Lords of Dirt dig out repeat title

Stick a fork in it

By Than Acuff 

It’s official, the town league softball season is over as the Lords of Dirt took down the ZUNI West Renegades 8-6 in the Wednesday league finals Wednesday, August 14 at Gothic Field.

And what a season it was in the Wednesday league as week in and week out teams found a way to walk the line of casual competitiveness.

It was a tall order for the Renegades as they came into the championship game from the loser’s bracket and had to beat the Lords of Dirt twice on Wednesday to raise some hardware.

As for the Lords of Dirt, they’ve been on point throughout most of the summer finishing the regular season in first place and rattling off successive wins to reach the finals, just one win away from a repeat title.

The Lords of Dirt made the first statement in their quest for a repeat title on the very first hitter of the game. Robbie Vandervoort stepped up for the Renegades to open things off and stroked the ball bound for extra bases until Lords of Dirt outfielder Rob Holleran sprinted for the diving grab.

It was on.

But not like 20+ runs in the game on. More like, war of attrition small ball on.

After retiring the side in the top of the first inning, the Lords of Dirt scratched out two runs when Katie McKernan knocked a base hit and scored on a hit from Holleran. Holleran then scored when Rob Cushman connected for a base hit but that was it as the Renegades were determined to make a game of it. In a Wednesday league sense that is, as the runs and base hits continued to trickle in for both teams.

Hits from Lauren Alkire and Cody Hawkins put two on with two outs and Krystal Ramsey came through for the Renegades to score Alkire on a base hit, but the Lords of Dirt defense offered no more and then returned the favor in the bottom of the second inning.

Jake Sunter and Holly McFadden each got on base, but the Renegades defense turned the next two outs and gave up one lone run when Bryce W. Miller managed to punch an RBI hit for a 3-1 Lords of Dirt lead.

The game ramped up a bit in the top of the third when the Renegades tied it up with a quick two-out rally. A base hit from Jeff Snyder and a couple of walks loaded the bases for the Renegades and Mark Krause came through with a two RBI single including a full commit slide into third by Kate Schmidt but that was that for the Renegades and we were tied 3-3.

The Renegades kept on keeping on though as they held the Lords of Dirt to one base hit and then came back in the top of the fourth inning to score two more runs. 

Jesse Smith and Alkire led off with back-to-back base hits and Hawkins stepped up to score both with a double for a 5-3 Renegades lead with one on and no outs.

If there was ever a time to make their move, it was then but, they didn’t as the Lords of Dirt defense stopped the bleeding by retiring three of the next four batters to hold the Renegades to their two-run lead.

The Renegades’ lead lasted all of about one half of one inning as Holly McFadden and Billy Watson each knocked base hits to score one run and Miller stepped up to connect for another RBI base hit tying the game 5-5 heading into the fifth inning.

The Renegades did retake the lead thanks to a triple from Krause and an RBI hit from Smith but the Lords of Dirt responded with a little more punch as Holleran recorded his first fence-clearing home run of the season to lead off, Sophia Gonzales found her stroke for a base hit and scored on a triple by Sam Evans and when Sunter hit a sac fly RBI, the Lords of Dirt were out front 8-6.

Then came the turning point as the Renegades loaded the bases with one out only to come up empty-handed. The Lords of Dirt then pushed an insurance run across when Isaac Evans led off with a hit and scored on another RBI base hit from Miller in the bottom of the sixth and held the Renegades hitless in the top of the seventh to seal the 9-6 win and take the Wednesday league title for the second year in a row.

See you next summer.