Comp league opens with extra innings thriller

“Oh say can you see…”

It was another stupendous start to the local coed softball season on Monday night at Gothic Field. As the fans, all three of them at the start, milled around in the stands and the team managers worked on their line-ups, Andrew Hadley and Ali Drucker, stars of the current local musical Urinetown, stepped to the pitcher’s mound. Everyone stopped what they were doing and removed their caps as Hadley and Drucker sang The Star Spangled Banner. Nailed it, actually.
Forty-year veteran of the local leagues, Noel Adams, then took center stage to throw out the first pitch. Adams started out playing for the original Chronicle team. Played a stint in the fast-pitch league. Did some time on the Trouser Snakes, as well as several other teams over the course of his career and he’s not ready to hang it up yet. In fact, Adams is looking for a team this season if anyone is in need of a pitcher who walked just one batter and batted .700 last year. Not bad for a 65-year-old.
Once the spectacle and smoke from the fireworks show cleared, the defending comp league champions Rent-A-Gades and the Lobar opened the season with an extra-innings back-and-forth battle.
Rent-A-Gade player/manager Andrew Butterfield had some big words of inspiration for his team prior to the game.
“How about we win another title this year?” said Butterfield. “If we don’t, that’s okay, too.”
The excitement of a new season of softball was immediately evident as there was a lot of first-pitch swinging going on in the early innings of the game.
The Lobar jumped out to a 3-0 lead when Katherine Long singled and scored and Melissa Mason drove in two more runs with a single.
The two teams traded off two innings of continued first-pitch swinging, generating little offense until Kari Roberts opened the top of the fourth with a ripping single down the third-base line. Jeff Banford sprayed an opposite field single and Josh Schumacher drove in the first Rent-A-Gades run with a high pop single to shallow centerfield.
One batter later, Jerry Heal stepped to the plate to stroke a rare two-RBI double to tie the game 3-3.
Roberts and Banford teamed up again in the top of the fifth to drive in two more Rent-A-Gades runs with a couple of RBI doubles and Heal followed with a towering two run shot over the right field fence for a 7-4 Rent-A-Gades lead.
The Lobar rallied in the bottom of the sixth inning to tie it up 7-7 on a RBI single from Rick Barnard and a two-RBI triple by Dave White.
The Rent-A-Gades responded in the top of the seventh inning as Banford doubled and scored off a RBI triple by Schumacher looking to seal the win but the top of the Lobar batting order was up in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Bob Piccaro led off with a single and then scored when Michael Faktor cracked a base hit to put the winning run on third with one out. Stephanie Clark tapped a power bunt and Faktor headed home but Schumacher charged to the ball, scooped and fired home for the out to hold the tie and force extra innings.
Extra innings rules dictate that each team starts with a runner on second base and each hitter steps to the plate with a full count.
The Rent-A-Gades built a four-run lead in the top of the eighth when Heal tapped a RBI single, Justin Wheeler scored two more with a double and savvy base running by the Rent-A-Gades put them on top 12-8.
The Lobar battled back in their final at bat as Mason led off with an error-assisted RBI single. Barnard crushed a two-run home run over left to pull within one, but the Rent-A-Gades turned the next two outs and the Lobar’s lack of a fifth woman spelled their demise as they were forced to take an automatic out to end the game, falling short 12-11.