Comp league opens in top form

Interleague play with Gunnison this year

Rather than sitting down to watch two teams stumble through opening day ill prepared for the onset of softball season, I, and the handful of fans in attendance, were treated to a legitimate game of competitive league softball complete with numerous highlights.

The showdown between the Stash and the Rent-A-Gades had it all—four double plays, four errors, four times Pete Basile cut off base hits with his wheels in left field, Jeff Snyder laid out four times for either diving grabs at shortstop or to stretch singles into doubles, Barb Peters was four-for-four at the plate and there were four lead changes.
Softball was invented in 1887 and when you add those numbers up that comes out to 24. There are four bases. I’m writing this story on Tuesday, June 4 at 9:14 a.m. Four elements make up life—water, air, fire and earth. The lead sentence in this article is 40 words long. Hank Aaron’s number was 44. Opening day was on the 154th day of the year. Crested Butte’s zip code is 8122, you guessed it, 4 and the local phone prefix is 349. 40 ounces to freedom. .44 magnum. Four score and seven years ago. Four quarters make a dollar. My truck has four cylinders. My daughter is four years old. Holy shit, I’m 44 years old. I spent four minutes of my life on the past paragraph and you spent maybe 24 seconds reading it.
At any rate, like I said before, both teams displayed midseason form on opening day as the Stash came from behind to edge out a 14-11 win.
The Stash jumped out to an early lead as Peters and Basile each slapped a base hit and scored on an error-assisted two-RBI single from Mike Neustedter. Mark Bortolin dropped a two-RBI double in shallow center and the Stash was on top 4-0 after one inning.
Rent-A-Gade Josh Schumacher broke the seal on the long ball for the year driving a solo shot to left field but a RBI single from Neustedter held the Stash’s four run lead until the top of the fourth inning when the Rent-A-Gades offense woke up.
Justin Wheeler and Heather Duryea combined for two base hits and Schumacher drove a two-RBI double off the fence in left field. Wife Andrea Schumacher followed up with a two-RBI double up the middle and Crested Butte Parks and Recreation intern Madison Roelfs made up for a strike-out in her first at bat in Crested Butte with a RBI single to tie the game 5-5.
Snyder drove in another run before Neustedter stopped the bleeding, scooping a ground ball up the middle, tapping second and firing to first for a 6-3 double play.
The Rent-A-Gades clamped down on defense and then tacked on three more runs in the top of the fifth inning, compliments of a three-run home run from Josh to straightaway center.
The Stash came charging back in the bottom of the fifth to rattle off six runs and take an 11-9 lead, with the Stash women doing most of the damage. Allison Gipple roped a two-RBI single to right centerfield and Kate Schmidt cracked a two-RBI triple to left field. Joe Kung Fu Walowski capped the six-run outburst with a RBI single to right.
The Rent-A-Gades tied the game 11-11 in the top of the sixth on hits from Wheeler and Jeff Banford but the Stash had the last say as Neustedter jacked a three-run crusher in the bottom of the sixth and the Stash defense did its job to seal the 14-11 win.