The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
I loves me some chicken Thai Bowl
by Than Acuff
Who is Lakshmi Singh? I’ve been hearing her for so many years now on the daily NPR noon report and there’s just something about her voice. She has this tone of snark, mixed with omniscience and a bit of Middle Eastern sexy thrown in. She hails from an exotic island with a freshwater lake in the middle of it called Lak de Flambeau fed by rivers that Singh sweet songs. Singhing in the rain, just Singhing in the rain. If she were a Gunnison Valley Roller Girl her name would be Lakshmisohorny or, Floats like a butterfly, Singhs like a bee or Singh-a-ling-a-ding-dong.
With that finally off my chest, lets get down to good old American Fourth of July week slowpitch softball coverage. Because, what better way to celebrate independence than small town softball.
The Talk of the Town continues to dominate the competitive league and is sitting at the top of the standings with a perfect record of 5-0. The Rent-A-Gades are mired in the middle while Pitas in Paradise and the Wine House Monkeys are tied for last place, or were tied for last place until Monday evening as Pitas squeaked out a 12-11 win over the Monkeys at Gothic Field.
It was destined to be a slugfest simply because Pitas has two of the premier sluggers in the local softball leagues in Scott Sanders and Drew Stichter. But in the end, it came down to defense.
Sanders opened the game with his first of two home runs for the night when he cracked the first pitch he saw over the centerfield fence to score two. A couple more Pita’s base hits put runners on and a triple pushed two more home for a 4-0 Pitas lead.
The Wine House Monkeys wasted little time pulling into the lead in the bottom of the first inning combining walks with hits to mount a five-run, two-out rally.
Bill Thompson opened it up with an infield single and scored off a double by Kate Schmidt. The next three hitters then opted to walk instead of hit to score more Monkey runs and Big Air Barbfly Peters put the Monkeys on top 5-4 when she crushed a two-RBI double to the warning track in centerfield.
Pitas retook the lead in the top of the second inning as Abe Fisher singled and then scored on a two-run, error-assisted, infield grounder turned Inside the Park Home Run (ITPHR for short) by Rhett “Better Rhett than Dead,” “Rhett, White and Blue,” “I Took the Rhett Eye,” “Marlboro Rhetts,” “The Yarborough Man,” Yarborough.
Stichter added to the lead with a solo shot to right center in the top of the third and Pitas was poised for more until Monkeys team owner Scott Strouse charged on a ground ball, scooped it up and fired to first in a seamless effort to stop Pitas in its tracks.
Strouse backed up his defense with his bat, knocking a RBI double to pull the Monkeys within one run until Pitas power hitter Sanders struck again. Pitas pushed one run in on base hits from Polly McGrane and Yarborough and Sanders cleared the bases with a two-run shot off of the town hall building for a 10-6 lead.
Some more stuff happened but I got a little distracted by my friend and the Siri app on his iPhone. It went something like this.
Friend: Do you think I’m sexy?
Siri: You are a very good looking… human.
Once that fun ended the game really heated up as the Monkeys mounted a comeback. Montana Wiggins led off with a single and scored on a double by Thompson. Schmidt then stepped to the plate and lived up to the surname of one of my favorite baseball players cracking a two-RBI double, though a home run would have been more apropos. Singles by Brendan Waldran and Barb Winter put additional ducks on the pond for the Monkeys and Tony Wildman and Strouse did the honors, pushing both ducks home for an 11-10 Monkeys lead.
Roland Mason stepped into the game in the top of the fifth inning and instantly made a difference with a base hit and then scored to tie the game 11-11 going into the seventh inning. Stichter struck once again with a solo shot for a 12-11 lead and the Pitas defense sealed the win as they turned a 6-4-3 double play in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.
I’m Lakshmi Singh, so sexy.
