The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Enjoy the ride”
The competitive league is heating up. While the Talk of the Town is sitting at the top of the standings with a 7-1 record, the Rent-A-Gades have won their last four games in a row and are just one game back.
Meanwhile, a gaggle of teams muddle around in the middle of the standings, still working the kinks out to peak come playoff time.
Then, there is the winless Community Schoolers. If they could just get their full roster to the games, they could play the spoiler role in the post-season but considering how the team is comprised almost entirely of high school age kids, the chances of getting them all to one place, at a specific time, is unlikely. Unless Justin Bieber, or whoever it is they listen to these days, is playing.
Two muddlers, Twaddles and the Mustache Bashers, met Monday night at Gothic Field. Both teams bring some talent to the field and both could make the proverbial post-season run with some minor tweaks.
Twaddles opened the game flat. For starters, they were down a woman and would be taking random automatic outs throughout the game as a result. And second, their first batter of the game stepped up to the plate only to strike out looking.
The Bashers, on the other hand, kicked off the game with a four-run outburst. Kyle Anderson led off with a big hustle double and scored on a double by Willy Coburn. Abe Fischer drove a run in with a single and Mike Ryan and Katie Vandervoort drove two more Bashers home with base hits.
Twaddles showed signs of life in the top of the second inning as Judd Mesaris and Mikey Strauch connected for base hits and scored when Ian Baird drove a three-run inside the park home run (ITPHR) to the opposite field.
The Bashers returned the favor in their next at bat taking advantage of a series of untimely walks to score four runs. Two walks and a single by Nathan Lacy loaded the bases for Coburn who drove two in with a single. Dalynn Trujillo blooped a RBI single to shallow left and then Fischer crushed a RBI base hit off the fence in left field for an 8-3 Bashers lead.
After the Bashers loaded the bases with no outs and threatened to blow the game wide open in the bottom of the third inning, the Twaddles defense clamped down to give up a lone sac fly RBI by Nathan Lacy.
The Twaddles defense followed that with another stand in the bottom of the fourth to hold the Bashers scoreless and the effort sparked a rally, albeit brief rally, in the top of the fifth inning.
Baird took advantage of a defensive miscue to stretch an out for a double. Vann Taylor did the same turning a grounder into a double and Barb Peters drove Baird home with a double. A sac fly RBI by Jimmy Hensley scored Taylor and Barb Winter drove another run in with a single to cut the Bashers lead down to three runs.
Anchored by Taylor at shortstop, Twaddles continued to hold the Bashers scoreless through the next two innings. Unfortunately, just when Twaddles was primed for another rally with two runners on and down by two, they were forced to take another automatic out ending their at bat in the top of the sixth and the Bashers defense did the rest in the top of the seventh inning to secure the 9-7 win.
