The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Two down, six to go
Hate to see the Talk of the Town out of the playoffs so early, but they are after losing to the Rent-A-Gades Monday night at Gothic Field. Same sentiment goes out to the Tony Wildman and his band of pranksters the Wildbunch. The Wildbunch were sent packing Monday night after losing to the Tongue & Groovers.
I guess the one upside of the situation is that the Talk couldn’t have lost to a nicer group of guys in the Rent-A-Gades or a nicer team sponsor, the Wheelers, owner/operators of the Crested Butte Rental Center. The Wheelers have everything one could possibly need, to do anything one could possibly need to do. They should host their own DIY show.
Walking up to the game Rent-A-Gade Ben “Sac” Somrak gave me the blow-by-blow of what he and several others believed to be the “sickest” triple play ever at their game last week.
It went something like this.
Ground ball to Jeff Snyder at short. Snyder scoops and tags the runner headed for third, fires home to James Halsch to get the base runner trying to score from third. Halsch then guns it back out to Andrew “Butters” Butterfield covering second to make the tag there for the 6-1-4 triple play.
“Tommy V blew up,” said Sac.
Fast forward to this week and the loser’s bracket game between the Talk of the Town and the Rent-A-Gades with elimination hanging in the balance.
The Rent-A-Gades first broke down the “standards” of local slow pitch softball a couple of years ago when they put a woman on the mound.
They continue to mix it up to this day and did it again on Monday when they gave Sarah Much the pitching duties. Much has a cagey style in that there is no rhyme or reason to her strategy. While some pitchers work the corners according to the count, or mix their delivery up from a straightforward toss to a side step flick, Much just throws the ball at the plate.
Her work on the mound combined with sound defense from the Rent-A-Gades proved troublesome for the Talk all game long.
It all started in the top of the first inning. Hits from Kelly McGuire and Priscilla Banks put two runners on, with Patrick Henry Cashion at the plate.
Cashion delivered sending a deep shot to the gap in left center, but Sac chased it down and fired all the way home to beat the runner and end the top of the inning.
The Rent-A-Gades opened up the scoring the bottom of the first thanks to the work of Ball Bash Home Run Derby winner Josh Schumacher.
Statistics show that, in the majors, hitters often lose their power following the home run derby. Not so in the case of Schumacher, who stepped up to the plate to crush, and I mean crush, a three-run shot over the leftfield fence for a 3-0 Rent-A-Gades lead.
The Talk defense clamped down following the dinger led by Cashion at short. Cashion chased down a pop fly in shallow center to make the grab and fire to first for a double play.
Then, with two runners on, Cashion leapt up to rob the Gades of a base hit RBI nipping just enough of the ball to pull it down with the tip of his glove and end the inning.
Joe Wright tacked on a fourth Rent-A-Gades run in the bottom of the third inning scoring Snyder with a RBI single but the Talk is typically good for at least one offensive outburst.
Eric “Turbo” Ervin looked to spark said outburst in the top of the fifth inning, blasting a solo shot over left but the impending rally ended before it could start as the Rent-A-Gades turned a 6-4-3 double play.
The women sealed the deal for the Rent-A-Gades in the final two innings, as Andrea (Schultz) Schumacher cracked a two RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning for a 6-1 Rent-A-Gades lead.
Peace Wheeler followed suit in the bottom of the sixth inning with a two RBI double, and the Rent-A-Gades defense did the rest to finish the Talk for good 10-1.
