Wine-Os notch first win of season

Interleague play is under way

For the past several years, a Crested Butte team has played in the spring ball Sage Grouse league in Gunnison and the occasional Crested Butte men’s team has played in Gunnison, but this season marks the first official interleague play between Crested Butte and Gunnison coed teams.
Word has it that due to conflicts with both Alpenglow on Monday night and Live! from Mt. Crested Butte on Wednesdays, teams decided to play rec league on Tuesdays and Thursdays to avoid conflict with the heavy summer free concert schedule.
That left the comp league somewhat depleted. To fill in the gaps and fill out the schedule, Crested Butte Parks and Rec program coordinator Lauren Alkire reached out to Gunnison for games and interleague play was established.
The first week of interleague play experienced a couple hiccups as teams struggled to make the 30-mile trip for softball, but Monday night Beleza out of Gunnison came through on their commitment and came to Gothic Field to face perennial Crested Butte comp league powerhouse the Wine-Os.
Beleza is in the midst of a strong start to their season, currently sitting in second place in the standings in Gunnison. Meanwhile, the Wine-Os are stumbling around in the cellar of the Crested Butte standings without a win and the front office is mulling over a managerial switch if things don’t turn around fast.
Fortunately for the Wine-O’s manager, things turned around Monday night as they crushed Beleza 17-6, buying him some time as he continues to tinker with the team.
Beleza opened the scoring in the top of the first inning, capitalizing on a couple of early errors by the Wine-O’s defense. Ben Nielson stretched a single into a triple and scored on an error-assisted double by Rocky Durante.
The Wine-O’s responded with four runs in the bottom of the first. Base hits by the top of the order loaded the bases for Scott Young. Young caught the Beleza outfield playing shallow and cracked a three-RBI triple to centerfield and Wendy Crosby tapped a sacrifice RBI for a 4-1 Wine-O’s lead.
Brett Adkins provided the lone run for Beleza in the top of the second with a solo shot over the centerfield fence but Jay McCarthy added two more to the Wine-O’s lead with a double to center.
Beleza looked to find their rhythm on offense in the top of the third with Durante, Kirsten Williams and Daphne Leonard all driving in runs with base hits to cut the Wine-O’s lead down to one, but that would be as close as they would come the rest of the game.
Despite the variety of unique deliveries used by Beleza pitcher Bobby Bordelon, the Wine-O’s rattled off six runs in the bottom of the third inning with a mix of pinpoint hitting and fielding miscues.
Michael Faktor opened the rally with a RBI single. Kat Harrington tapped a RBI double up the middle and Brandon Snyder drove two more runs in with a triple. Molly Keating capped the rally with a RBI single to right and the Wine-O’s were on top 12-5.
The Beleza hitters continued to struggle, perhaps a bit challenged making the switch from wooden bats required in the Gunnison league to the double-wall metal bats allowed in Crested Butte.
Scott Strouse added another run to the Wine-O’s lead in the bottom of the fourth and two double plays turned by Tom Consentino as shortstop in two consecutive innings held off Beleza as they gained momentum.
Bordelon is a former High Hard One Home Run Derby champion from way back and after a couple of pop-ups in his first two plate appearances, he adjusted his swing to the metal bats and crushed a solo shot over the left field fence.
But that would be it for Beleza as the Wine-O’s tacked on two more runs in the bottom of sixth inning including another sacrifice RBI by Mikahla Claussen, cruising to the 17-6 win.
As for the overall interleague play record, as of Monday Crested Butte teams lead the series 5-3.