The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Todd Barnes suffers first major injury of the season
It’s ironic that some of the most heinous sports injuries in this town occur at softball games. There was the Pete Rinaldi broken leg, the Eric Beck and Laveda Bramlitt shattered face incidents, Josh Elmer’s broken collarbone and now Todd Barnes’ ruptured Achilles tendon.
Props out to Barnes too. When he tore his Achilles chasing a ball in the outfield he neither screamed like a little girl nor cussed out loud repeatedly, a reaction probably 90-percent of the rest of us would have had if we ruptured an Achilles tendon.
Adding insult to injury, the team he plays for/sponsors, the Avalanche, lost its first game of the season suffering a pummeling at the hands of the Whetstoners.
The Avalanche opened up the game seemingly following a fairly sound game plan for rec league play, just let the other team screw up. Fortunately, the Whetstoners capitulated. Back that up with some surgical work by Ron Chlipala on the pitchers mound and the Avalanche was sitting on a 5-1 lead after three innings.
Ian Dethloff opened the scoring for the Avalanche in the top of the first with a base hit to score mom, Maggie Dethloff.
Kelly Rasmussen led off the top of the second inning with an infield single and Perdie Linehan tapped an error-assisted to put runners in the corners for Chlipala.
Chlipala poked a RBI single to score Rasmussen for a 2-0 Avalanche lead.
The Whetstoners found some rhythm at the plate in the bottom of the second when Charlie Parr doubled and scored on a double by Zach Matthias. They soon lost it though when Linehan pulled down a foul tip behind the plate and the Avalanche responded in the top of the third with three more runs.
Scott Yost walked and scored off a hit by Mike Montano and Ian rapped an error-assisted two-run Inside the Park Home Run (ITPHR) to build a 5-1 Avalanche lead.
But the Whetstoners elevated their play on defense to cut the Avalanche off at five runs for the next two innings while their bats started catching fire.
Todd Dohlman led off roping a double to centerfield and scored when Parr connected for another base hit. Sarah Chesebrough blooped a single to load the bases and Matthias and Molly Arment connected to drive in two more runs cutting the Avalanche lead down to one run after four innings.
The Whetstoners defense continued to stifle the Avalanche and then busted out their bats in the bottom of the fifth for five more runs.
Scott McKenrick and Michelle “Wheels” Gerard tapped back-to-back base hits and Alex Mattes-Ritz cleared the bags with a three-run ITPHR.
A double by Dohlman led to Barnes’ Achilles last stand and Cheseborough drove two more runs in with a single to put the Whetstoners on top 9-5.
Maggie looked to spark some offense for the Avalanche with a RBI single in the top of the sixth but the Barnes injury had sapped any remaining energy from the team.
Meanwhile, the Whetstoners offense continued to pour it on, spraying the field with hits and stretching for extra bases.
Renee Newton drove two runs in with a single, Mattes-Ritz popped a RBI base hit, Barb Winter punched a RBI single to shallow centerfield and Parr and Chesebrough combined once again to drive in three more Whetstoners, capping the 17-6 Whetstoners win.
