Late game surge paces Aces to win over Eldo in softball

Sam Lumb goes 7 for 8 over two games last week

by Than Acuff

America is a country rife with leisure sports. Cornhole, hacky sack, beer pong, horseshoes, Happy Hour and Jarts, until someone somewhere took a Jart to the head removing Jarts from the leisure sports list. Or so the story goes.

Softball is a step above that as it involves running, catching, hitting, reacting and strategy. It’s the perfect blend in that it is an active sport, but the slowpitch format and the drinking, is a taste of leisure activities.

On Thursday, June 11 the town league game between the Aces and the Eldo erred more toward the sport end of softball and less toward the leisure part of softball as the two teams traded 10-run innings and great defensive plays before the Aces edged out a 24-20 win–or was it 23-19.

The Eldo fired the initial shots across the bow of the Aces when Lexi Chiani, like the wine but without the T, connected for an RBI single, a walk scored another Eldo run and Nick Fulwiler smacked an RBI double for a 4-1 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

The Aces were not so Acey at the plate and the Eldo proved locked in defensively led by Dakoda Tagg with a leaping grab in right center to rob a base hit. Dah Nah Nah. Dah Nah Nah. Say it out loud quickly and it’ll make sense.

At which point the Eldo lit it up in the bottom of the third racking up 11 runs. Kat Zimmer, no relation to famous Red Sox manager Don Zimmer but maybe related to German music composer Hans Zimmer, led off with a single and then jogged home as AJ Munoz smashed a two-run home run. Chiani and Pip Bailey combined for base hits and scored on another two RBI double from Fulwiler. Patrick Cashion and Tagg pushed home more Eldo runs with base hits, Zimmer returned to the plate to hit a two RBI double and then Munoz closed it out with a second home run in his second trip to the plate pasting the ball off the KBUT building for a 15-1 Eldo lead and forcing the umpires to enforce the 10-run rule.

The Aces immediately turned things around though with Tom Harken and Sean Irwin each knocking singles and Dan Brown and Danny Unger each knocking RBI doubles. Kristi Miller then one-upped her teammates with an RBI triple and Bryce W. Miller tripled as well to score Miller.

Fast forward to the top of the fifth inning and the Aces continued to pour it on with their own 10-run inning. Harken, Irwin, Brown and Unger accounted for the first three runs with base hits, Nadine Allen loaded the bases with a powerbunt single and then Joe Robinson and Miller scored three more Aces with RBI hits. Miller and Jess Laramie followed that up with RBI base hits and Tucker Brown ended it all with a two-run home run for a 17-15 Aces lead.

The Aces would tack on additional runs in the top of the sixth inning but then Bailey pulled off a heart pounding inside the park home run and Cashion crushed a two-run shot to tie the game 19-19, or 20-20, heading into the seventh inning.

Laramie built a small lead for the Aces with an RBI single in the top of the seventh inning and Carey Willette added to it with a monster of a three-run home run, after a monster of a swing and a miss, for a 23-19 lead that would hold for the Aces first win of the season.