The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Wet Trout and a Bouey
By Than Acuff
What may have been the best pregame warm up failed to pay off in the long run as Butte & Co eventually fell to the Inglorious Batters 15-11 at Gothic Field on Wednesday, June 21.
Butte & Co, a collection of kids born and raised in Crested Butte and their friends, gathered just before taking the field for a quick session of Wet Trout. Some might call it a drinking game but it was actually the most appropriate pregame warm up I’ve ever seen in town league softball.
Basically, take a beer, get it wet, get in a circle while holding another beer in your dominant hand and toss it around catching and throwing with your nondominant hand.
It really doesn’t get much better than that.
And the warmup paid off initially as Butte & Co jumped out to a 6-1 lead by the third inning. The Inglorious Batters struck first in the top of the first thanks to an RBI hit from Ashley Bouey, but Butte & Co responded immediately as RBI hits from Abbey McGee, Spencer Nowell and Isabel Lucas put Butte & Co up 3-1 after one inning.
Their defense then proved worthy as well in the top of the second inning, specifically the work of shortstop Andrew Arnold, who scooped up a grounder up the middle, tapped second base and fired to first for a double play to stop the Batters in their tracks.
The Butte & Co bats remained hot in the bottom of the second inning as Ashton Mabry led off with a double and scored on a double by Dakota Wiggins. The team ombudsman, Fred Garth, then hustled out a single, Danny Stoneberg singled and Arnold and McGee combined once again for RBI base hits. But then the teams and all onlookers, me included, caught a glimpse of the Inglorious Batters’ weapon at third base. Nowell knocked a grounder to third and charged down the baseline to keep the rally going only to get Boueyed as Bouey scooped up the ground ball and fired the length of the infield to first base to end the rally.
Neither team did much of anything in the third inning as defense was the name of the game, but the Inglorious Batters proved their team’s name was more of a misnomer rattling off eight base hits to score six runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Bobby Crimi led off with a double to deep centerfield and eventually scored on a single by Tadd Mertens. Bouey, more than just a glove, singled to load the bases and Connor Beard cracked a two RBI single off the netting in centerfield. Shannon Hessler followed with a sacrifice hit to advance base runners, Alex Reeves and Renee Masters pushed two more runs home with base hits and Steph Reeves capped the six-run rally with an RBI single to put the Inglorious Batters out on top 7-6.
The Inglorious Batters then continued to hit and run through the fifth and sixth innings while Butte & Co did not. Crimi led off the top of the fifth inning with a triple and scored on a triple by Mertens, who then scored on a single by Bouey.
Arnold and McGee did combine again to provide one run for Butte & Co in the bottom of the fifth, but the Inglorious Batters continued to pour it on in the top of the sixth inning to score five more runs with Erin Geye, Crimi and Mertens doing the damage.
Butte & Co had a few more hits up their sleeve though and finally came back to life in the bottom of the seventh inning. While their first two hitters were denied, Oliver Houseman got Butte and Co back on track with a single. Hannah Strickland followed with a single, Arnold knocked an RBI single and McGee a two RBI double to keep hope alive. Prawit Durgan then smacked a two-RBI single to pull within four, but it was another case of too little, too late as the Inglorious Batters got the third and final out to close out their 15-11 win.
