The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Da’ Birds clipped
You just have got to have a full team when it comes to comp league softball, especially when playing at Tommy V Field. The field is expansive and if you’re missing a player, it seemingly opens up the Tommy V Field exponentially. Not to mention the automatic out your team suffers when at bat.
Green Robin— a.k.a. Da’ Birds—suffered such a fate in comp league action Monday night when they faced the Lobar at Tommy V down a player.
Green Robin opened the season with a handful of wins but dropped its first game last week to the Twaddles. After putting together a massive rally to erase an 11-run deficit, they ran out of steam to lose by one run.
Monday night, they mounted a similar rally before falling prey to the pinpoint hitting of the Lobar.
Hailee and Mike Stanley connected to drive in the Lobar’s first run, followed by a sacrifice RBI by Melissa Mason. Joe Erickson cracked a solo inside the park home run (ITPHR) for Green Robin’s first run but the Lobar opened up a six-run lead in the top of the second inning.
Katherine Long led off with a single. Roland Mason tapped a base hit as well and a walk loaded the bases for Michael Faktor.
Faktor drilled a two-RBI base hit and after a couple more knocks from the Lobar hitters and a two RBI triple by Dave White, the Lobar was sitting on a 7-1 lead.
The Lobar added three more runs in the top of the third inning, capped by a RBI double by Krystle Zepp.
But it was early and Da’ Birds had been down before. They finally found their bats in the bottom of the third inning to rattle off four runs. Mikey Weil led off with a double and scored on a triple by Erickson. Laveda Bramlitt lined a RBI double to left center to drive in Erickson and Mike Lauerman and Pete Basile pushed two more “Birds” home, with base hits cutting the Lobar lead back down to five runs.
But the Lobar hitters continued to exploit Green Robin’s shortage of players in the field to score three more. Stephanie Clark and Daniel Hargrove each singled and then scored when White smashed a three-run ITPHR.
Green Robin turned their game around starting in the bottom of the fourth inning, paced by a series of base hits and a three-run ITPHR from Erickson, pulling back to within striking distance of the Lobar.
They held the Lobar scoreless through the fifth and sixth innings and with the top of their order leading off in the bottom of the sixth inning, Green Robin was set up to bust out another comeback.
Weil and Adrienne Weil put two on with no outs but Long made a play at second that, more than likely, saved the game for the Lobar.
Erickson cracked a hot grounder bound for right field but Long snapped it off the dirt and tossed to first base for the force. The Lobar defense then retired the next two hitters to get out of the jam and opened up a big ol’ can of whup in the top of the seventh inning.
The Lobar tallied four runs, including a three-run ITPHR from Rick Barnard to take a 17-9 lead. Green Robin turned the second out but the third one eluded them as the Lobar scored five more runs. Hargrove, Ian Mason and Clark each rapped RBI base hits and Lori Adair drove a two-RBI single to put the Lobar on top for good 22-9.
