Last call for the Talk of the Town in playoffs

Comp league playoffs heating up

Monday night at Gothic Field was intense, to say the least. It all started with the first game as Twaddles and the Rent-A-Gades battled through nine innings to stay alive in the playoffs. When it was all said and done, the Rent-A-Gades emerged victorious, scoring a run in the ninth inning to keep their title hopes alive and send Twaddles a twaddlin’.
Meanwhile, over at Tommy V Field, the Airheads exploited the Lobar’s short roster to win and advance to the finals and wait as four teams battle their way through the loser’s bracket.
Monday night’s excitement came to a climax back at Gothic Field as the Talk of the Town looked to boot the Wine-Os back to the gutter.
How either of these teams is on the cusp of elimination already is confusing to me, as they both bring a gang-load of talent to the field. But they are and they played like it, trading runs throughout the entire game.
The Talk struck first as Ronnie Hughes connected for a stand-up triple and then scored on a single by Connor McGuire.
The Wine-Os came right back in the bottom of the second inning, scoring runs off a hit from Gail Barto and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Snyder.
The Talk tied it up 2-2 when Scott Isensee pushed a run home with a fielder’s choice single, but the Wine-Os returned to the plate to string together a couple of base hits and retake the lead.
The Wine-Os defense shut the Talk down in the top of the third and came to the plate with bats blazing.
Molly Keating led it off with a single. Tom Consentino doubled off the fence in center and Barto popped an infield RBI single. Lindsey Antonio cracked a RBI single to put the Wine-Os up 4-3 with one out and runners on, but the Talk defense, led by Hughes at short, turned the next two outs to hold the Wine-Os in check.
It was Talk time now at the plate in the top of the fourth inning, with the top of the order set to lead off.
Kristy Miller hustled for an infield single, McGuire singled and Eric Ervin knocked his second base hit of the game to push Miller home.
Mad confusion by the Wine-Os defense gave up another Talk run and Brent Laney and Isensee each tapped two RBI base hits to cap the five-run rally and put the Talk back on top 8-4.
Speaking of confusion, things got squirrelly in the scorebook, and my note pad, over the next three innings but by the time the fog cleared, the Talk was sitting on an 11-10 lead heading into the top of the seventh.
This much I do know (cue the names): Dan Healy smacked a RBI double, Amanda Bade knocked-roped a two-RBI single, Consentino crushed a two-run shot to straightaway center, Hughes hustled his way to a two-run inside-the-park home run and Isensee put the Talk up a run with a RBI single.
The Talk then pulled off a two-out rally in the top of the seventh to add three insurance runs.
McGuire started it off with a RBI double and Ervin blasted a two-RBI double off the fence to give the Talk a 14-10 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
The Wine-O bats then caught fire one last time to stave off elimination.
Keating and Consentino led off with base hits and scored off strikes from Snyder and Mark Bortolin. A misplay gave up the game-tying run with the winning run on third and Mark Nesemeier delivered with a walk-off game-winning single to send the Talk packing and advance in the losers bracket to face the Green Robin Ball Bashers.