Crackers defeat Gas Holes to move into rec league semi-finals

Gas Holes sent to losers bracket

It’s nothing new for the Gas Holes—the loser’s bracket, that is. They’ve been there before in the post-season. In fact, every year the Gas Holes have won the rec league title, they did it the hard way, battling their way out of the losers bracket to emerge as champions.

But I can’t imagine that’s their post-season strategy. I would think they want to win every game. Regardless, there was nothing they could have done to deny the Crackers the win Tuesday at Gothic field. The Crackers were ready, willing and more than able to take on any team that evening.
One key to the Crackers win may have been the line-up player/manager/coach Brandon Snyder drew up prior to the game. After writing in names and scratching them off several times, he finally settled on the batting order and it turned out to be nearly perfect.
First and foremost, as fate and talent would have it, lead-off hitter Shawn Harrington actually led-off three of the seven innings. Furthermore, the Crackers scored 11 of their 13 runs in those three innings.
Pure genius, or at least part genius.
The Crackers opened the game scoring four runs in the top of the first. Harrington started it with an opposite field triple and scored on a single by Kat Sauter.
Robyn Estes and Fred Garth connected for RBI base hits before the Gas Holes defense turned a tricky 6-3-2 double play to alleviate some of the early game jitters. Actually, that’s wrong—they looked more asleep than jittery.
Nevertheless, Mike Stanley drove in a fourth run for the Crackers and their defense held the Gas Hole to one hit and no runs through the first two innings to build a 6-0 lead.
John Hopper broke the ice for the Gas Holes in the bottom of the third inning, stretching a single for an inside-the-park home run (ITPHR) but a leaping grab by the Crackers third baseman would put an end to the first of three Gas Hole comeback attempts.
The Crackers defense came up big again in the bottom of the fourth inning as Rick Barnard, playing three ribs short of a full cage, made a leaping grab at short to deny Stephanie Clark a base hit. Eric M.F. Beavers charged in on a pop fly for a basket catch in shallow center, and a foul-out left the Gas Holes scoreless again for the third inning out of the first four.
The Crackers tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth inning, with Harrington in the lead-off spot. After slapping a single, Harrington scored on a base hit from Ribs Barnard. Chaos in the Gas Holes infield resulted in an out, but another Crackers run and Garth capped the insurance run rally with a sac fly RBI to put the Crackers on top 9-1.
Still, as anyone who follows rec league softball knows, when the Gas Holes rally, things can get ugly and the bottom of the fifth came perilously close. Betsy LeClair roped a RBI single, Gail Barto singled and Chris Spagnoletti slapped a base hit to center to load the bases with one out.
Keitha Kostyk popped a RBI single to shallow left to score one run but the Crackers turned the force at home on the next batter to slow the Gas Holes machine down.
A walk scored another Gas Holes run, but the second of three Gas Holes comebacks fell short as a grounder was flipped to third base for the force-out, ending the inning and leaving the Gas Holes down 9-4.
The Crackers scored two more in the top of the sixth, capitalizing on a couple of walks, and the Gas Holes added two more in the bottom of the sixth to keep the Crackers lead at five runs heading into the seventh inning.
But Harrington led off again for the Crackers in the top of the seventh inning with a base hit. Barnard cracked a ground rule double and Estes drove in a run with a sacrifice hit. Snyder tapped a RBI single and the Crackers took a 13-6 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Gas Holes threatened one last time as Jessica Johnson and Ian Baird drove in runs with base hits, but a rally just wasn’t in the works that evening as the Crackers defense proved determined to advance, sealing the 13-8 win.