The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Ketchy ketchy, shuby shuby
First things first: Ed Benner, a.k.a. Blue, has been playing softball here since 1971. I mistakenly left him out of my brief season-opening softball retrospective.
“In 1971 we had keggers and there were no girls,” says Benner.
On Tuesday night, there were no keggers, though there was beer, and there were plenty of women, talented women, at the rec league showdown between the Crackers and the Rasta Hairnets.
The Rastas are struggling through the opening weeks of the season, coming into the game Tuesday night with a 2-4 record.
Yet, with the sun shining bright and Peter Tosh reverberating from the Rastas’ sound system it felt like it was time for the Hairnets to officially turn their season around.
One problem: the Crackers, or Bushcrackers, stood in their way. The Crackers have come out of nowhere in the rec league this year after picking up players from the disbanded Bushwackers.
Approaching the field Tuesday night, I heard from three different people that the Crackers were good this year and in the opening inning they proved it, jumping out to a 6-1 lead.
Eric Beavers and Hailee Stanley capitalized on Rasta errors for base hits and Mike Stanley drove them home with a two-RBI triple to the gap in centerfield.
Robyn Estes drove in another run, Kat Sauter popped a sac fly RBI and Rick Barnard and Danielle Langlois capped the six-run assault with base hits.
The Rastas funk on defense continued on offense in the bottom of the first with the lone bright spot coming from Casey “Stretch Johnson” Falter lighting one up for the Rastas with a solo dinger over the right field fence.
Falter’s home run, Peter Tosh and pitcher Kevin Reinert’s defense provided the right mix for the Rastas to rally back into the game.
After holding the Crackers scoreless in the top of the second inning, the Rastas scored two runs in the bottom of the inning as Reinert led off with a double and scored on a double by Matt Gutter. Emmy Jervey hustled for an infield single and Arliss Merrell slapped an RBI single to pull within three.
The Crackers responded in the top of the third as four of their first five hitters connected for base hits. Estes opened with a double to right field, Fred Garth followed with a double to left field and Sauter and Barnard drove them home with singles.
The Rastas retaliated once again, this time en masse, as singles from Denise Reinert, Carlos Velado and Nicky O’Connor loaded the bases for Falter.
Falter stepped to the plate and delivered, crushing a three-RBI triple to the fence in right field. Reinert tapped an RBI single to left to cut the Crackers’ lead down to one before Barnard stopped the Rastas in their tracks with a 6-3 double play.
The Rastas picked up where they left off in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring two more runs on a triple by Merrell and a sac fly RBI by Jaima Giles to take a 9-8 lead.
Despite giving up the lead for the first time in the game, the Crackers remained calm and deliberate at the plate combining for another series of base hits to score three runs and take an 11-8 lead in the fifth inning.
While the Rasta’s’ defense did their job in the field to help spark a comeback, the fire died at the plate as they closed the game, batting 0-for-9 to fall to the Crackers 11-9.
