The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Tongue and Groovers playoff rally cut short
As I wrote two weeks ago, two teams could pose the biggest problems for the top seeded teams in the comp league playoffs.
One was the Talk of the Town and the other was the Tongue and Groovers.
The Tongue and Groovers nearly proved me right. After losing in the first round, they fired through the loser’s bracket knocking off both the Rockstarrs and the Isotopes with the Lobar standing between them and the comp league finals.
Monday night, they came close before the Lobar shut the door on them.
Ronnie Hughes put the Lobar on the scoreboard first with a triple and Roland Mason added a run with a sacrifice RBI. A solo shot by Brian Murphy high over the left field fence put the Lobar on top 3-0 but the Tongue and Groovers took the next two innings to tie the game and then take a 4-3 lead.
Joe Erickson drove in a run with a RBI single to center in the bottom of the second inning and the Tongue and Groovers defense led by the brother/sister team of Mikey and Rebecca Weil held the Lobar scoreless in the top of the third.
Mikey Weil and Mike Lauerman connected for RBI base hits to put the Tongue and Groovers on top but it was short lived as Brigid Piccaro led off with a single and scored on a triple by Michael Villanueva to tie the game 4-4.
Adam Ofstendahl pushed the Tongue and Groovers back on top in the bottom of the fourth inning with a RBI single. Once again the lead was short-lived as the Lobar rattled off five runs in the top of the fifth.
Ashley Chahine, who may just have the smoothest swing in all of softball, knocked in a run and Hughes cracked a double to score two more. The Lobar capitalized on a fielding miscue to score two runs on a hit by Villanueva and Melissa Neuner capped the rally with a sac fly RBI for a 9-5 Lobar lead.
The dagger through the Tongue and Groover’s heart though came in the bottom of the sixth. After loading the bases with no outs, they failed to push a single run across as the Lobar defense clamped down to get two outs at home and reel in a fly ball.
The Tongue and Groovers threatened one last time in the bottom of the seventh inning scoring runs on hits by Adrienne Weil and Geordie VanMarter but the Lobar turned the final two outs to secure their return to the comp league championship game.
