The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Who is Creve Coeur Mo and why do they keep calling me?
By Than Acuff
Did you know that a group of unicorns is called a blessing? Furthermore, unicorns’ survival is based on said blessing and the unconscious consciousness that permeates it. It’s similar to the collective transcendence of prairie dogs, just with more magic and less plague.
The collective transcendence was severely disrupted on Wednesday, June 14 at Gothic Field when the Rainbow Unicorns showed up a few players short of a full blessing and suffered the consequences falling 20-9 to CB Extreme. Beat like a rented unicorn.
Andrew Tower provided the opening inspiration for CB Extreme stepping to the plate in the top of the first inning. Having suffered a severe leg injury (tib fib fracture I was told) earlier this year, Tower’s diligent attention to rehabilitation had him relatively ready for the softball season and, despite a noticeable hitch in his giddy-up, he slapped a single to open the game. Hannah Valian and Brett Hubert followed with two base hits to score a run and Benn Schmatz and Shirley Stichter tacked on two more runs with base hits for a 4-0 CB Extreme lead.
The Unicorns were set to respond with a lead-off triple from Adam Westlake and an RBI single from Alex Mattes-Ritz, but CB Extreme turned a 1-6-3 double play to corral the Unicorns.
The Unicorns pulled off some equally impressive defense with a double play of their own and pitcher Joey Reed leapt high to snag a line drive to limit CB Extreme to just one run. Nick Catmur smacked a solo inside-the-park home run (ITPHR) for the Unicorns in the bottom of the second inning to keep things in check.
Hubert built some breathing room for CB Extreme with a two-run home run over the left field netting for a 7-2 lead, but the Unicorns still had some magic dust to spread around as Kari Roberts and Jessica Leak each pushed runs home with base hits to pull within three runs of CB Extreme.
Enough was enough for CB Extreme though as they scored eight runs over the next two innings led by the wheels of Jade McLaughlin. McLaughlin led off the top of the fourth inning with a big hustle single. Heather Cooper kept things going with a single two batters later and then Sean Slattery and Tower connected for RBI base hits and a 9-4 CB Extreme lead.
CB Extreme then ramped up their effort in the top of the fifth inning as Hubert led off getting dirty for a triple and scoring on a sac fly from Jolene Dreith. Drew Holbrook connected for an RBI double and then McLaughlin’s wheels came into play again as she poked a two-run ITPHR. Slattery and Molly Susla followed with RBI hits for a 15-5 CB Extreme lead.
The Unicorns had a little magic left in their horns in the bottom of the fifth inning to score four more runs off hits from Mattes-Ritz, Robbie Vandervoort, Rachael Brodsky and Catmur, but with members of the blessing still missing, the Unicorns would soon fall into disarray.
Meanwhile, CB Extreme remained on task to drive in three more runs. Schmatz led off with a single and scored on a triple by Holbrook, McLaughlin pushed Holbrook home with a sac fly and base hits from Evan Sandstrom and Cooper sent the Unicorns back to never-ever land with a 20-9 loss.
