Late-game rally secures win for KBUT

Rules are rules

by Than Acuff

Rules are in place to keep chaos at bay. Without rules, things disintegrate into total anarchy—and humanity, or at the very least the weak, will perish.

Imagine if there were no Constitution of the United States of America? We could be living in a completely different country, where minorities and women have few rights and anyone with money, regardless of what they say, believe or do, could be the president.

Wait a minute…

At least Scott Pruitt is no longer director of the EPA (which I just heard about four days late because Facebook stopped their “trending now” feature and I actually had to read stuff). I’m sure his replacement will be much more amenable to the realities of climate change, energy conservation, the beauty and need for land preservation and that, while a mattress at a Trump hotel may be the perfect mattress, the new director could maybe get the make and model of said mattress and go get their own on their own dime and their own time.

Unless they want a specific mattress at a Trump hotel to cover up having sex with someone other than their wife, which, by the way, was not the case. Pruitt just really liked that specific mattress, and that I can relate to.

Another potential fallout from a society without rules is that softball games could go on forever and there would be more fights. In fact, it wasn’t that long ago that there was no time limit, double-walled bats ruled Pitsker as hitters riddled passing traffic with home runs, there was no limit on the number of home runs a team could hit, hitters stepped to the plate with no count instead of a 1-1 count and plays at the plate were actually at the plate, which eventually nearly led to a brawl at one particular game when a runner tried to run over the catcher to break up the tag.

But, thanks to rules, none of that is the case these days and rules came into play Thursday night as KBUT rallied in the latter stages of the game to eke out a win over the Talk of the Town at Tommy V Field as the time limit rule was put into effect.

Thick air and post–Fourth of July funk dominated the game through the first couple of innings. Brian Kunes did open things up with a solo inside the park home run (ITPHR) for the Talk and KBUT’s Christen Lindmann and Casey Hess combined to drive in three runs but energy and play were overwhelmingly apathetic. Case in point: Hollywood pulled off an error-assisted RBI triple.

Things heated up in the third inning as the Talk rattled off six runs and KBUT responded with five. A single by Kelly McGuire set the stage for one Talk run, Courtney Bock ramped it up with a two-RBI double, Hollywood walked in a run with his keen eye for bad pitches and Ali McGuire drove two more in with a opposite field two-RBI double and an 8-3 lead.

The women led the charge for KBUT, inspiring a five-run response as Kat Harrington, Lindmann and Katie Harper all combined for RBI base hits to tie the game 8-8 heading into the fourth inning.

The Talk stepped back up to the plate over the next two innings to build a 14-8 lead. Tom Consentino connected for a two-run ITPHR in the top of the fourth and then added a two-RBI double in the fifth inning along with a RBI single from Kunes with more to come, had it not been for the defense of KBUT. While the Talk did manage to build a lead, it could have been worse had it not been for Harper tracking down a foul ball behind the plate to end one inning and Ed Dujardin backhanding a ground ball at short and Sonny Burgess digging Dujardin’s toss out of the dirt to end another inning.

RBI hits from Sohrob Nimrouzi and Burgess pulled KBUT back to within two runs. Hollywood pushed another Talk run in with a walk but KBUT eventually found their rhythm at the plate in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead.

Julia Brazell proved the catalyst as she connected for a powerbunt RBI single. Heather Heinz followed with a single and scored when Dujardin cracked a three-run ITPHR to clear the bases. Lindmann tacked on another run with a sac-fly RBI and Will Dujardin put the finishing touches on the late-game surge with a RBI double for an 18-15 KBUT lead heading into the seventh inning.

Or so it seemed, as teams waiting for the 6:30 p.m. game pointed out the time limit rule and the game was called then and there, sealing the 18-15 win for KBUT.

Rules are rules and without rules people would be camping wherever they want, using the forest as their bathroom and trashcan and a foreign country could be used to corrupt America’s democratic process, potentially affecting the outcome of a presidential election.

Wait a minute…