KBUT walks past AC Tile to reach final

Gray Hares miracle run comes to an end

KBUT (90.3, 94.9 at Jack’s Cabin, 89.9 in Gunnison and online at kbut.org) punched their ticket to the rec league finals to face the Rasta Hairnets on Thursday, August 19 at Gothic Field.
It wasn’t pretty but they got it done, edging out a 5-4 win over AC Tile.
AC Tile was fresh off a win over the Gray Hares in the early game Tuesday night, bringing the Hares’ unprecedented post-season run to an end. After stomping on PooFest 12-1 for their first playoff win ever, they returned to beat the Underkochevars 6-5 and advance to the semifinals.
Gray Hare fans were out in force, banging on a variety of kitchenware in an effort to push their team past AC Tile, but AC Tile was unfazed, handing them a loss to meet KBUT in the second game.
Both teams struggled at the plate through the first two innings, playing scoreless softball. It was a bit of a pitcher’s duel, if that’s actually possible in softball.
On one side you had KBUT slinger Rich Driscol. Driscol’s modus operandi on the mound is unique to say the least. One pitch he’s stepping straight to the plate and floating high meat. The next pitch he steps to the side to throw low heat. All accented with his patented high-back leg kick.
AC Tile pitcher Charles Bond, Jr., on the other hand, is slow and steady all game long with a straight-ahead high delivery that flirts with the ceiling of what’s allowed in slowpitch softball. Bond doesn’t waste any effort with spins or arcs—he just tosses strikes that often look deep before landing on the back corner of the plate.
That said, I can only surmise that it was because of those two that the game was scoreless through two innings.
AC Tile broke the stalemate in the top of the third when Katrina Birdsall knocked in two runs with a single through the infield.
The AC Tile defense and Bond continued to shut down the KBUT hitters through the third and fourth innings, adding two more runs to their lead in the top of the fifth.
Melvin Seyfried led off with a single and Birdsall drove him home with an error-assisted RBI triple.
John Sitarz pushed Birdsall home with a double to left and AC Tile was sitting on a 4-0 lead.
KBUT’s bats finally caught fire in the bottom of the fifth inning to put together a two-out rally. Liz Ewing opened it with a single and Carson Hoff cracked a double down the left field line. Kelly Jensen pushed KBUT’s first run home with a single to left and Amy Schmidgall followed suit to cut the AC Tile lead in half.
Rob Wissing connected for a RBI single and Amelie Kastning kept the rally alive, hustling for an infield single to load the bases. Grant McFarren punched a RBI single to left field and the teams were tied 4-4 heading into the sixth inning.
Some fancy defensive work from Wissing and Shannon Dunlap highlighted KBUT’s defensive effort in the top of the sixth inning to hold the tie and Jensen walked to drive in the go ahead run in the bottom of the sixth inning.
AC Tile flirted with forcing another KBUT at bat with two on and two outs in the top of the seventh inning, but KBUT turned a routine grounder for the third out to preserve the 5-4 win and earn a spot in the rec league finals.