The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The future of town league is now
[ by Than Acuff ]
Couple things first.
One, there is a girls softball team in Crested Butte. It’s the second year for the town program with Melissa and Roland Mason at the helm and on Tuesday afternoon, at least 15 girls were out practicing, ages 10-14 is my guess, and they already have the basics down and will play their first games as a program this summer against teams in Buena Vista, Salida and Gunnison. Their first and only home game is July 12. Side note, if I’m still covering softball when these girls are playing adult town league softball, just push me over in my chair.
Second, rumor has it that professional men’s slowpitch softball players can make as much as $250,000. A little Googling (that sounds weird) says the top players actually make around $63,000 per season. That said, women’s softball returns to the Summer Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles along with lacrosse, cricket, squash and flag football. I wonder what time slot they’ll give cricket on TV. Better not cut into their speed walking coverage. Just watch speed walking this summer at the Paris games. It is mesmerizing.
But not as mesmerizing as the town league softball show-down Tuesday, June 11, at Gothic Field as Kochevar’s edged out a 14-10 win over Pitas.
Following some infield fly rule confusion early on and an RBI double from Emily O’cañas and a three-run inside the park home run (ITPHR) by Andrew Arnold, Kochevar’s was out front 3-1 after two innings.
A double from Scott Sanders and a single by Melissa Mason set up Roland Mason for a mystery bounce RBI single for Pitas, but Kochevar’s went on a bit of a roll in the bottom of the third to pull ahead 6-2.
Prawit Durgan led off with a double and then scored on a single up the middle by John Dreher. Krista Tyson then drove another run in with a single and the stage was set for some fireworks from Mark Krause. Krause delivered sending a deep shot to left centerfield, but Thomas McLean got a jump on the ball off the bat to make a leaping grab at the fence and deny Krause his highlight.
John Duffy knocked one more Kochevar’s run in with a single for their four-run lead, but the Pitas bats finally woke up in the top of the fourth to score eight runs spraying the field with base hits to load the bases and drive in runs.
O’cañas, Joe Erickson and Frank Magri strung together three singles in a row and Mike Yeager pushed two of them home with a single to left. Pitas reloaded the bases and singles from Sanders, Melissa and McLean scored three more. O’cañas returned to the plate to drive in another two runs for a 10-6 Pitas’ lead and it could have been more had it not been for both Robin Yost and Holly McFadden chasing down pop fouls.
Strangely, that would be it for Pitas at the plate while Kochevar’s spent the next three innings pulling back into the game and then pulling ahead for good.
It started in the bottom of fourth inning when Arnold slapped an RBI single up the middle and Durgan got a sac fly RBI.
Krause then made sure McLean couldn’t get his next deep shot clearing the centerfield fence in the bottom of the fifth inning for a two-run home run to tie the game 10-10 heading into the sixth inning.
Kochevar’s then tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning when Spencer Nowell led off with a triple and scored on a hit by Ella Kelly. McLean did make another running grab to deny Durgan an extra base hit, but Hunter Lucas followed with an RBI single to shallow left and Dreher smacked a two RBI triple to put Kochevar’s on top 14-10 for good as Pitas had nothing to say at the plate the remainder of the game.
