Talk of the Town snare Hares

Playing for Pete

by Than Acuff

It’s no coincidence that I went to cover the Talk of the Town when they played the Hares Thursday, July 9 at Gothic Field.

For starters, it was Pete Basile’s birthday, and the Talk was playing for Pete. The Celebration of Pete’s life a couple weeks ago was the stuff of legend. That’s community.

Secondly, I had some making up to do. I had mentioned last week all I wanted to see was the Talk win a title. Well, the Talk of the Town made a monumental comeback in the bottom of the seventh inning to win the town league title in 2015, and I was actually there and covered it. Fortunately, the good folks on the Talk of the Town team reminded me and so that was reason number two for being there: to apologize for my oversight and catch them in action, specifically Dave, Ali and Kelly McGuire as well as Erik Ervin, all of whom were on that 2015 title team.

It just so happened their opponent was the Hares. If the Talk is the most positive team win or lose in the Tuesday/Thursday league, the Hares are a close second and they haven’t won a game all season. Though they came close earlier in the week losing to the Aces 28-26.

So, there was reason number three, the Hares were surging, and I wanted to be there in case they got their first win, or at least a close game.

The Talk and Hares bided their time through the first couple of innings trading jabs with the Talk landing the first punches in the top of the first as Kelly and Steph Reeves each connected for RBI base hits. But there was an edge to the Hares as well. Not only did Alex Mattes-Ritz chase down a pop up from his shortstop position to make an over-the-shoulder grab, but Lucas McMullen and Brian Brown combined for hits to score a Hare run in the bottom of the first.

The Talk flirted with opening the game up in the top of the second inning when Ali and Robbie Vandervoort each singled to start things off. But the Hares defense stopped them in their tracks as they retired the next batter and then Mattes-Ritz scooped the next ground ball to tap second base and fire to first base for the double play.

Problem was, the Hares couldn’t back up their defense with much offense due in part to a shoestring grab by Talk shortstop Austin Hayes and the Talk used the opportunity to start generating runs in the top of the third inning.

After Tony Wildman walked, Ryan Houseman singled and Ashley Bouey reached first on a fielder’s choice. Erik then stepped to the plate to drive a run in with a single to left field, Kelly did the same and Reeves remained hot at the plate with an RBI single for a 5-1 Talk lead.

The Hares mustered just one run in the bottom of the third inning when Connor Brown crushed a double off the netting in leftfield and then scored thanks to hits from Don Bunnell and McMullen. That was all for the Hares though as the Talk defense continued their efforts. The Hares had the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the fourth only to be stopped in their tracks by the effort of Bouey at third who scooped a ground ball, tapped third for the force and tagged a runner for a double play.

Meanwhile, the Talk offense continued their steady ways as Houseman tripled and scored on a double from Bouey and Hayes and Reeves combined for RBI doubles as well to push the Talk further out front 9-2.

Three up, three down for the Hares in the bottom of the fifth and the Talk tacked on two more runs. Jacqui Florig singled up the middle and scored when Dave swatted an RBI double down the rightfield line. Wildman got on his horse, or mule rather, to hustle for an infield single and then Kari Roberts drove in another Talk run with an RBI single.

McMullen looked to inspire the Hares offense when he led off the bottom of the sixth inning stretching and getting dirty for a double but then came the rarest of rare plays, a triple play, as Hayes flagged down a line drive, tapped second base to double up on the runner and then fired to first to get the other baserunner out. DOH!

Being the eternal optimist and always looking for and witnessing some excitement in town league softball, I still looked for the Hares to make one last push, and they did, kinda. Tom Stenerson and Mark Bortolin started it off with base hits and Fred Garth pushed both home with a double to left. Mattes-Ritz then smacked a line drive to centerfield, but the Talk pulled off a near perfect relay to get the runner out at home, then fired to second base to get Mattes-Ritz out stretching for two and then retired the next batter to snare the Hares for good and take the 13-4 win.

Now, just keep doing that, Talk, and we will put you on the cover when you win the title. You only have Kochevar’s, Elevate, Pitas and maybe, just maybe, Colorado Fitness to deal with in the postseason.