ran all the way in to first base to get Jack Boymer out who was running to second and could not get back in time. That double-play ended the inning and the hopes for second place because Zink then scored the winning run with heads-up base running off a Hunter Pike single to give C.M. a hard fought 7-6 win.
Outback Pizza had a good and bad week as they first beat the Wobbly Barn 11-5 and then got smoked by Max Team 17-3. Versus the Wobbly, they started out strong with seven first inning runs including a big two RBI single from Rob “Rambo” Ranberg. They stretched it 9-0 in the third when Nathan “Brady” Crain showed his speed with an inside-the-park home run and then Nick Melotti scored, too. The Wobbly finally got on the board in the third with two runs but could not muster much the rest of the way. Alexis “Not The Queen” King shined in left field and scored a couple runs, too. “Rambo” added another RBI in the fifth and put the game out of reach.
Their next game saw them acting like the Wobbly as they could only muster a run here and there. That was not the case for Max team since every member of the team scored and they ran away with the mercy win.
In this league it’s been said that it’s all practice till the playoffs. Win when it counts the most. Maybe that is what the Wobbly Barn is going for since they ended the regular season 0-14. Only time will tell. Playoffs start this week. Good luck to all!
