Whetstoners rattle off two wins on Tuesday to open rec league playoffs

Now that we’re into the “real” season, we find out who the real teams are. Is defending rec league champ and current undefeated team Tully’s real? I mean, they’re real good but are they real? Is defending runner-up team the Eldo real? Are the Hares, who went from winless last year to a .500 record this year, real? Can the Rastas work their post-season magic as they have so often before and be real? What is real? I mean, I’m typing away on a keyboard and that’s real. The words appear on a real screen in front of me. I’m real tired. I could use a real cold Coke. I’m real hungry. Riding uphill on a mountain bike is real hard. My kid can be a real brat. My dog got real sick in the garage last night. I ski the flat pow real good (but anyone can ski powder). It’s real hot in Qatar. Catherine Zeta-Jones is real purdy. But other than the obvious, what is real? Well, I can an answer a few of those earlier questions, for now. After Tuesday night, the Rastas do not appear to have their post-season magic in place, losing to the Whetstoners 4-3 and leaving Rasta Roman Kolodziej nothing to say following the game but, “F*** that s***, I’m moving.” Which, in fact, he is—to Ecuador—for two years. The Eldo: they could be “real” but they’re going to have to get real good, as they lost Tuesday night at Pitsker Field to the Whetstoners and must now battle their way through the loser’s bracket if they want to make it back to the finals. Speaking of the Whetstoners, they’re real loud (damn you, Chuck McKenrick and that infernal cowbell!) and they’re pretty good too, right now, peaking at just the right moment. Not only did they knock off both the Rastas and the Eldo in back-to-back games Tuesday night, but they did it both times late in the game. After taking down the Rastas in the bottom of the seventh inning, they took the field to face the number-two seeded Eldo immediately after. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes that’s bad. One school of thought believes teams warm up in the first game of a doubleheader and then hit their stride in the second game. The other school of thought believes a late-inning win can drain a team psychologically, leaving them tired and vulnerable in the second game. It turns out both were true. The Whetstoners stumbled through the first five innings as the Eldo methodically built a 9-1 lead. They opened it up in the bottom of the first while the Whetstoners were still recovering emotionally from their win. Matt Laut led off with a double, scored on a double by Justin Howard, Jessica Johnson cracked an RBI triple and Patrick Henry Cashion capped the opening rally with an RBI double for a 3-0 Eldo lead. The Whetstoner bats woke up in the top of the second inning to respond, with Liz Wigginton and Zach Vaughter slapping base hits to put two runners on with one out but Laut scooped a grounder, tapped second and fired to first base for an inning-ending 6-3 double play. The Eldo added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning as Laut and Howard connected for RBI base hits again. The Whetstoners then suffered another cruel ending in the top of the fourth thanks to Laut. Will Camcro (I know that’s not your real last name but that’s what it says on the roster) led off with a double and Alex Mattes-Ritz crushed a deep drive to the fence in right center, sending Camcro and Mattes-Ritz on their horses around the bases. Camcro scored with ease but Mattes-Ritz was waved home and gunned down by Laut at home off a relay toss from deep in the outfield. The Eldo cashed in on their rally-crushing defense to tack on four more runs over the next two innings. Cashion cracked a solo inside the park home run and Vince Scola and Andrea Rybarz singled and scored to put the Eldo on top 9-1 heading into the sixth inning. Having now been through the ups and downs of a double header, the Whetstoners returned to the upside of things. It’s like when you get day-drunk, fall asleep early and then wake up the next morning feeling good because you’ve slept through your hangover. Sarah Chesebrough kicked it all off with a single. Another base hit and a walk loaded the bases and Mattes-Ritz pushed two runners home with a high-fly RBI double. Barb Winter followed with an RBI single and Chris Durante scored another Whetstoner with a sac-fly RBI to cut the Eldo lead down to four. The Eldo caught their breath as Scola fanned the next batter but then Rich Driscoll stepped to the plate with two outs to drop a bloop two-RBI single in shallow right, keeping the Whetstoners rolling. Molly Arment and the “ChuckeChese” combo connected for three more runs and the Whetstoners were on top 10-9 before Scola pulled in a hot line drive to the mound to stop the bleeding. They held the Eldo scoreless in the bottom of the sixth, Winter tacked on an insurance run in the top of the seventh and then the Whetstoners survived a scare in the bottom of the seventh inning. Stephanie Gerber led off for the Eldo with a single and Will Brown cracked an RBI single down the third base line to start things off and pull within a run of the Whetstoners. But when Vaughter chased a fly ball down in deep left field, the Eldo comeback was stunned and Driscoll landed the knockout blow, striking out the next Eldo hitter for the third out and sealing the 11-10 Whetstoner win. Could they be for real?