The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Peace pops the top in a champagne celebration
Another season in the books and another title for the Rent-A-Gades.
The Rent-A-Gades and the Wine-O’s squared off (can you square off on a softball diamond?) in the championship game of the competitive league on Monday night at Gothic Field.
Rather than wax poetic (or flounder grammatic) about the difference in energy between the rec and comp league finals let’s just say, comp league, and their fans, are predominately business when it comes to softball.
The onus was upon the Wine-O’s to pull off the near impossible Monday night. They dropped down to the loser’s bracket after a loss to the Talk of the Town in the second round of playoff action. They found their second wind rattling off three big wins in a row, including back-to-back victories over Green Robin and the Talk last Wednesday.
The effort earned them a spot in the finals against the Rent-A-Gades, who cruised through the post-season with three wins in a row.
The two times the teams met during the regular season the Rent-A-Gades edged out the win in both so odds were, they would seal the title with a win in the first game.
But, with a title on the line, anything can happen and it looked like the Wine-O’s would force a game two after building an early 5-1 lead.
Tom Consentino and Elsa Karajecz put the Wine-O’s on the board in the top of the first inning with a couple RBI base hits.
The Rent-A-Gades came back in the bottom of the first to score one run on a RBI double by Justin Wheeler but the Wine-O’s bats stayed hot in the top of the second inning to tack on three more runs.
Amber Finley led off with a triple and scored on sacrifice RBI by Mark Nesemeier. Two more base hits added two more runs to the Wine-O’s lead.
Wine-O Molly Keating pulled off a shoestring grab in left to rob Kari Roberts of a lead off base hit in the bottom of the second but the bottom of the Rent-A-Gades order came through to push two runs across.
Andrew Butterfield doubled and scored on a base hit by Jeff Snyder and Leah Fischer scored Snyder with a single to cut the Wine-O lead back down to two.
The Rent-A-Gades tied it up 6-6 in the bottom of the fifth on base hit RBIs from Heather Duryea and Jerry Heal but the Wine-Os rebuilt their lead in the top of the sixth, paced by a RBI single by Scott Strouse.
It was just a matter of time though before the Rent-A-Gade offense would find their rhythm—it came in the bottom of the sixth inning as they connected for seven base hits to score five runs.
Snyder led off with a single and scored on a RBI triple from Jeff Banford to the gap in right center. Peace Wheeler pushed Banford home with a single and Josh Schumacher tied the game with a RBI double. Duryea dropped a RBI double in shallow left center and Kari Roberts tagged a RBI single to give the Rent-A-Gades their first lead of the game.
Down two runs with one inning to go, the Wine-O’s rallied to tie the game 11-11. Brandon Snyder poked a double and Keating pushed a run home with a sacrifice hit. CJ Hoigaard tied the game up with a RBI hit and it was left up to the Wine-Os defense to force extra innings.
But, there was nothing they could to do deny the Rent-A-Gades their second title in as many years.
Snyder led off with a double. Keating held off the inevitable with another shoestring grab in left but Banford stepped up and sealed the deal with a game-winning double to right for the 12-11 Rent-A-Gades win and another piece of hardware to go in the power tools show room at the Crested Butte Rental Center.
