Crackers hold off Poochie’s Revenge

Rec league playoffs start Tuesday, August 4

Poochie is a dog and Poochie was neutered. The expression on his face says it all per his attitude toward his situation. As a result the team dedicated their season to avenge Poochie’s loss, named themselves Poochie’s Revenge and picked blaze orange as their team color.
The rally cry for poor Poochie worked for the first two weeks of the season, as the team  opened the year with a 2-1 record. Since then they’ve lost nine in a row, including a couple of forfeits, and are alone at the bottom of the rec league standings.
Tuesday night, they almost forfeited their third game of the year, with five players at the field to face the Crackers.
Fortunately three more strolled in 15 minutes later and they opted to play the Crackers with eight—four men and four women—and thus avoid both the forfeit as well as the mandatory automatic outs.
Poochie’s Revenge opened the game with a two-out, three-run rally in the top of the first inning. Julie Frerichs sparked Poochie’s early offense with a single turned error-assisted double.
Mark Nesemeier drove Frerichs home with a single and a walk loaded the bases for Geaff Warran. Warran cracked a two RBI single and all of sudden the shorthanded squad was up on the third-placed Crackers 3-0.
As we all know though, a three-run lead is nothing in slow pitch softball, especially when the leading team has just eight players in the field and the Crackers’ big hitters were nearly drooling at the vast amount of open acreage in the outfield.
The top of the Crackers’ batting order struggled to find the gaps, going scoreless through the bottom of the first but the middle and bottom of their batting order found some seams to knock in two runs in the bottom of the second inning.
Greg Gull slapped a triple to the gap in right center and Garth Brown followed suit, scoring Gull with a triple to nearly the exact same spot. An infield RBI single scored another run and put two runners on with one out.
Danielle Langlois tagged a line drive bound to die somewhere in the expansive outfield but Nesemeier flagged down the hit with a reaching grab and tossed to second for the double play to end the inning.
As the team jogged in off the field, a realization hit one of their players.
“We’re winning, that doesn’t happen very often,” said one player. Then, without hesitation, he hollered to his teammate jogging to the Wine House to pick up supplies to celebrate their lead.
“Can you get me a forty of something?”
Poochie’s continued to amaze both themselves and the crowd, scoring three more runs in the top of the third inning.
Warran and Nikki Creed tapped base hits and Pete Harvey drove them in with a triple to left field. Ben Payson punched a RBI double through and Poochie’s Revenge was sitting on a 6-3 lead, and the beer was flowing freely.
“It’s a pivotal moment when the beer shows up,” said Nesemeier. “Good or bad.”
It started out pivotal in a good way as the Poochie’s defense held the Crackers scoreless in the bottom of the third inning, but then turned pivotal in a bad way in the bottom of the fourth.
Hailee Stanley ignited a five-run Crackers outburst with a RBI double and Langlois capped it with a two RBI error-assisted single to put the Crackers on top 7-6.
The Crackers defense tightened up in the top of the fifth, highlighted by an over-the-shoulder grab by ultimate player-turned-rookie softball sensation Lizzy Plotkin.
Plotkin followed up her defense with a lead off power-bunt single and then scored on a double off the left field fence from Mike Stanley.
Robyn Estes tapped a RBI single and Gull drove two more runs in to build an 11-6 Crackers lead.
Brandon Snyder caught the Revenge outfield playing shallow to swat a RBI triple to right and Plotkin struck again on offense for a RBI single and the Crackers were on top 13-6 heading into the seventh.
Determined to avenge Poochie’s testicular demise, Poochie’s Revenge assembled some offense for a late-game rally.
Harvey and Heather Perry singled, Payson drove a run in with a double to center, and some crafty base running off a pop fly led to another run.
Nesemeier pulled Poochie’s Revenge to within four with only one out with a RBI infield single but the Crackers turned the next two outs in a row for the 13-9 win handing Poochie his, or rather it’s, team their 11th loss of the year.
Regardless, at least they’ve got their name picked out for next year already—the Revenge of Poochie’s Revenge.