KBUT edges win over Wine House to open season

It’s absolute mayhem

by Than Acuff

There may be just one league this year but there is no shortage of action in town league coed softball. The season kicked off with three games all playing concurrently at three different fields on Tuesday, June 7 under beautiful sunny skies.

With that in mind, it makes it difficult to determine which one was the official opening game, but since I was at Gothic Field, we’ll call the game between KBUT and the Wine House Monkeys the official opener. The game did not disappoint as KBUT held off two late game surges by the Monkeys for the 19-17 win.

The game got off to an auspicious start as KBUT jumped all over the Wine House in the opening innings to take a quick 10-0 lead.

It all started with Collin Vossen and some help from the Wine House who looked confused to say the least. In fact, they looked more like a bunch of monkeys doing you know what to a football than a softball team.

Vossen opened the 2016 season with an error-assisted solo inside the park home run (ITPHR). A couple more base hits put ducks on the pond and then we had our first confusing moment of the season as Reed Betz popped an infield fly with runners on first and second. The infield fly rule was called but the runners ran anyway and while one scored, another was tagged out at second for a double play, yet the run scored, and that was that.

The Wine House stepped up to hit and remained as confused at the plate as they did in the field going three up, three down, and KBUT proceeded to rattle off eight more runs in the top of the second inning.

Betty Filbin, Lindsay Deckman and Shawn Harrington all singled to load the bases and Whitney Coombs pushed a run home with a base hit. Vossen connected for a three RBI double to right center, John “Island Hopper” Hopper drove two more runs in with a triple to center and Filbin and Andy Frank capped the onslaught with RBI base hits for a 10-0 KBUT lead.

Wait, it gets worse.

The Wine House struggled once again at the plate and while a KBUT error allowed a runner on, KBUT immediately turned a 1-6-3 double play to quash any hope of the Wine House even reaching second base through two innings.

But then something happened, as it often does in town league softball. The Wine House started gaining some steam and proceeded to chip away at the KBUT lead. While the KBUT bats continued to make contact, the Monkeys started playing some defense as both Dakota and Montana Wiggins came up with big grabs to seal off the gaps in right and left center.

The Wiggins brothers then connected at the plate to drive in four Monkey runs and things were looking up. KBUT tacked on two more runs on hits from Filbin and Deckman, but then the massive KBUT roster change occurred as they replaced nine of 10 players on the field to get everyone in and the changeover almost wrecked them.

Tony Wildman walked to push a run home, Raven Bryson tapped a RBI double and then the Wine House bats turned red hot in the bottom of the sixth inning. Evan Sandstrom led off with a double and scored on a single from Pete Basile. Wildman slapped a RBI single to right, Laura Acuff tomahawked a RBI single to left and Joe Knight pushed Wildman home with a base hit to pull the Monkeys to within three. Bryson singled to reload the bases and Dakota cracked a two RBI single to pull the Wine House to within one point and poised to take their first lead of the game. Montana stepped up with runners on base and crushed a line drive to center bound for the fence, until Filbin sprinted to her left and reeled in the hit with a full extension grab, stopping the Wine House in their tracks and sealing Filbin as the hands-down game MVP.

With their lead cut to one and their new roster finally warmed up, KBUT built some breathing room at the plate. Bud Bush scored two runs with a triple, Kat Harrington followed with a RBI double, Will Mixon tripled to score another KBUT run and then Filbin snuck home on a routine ground ball to give KBUT a 19-12 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.

The game appeared over for the Wine House but, much like their fearless leader Wildman, they refused to give up without a fight and a couple of timely walks.

Sandstrom and Kate Schmidt got the bats going again with a back-to-back singles. Basile scored Sandstrom with a single and then patience at the plate proved fortuitous as the Wine House loaded the bases and walked twice to score four more runs. Down 19-17 with just one out and runners on second and third, the Wine House was on pace to finally pull off the comeback. That is until the next batter popped out to the pitcher and, for some reason, runners started moving and the pitcher tagged the base runner headed home for the game-ending double play, sealing the 19-17 KBUT win.

It’s gonna be another great season of softball.