Talk edges out comp league win over Bashers

At any rate, the Talk of the Town and the Mustache Bashers both sat at .500 in the middle of the comp league standings when they met Monday night at Gothic Field. The Bashers came in a few players shy of a full team as a rash of injuries, a.k.a. other commitments, dwindled their ranks, forcing them to call up some players from their minor league affiliate. The hope was to avoid forfeit, and also see if any such players might be ready for the big leagues once the playoffs begin. The Bashers scored a couple of early runs as Catmur led off with a single and scored when Abe Fischer cracked an RBI triple to the gap in left center. Willy Coburn followed with an RBI double off the fence and things were looking good for the Bashers. The Talk responded as Ali McGuire and Brent Laney each tapped base hits and Kelly McGuire drove her daughter home with a sac fly RBI, but the Bashers came roaring back in the top of the third inning. Catmur started it off with an opposite field triple and Fischer connected for a high-fly error-assisted two-run inside the park home run for a 5-2 Bashers lead. The Bashers added two more runs to their lead as Erica “Oh” Canada singled, Willy Coburn walked and Olympic halfpipe skier Aaron Blunck dropped a two-RBI double. But, the Talk of the Town don’t suck, and they don’t give up and they cut the Bashers’ lead back down to two, on RBI base hits from Courtney Bock and Eric “Turbo” Ervin. The Bashers then suffered another hit to their line-up as Blunck was forced to sit out with an injury, and the team had to pull in Sam Reaman from the stands to fill in. They rolled with the changes and climbed out to a 9-5 lead in the top of the fifth inning when Canada stretched for a double and Reaman drove an RBI triple to right in his big-league debut at the plate. Then Amber Derocher, one half of the famed softball sisters out of Iowa, slapped an RBI single to right and the Bashers looked to be back on track. Talk tall-guy Tom Consentino stepped up with some bashing of his own, driving a solo shot high over the left field netting and then decking Catmur with a hip check as he jogged by between innings—gotta love comp league. The Talk maintained their composure though, with Eric Johnson providing another run with an RBI single, and remained in the hunt until the final inning. Down 10-7 heading into the bottom of the seventh inning, it was last call for the Talk of the Town and the stage was set for some late-game heroics. Consentino led off with a triple and Dave McGuire drove him home with a single to right. Katie Thomas singled to put two on, with Turbo stepping to the plate and the Talk down 10-8. While his teammates touted the benefits of a base hit, there was no way Turbo was going to back down from the opportunity to crush the game-winner. Why slap a routine single and maybe score a run when you can go long and win the game? True to Turbo form, he delivered, jacking a three-run walk off home run to centerfield for an 11-10 Talk of the Town win. The comp league playoffs will kick off Monday, August 4 with the championship game slated for Wednesday, August 13 at Gothic Field.