The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
What’s the “slaughter rule” again?
Every season, for one reason or another, there seems to be some confusion over the rules. Monday night’s game between the LoBar and the Tongue & Groovers was yet another example of said confusion, when the LoBar erupted for a two-out rally in the bottom of the first inning to take a 12-0 lead.
The confusion surrounded the “mercy rule,” or, as one LoBar player called it, the “slaughter rule.”
According to local slow pitch softball rules there is a 10-run limit the first five innings of the game and it is the responsibility of the team at bat—that is, the one with the scorebook—to alert the umpires once 10 runs have been scored.
Seeing that it’s early in the season, the oversight was somewhat understandable.
At any rate, it was an error-filled, hit-and-run extravaganza in the bottom of the first inning as the LoBar rattled off 11 base hits to build the 12-0 lead.
Ronnie Hughes and Melissa Neuner opened the rally with line-drive RBI singles. Ella Fahrlander stroked a RBI double and Michael Villanueva cracked a two-RBI single up the middle.
But perhaps the hit of the inning came from Brigid Piccaro. Piccaro suffered a broken bone in her ankle after winning the women’s open class skateboard competition in Nederland two weeks ago. Adorned in a cast and boot, Piccaro played the first two innings of the game and stepped up to the plate with two outs to tap a bloop single, keeping the rally alive.
Five base hits and seven runs later, someone finally inquired about the score and the inning was called.
The following two innings proved fairly uneventful as the LoBar appeared content to sit on a 12-0 lead and the Tongue & Groovers appeared to have folded.
The LoBar added two more runs in the bottom of the third, including a blast from Stephanie Clark that caught the outfielders in close, resulting in a RBI double and a 14-0 lead.
The Tongue & Groovers finally found their stroke at the plate, mounting a comeback over the fifth and sixth innings. Adam Ofstedahl and Lavada Bramlitt connected for back-to-back base hits to drive in three runs in the top of the fifth inning.
The Tongue & Groovers then added six more runs in the top of the sixth. A series of base hits by Rebecca Weil, Joe Erickson and Adrienne Weil loaded the bases for Davo Moore. Rather than swinging at junk in a panicked effort to drive in much-needed runs, Moore bided his time at the plate and took the walk to push in two more runs.
Joan Stevens and Chris Eaton combined for base hits to score two runs and by the bottom of the sixth inning the Tongue & Groovers had cut the LoBar lead from 14 down to five.
At this point, the game could have gone one of two ways. Either the Tongue & Groovers defense shuts down the LoBar hitters and returns to the plate to complete the comeback for the win, or the LoBar wakes up and puts the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth inning.
Fueled by a two-dollar watermelon from Walmart, the LoBar followed the latter route, scoring three insurance runs in the bottom of the inning on six base hits for the 17-9 win.
