The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We’re a Modelo team”
Two weeks ago, the Wine-Os front office threatened a managerial shift if the team didn’t start winning. Talks ensued and it came down to, well, beer.
“Management and the front office talked—PBR didn’t do us, we’re a Modelo team,” explained Brandon Snyder.
Monday evening the move appeared to have paid off as the Wine-Os, with Modelos in hand, crushed the Mustache Bashers at Gothic Field.
It was a dubious start for the Bashers with players trickling in late for the start of the game and the stoke meter barely registering on the Basher bench.
Nevertheless, the team switched to game mode and Nick Catmur led off with a ground rule double bouncing over the centerfield fence. Dalynn Trujillo drove Catmur home with a bloop single, Rhett Yarborough singled and then scored on a base hit by Gabe Martin.
But just as the Bashers were looking to build on their early game rally, the Wine-Os turned a 1-6-3 double play to end it all. As they jogged in off the field, Snyder made the call, “We need five.”
His team answered the call, scoring five runs in the bottom of the first inning. After Basher catcher Leta Maunz chased down a foul pop to turn away the first Wine-O hitter, Scott Young stepped up to crush a triple off the fence in left field. Kat Harrington followed with a RBI single, Molly Keating drove home another Wine-O with a double, Snyder pushed two more home with a double and Elsa Karajecz scored Snyder with a single to left for a 5-2 Wine-Os lead.
The two teams traded runs through the second inning, including a solo shot over the centerfield netting by Brice Harrell and the Bashers put together their final offense of the game in the top of the third inning.
Trujillo and Yarborough connected for base hits and Martin drove Trujillo home with his second base hit of the evening. Candace Sanders then stepped up to drive a two-RBI error-assisted triple, tying the game 6-6.
Then it got ugly, as a combination of base hits and errors led to a Wine-Os rally in the bottom of the third.
It all started with an error-assisted RBI triple by Karajecz. Scott Strouse followed with some big hustle on the base path for a RBI double and Michael Factor swatted an error-assisted RBI single. Catmur charged in on a bloop fly ball to turn the second out and things appeared in check but the Wine-Os strung together a crushing two-out rally. Three doubles, one single, one error and seven runs later, umpires were forced to call out the 10-run rule, leaving the Bashers down 16-6 midway through the game.
Still, with plenty of game left, anything was possible and the Bashers defense held the Wine-Os scoreless through the fourth and fifth innings to set themselves up for a massive comeback.
But the Basher bats failed to follow through and by the bottom of the sixth inning, enough was enough as the Wine-Os rattled off nine more runs.
Strouse led off with a RBI single. A couple more errors led to three more Wine-Os runs, Wendy Crosby and Young connected for a RBI doubles and Tom Consentino crushed a two-run home run for a 25-6 Wine-Os lead.
“Is that 10 runs yet?” asked Basher Willy Coburn as the Bashers looked to leave the field, but it wasn’t and they had to return to play.
They finally turned the third and final out and it was going to be the greatest comeback of all time as the Bashers stepped to the plate in the top of the seventh inning down 19 runs.
But it wasn’t.
Catmur did stretch a single for a triple and Yarborough finished the night four-for-four with a RBI single but the Bashers were finished, falling 25-7.
