Pitas cruises to win over the Talk of the Town in softball

America

By Than Acuff

Anytime anyone says the French would be speaking German if it wasn’t for us, remind them we’d still be under a King’s authority if it wasn’t for the French.

Wait.

Anywho, believe it or not, we are just two weeks away from the end of the regular season and as of right now, Pitas is on top of the Tuesday/Thursday league standings with Kochevar’s and Elevate hot on their heels. The Aces, Eldo and the Talk of the Town are all mired in the middle of the pack with CB Extreme and the Hares still searching for their first wins of the season.

After dropping their first game of the season to Kochevar’s, Pitas has been on a five-game winning streak including knocking off the Talk of the Town last Thursday, June 26 at Gothic Field.

Given a lack of women players available for the game, Pitas was looking at option B, playing five men and four women and taking an automatic out every time the missing woman was meant to hit. Instead, player/manager Drew Stichter went with option C, playing four men and four women which means no automatic out but also meant a lot of potential holes in the field on defense.

With that in mind, scoring early and often was a priority for Pitas and they did just that knocking in seven runs in the first inning. So much so that the first four Pitas batters swung at the first pitch they saw starting with a solo inside the park home run (ITPHR) by Ben Hayes. Mallory Zimmerman and Scott Sanders then reached safely and scored on a two RBI single from Jill Cooper.

Joe Erickson followed with what would be his first of four or five doubles to right center to drive in a run, Frank Magri tacked on another Pitas’ run with a sac fly RBI and Hayes and Zimmerman rounded it all out with two more RBI hits for a 7-0 Pitas’ lead.

The Talk of the Town then stepped to the plate and despite some holes in the Pitas defense due to a lack of players, managed just three runs as Ryan Houseman led off with a single and scored off a double by Taylor Miller and Robbie Vandervoort and Micah Ryan connecting for RBI hits.

Pitas then continued to swing early and swing often scoring three more runs with Will Mixon sending a towering two run shot over the netting in left center and Hayes pushing another Pita player home with an RBI triple flirting with hitting for the cycle in just the second inning of the game.

The Talk of the Town then settled in like a pool player with a great five-beer buzz at the Talk of the Town, to find their stroke at the plate. Ryan Carroll led off with a double and scored. Houseman singled, Nicola Roberts remained patient at the plate to walk and load the bases and then Miller smashed a grand slam home run. Kelly McGuire and Vandervoort would then knock base hits and both score when Kari Roberts connected for a two RBI single to tie the game 10-10.

Feeling the heat, Pitas responded by scoring the next 11 runs on 14 hits as everyone got in on the fun. The usual suspects of Sanders, Hayes, Mixon, Erickson and Zimmerman did what they always do but one player seemed to be on a bit of a heater on this particular evening, Frank Magri. Magri has played in Crested Butte since before there were fields with fences and a home run was just a ball hit too far into a hay field to be worth chasing after. Magri stepped to the plate to connect for a two RBI single in the top of the third inning and then returned to the plate in the top of the fourth inning to knock another single up the middle and then come back to the plate in the top of the fifth inning to mash an RBI single to deep left field. 

While a bit disheartened by the way the game was going, the Talk of the Town did get a boost in the top of the fifth inning when Houseman charged in from deep centerfield for a sliding grab to rob Stichter of a base hit but their excitement was soon quashed when Cooper knocked her second two RBI base hit of the night and Pitas was sitting pretty with a 24-12 lead heading into the sixth inning.

Nicola and Pete Basile did manage to connect for additional RBI base hits for the Talk of the Town down the stretch but so did Roland Mason, Erickson and Zimmerman to close out the 28-14 Pitas’ win.