Rent-A-Gades rise to comp finals

Rally through losers bracket

After dropping their first game of the post season, the Rent-A-Gades put together four wins in a row and will face the Airheads in the competitive league championship.
They capped their four-game win streak by taking two wins on Monday night at Tommy V Field. It was do-or-die for three teams as the Wine-Os, the Lobar and the Rent-A-Gades were all battling their way out of the losers bracket.
Lose and you go home.
The Rent-A-Gades opened Monday night stringing together some offensive power to take down the Wine-Os 15-11 earning a spot in the losers bracket finals against the Lobar immediately following.
As the teams took the field it was tough to say who had the advantage. While the Rent-A-Gades were fresh off a win, the Lobar was coming in with fresh legs.
One thing that didn’t help the Lobar was the loss of shortstop/manager Roland Mason, only to be replaced by a hobbled Rick Barnard. Furthermore, they were missing the boundless energy and talent of Daniel Hargrove, who is always good for extra base hits.
The Rent-A-Gades carried their momentum from the win earlier that evening into the top of the first inning against the Lobar, stringing together five base hits to score three runs.
Jeff Banford and Peace Wheeler poked back-to-back base hits to put runners in the corners for Josh Schumacher. Schumacher connected for an RBI double to score Banford and Heather Duryea drove Wheeler home with a single to shallow left field.
Justin Wheeler drove a sacrifice fly ball to left to score Schumacher but Lobar left fielder Bob Piccaro saw Duryea tagging up and gunned her down for the double play at second base.
Piccaro followed up his defensive work with a lead off double and then scored when Barnard walked.
Melissa Mason tapped a sacrifice hit to score another Lobar run but Duryea saw a Lobar runner stretching for third and fired across the diamond for the tag out.
Both defenses clamped down the next two innings before the Rent-A-Gades popped off another string of base hits to score three more runs.
The quick rally was primed by a Lobar throwing miscue when an overthrow allowed one run in. Schumacher cracked an RBI triple followed by another RBI triple from wife Andrea Schumacher to put the Rent-A-Gades up 6-2.
The Lobar’s miscues in the field carried over onto the base path and some poor decision making quashed a potential comeback in the bottom of the fourth.
The Rent-A-Gades bats fell silent and there was plenty of time for the Lobar to mount one last comeback, but their offense was lacking and the Rent-A-Gades defense did what needed to be done to seal the 7-3 win and advance to the competitive league championship game.