The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Playoffs are on
By Than Acuff
Things are for real now, at least as real as local softball can get, as both leagues are now in the double-elimination format of the post season. Lose once, you still can come back out of the loser’s bracket. Lose twice and you can throw your cleats and glove back in the corner, closet, back of truck until June 2026.
The Wednesday league playoffs opened on Wednesday, July 23 with a matchup between the fourth seeded Zuni Renegades and fifth seeded Butte & Co and making for a classic mid-table showdown. And what ensued was just that… until it wasn’t.
Butte & Co opened things with a bang as Andrew Arnold led off with a solo inside the park home run (ITPHR) assisted by Zuni’s inability to hit the cutoff. I don’t know much but I do know this, every base counts in the postseason so hit the cutoff.
Two batters later Zach Coffey stroked a triple to right center and then scored on a single from Kristin Tyson. Another single put two on for Butte & Co and Alden Watkins cleared the bags with a three-run shot to straightaway centerfield and a 5-0 Butte & Co lead.
Ryan Houseman and Kate Schmidt combined for base hits and a run for Zuni, but Butte & Co continued to pour it on scoring seven more runs in the top of the second inning. Arnold got things going again with an RBI triple and then scored off a weird area RBI single from Rachel Coffey. Zach then stepped up to join Watkins as a part of the Butte & Co Bash Brothers with a two-run shot to straightaway center as well. A couple of base hits later Watkins returned to the plate to send another three-run shot over the centerfield netting and Butte & Co was full of vim and vigor sitting on a 12-1 lead.
With the game teetering on getting away early, Zuni found their bats in the bottom of the second inning to pull back into the game. Singles from Emily O’cañas, who may have had her name in the softball coverage this season more than anyone else, KT Hakins and Ben Somrak loaded the bases for Nadine Allen and she pushed one run home with a single. Houseman did the same, Schmidt knocked a two RBI double up the middle and then Johnny Green returned to his old ways back when he stepped onto the local softball scene on the Rasta Hairnets (shout out Hairnets, BOH BOH BOH!). Green was known for going yard as a Hairnet and he did it again on Wednesday as a Zuni Renegade with a two-run shot off the roof of Town Hall to pull Zuni back to within five.
Arnold plunked one of his own off the Town Hall roof for Butte & Co to keep their lead still intact until the top of the third inning, but Zuni continued to gain momentum scoring three runs in the bottom of the third inning and then tacking on several more in the bottom of the fourth inning. Hawkins turned it up a notch for Zuni with a two RBI single, Somrak kept the train rolling with an RBI single and two more RBI base hits had Zuni out front for the first time all game.
Butte & Co players weren’t quite done though and RBI singles from Tyson and Ashton Mabry had them back in the lead until Kody Hawkins struck. After a couple of less than Kody efforts in his first at bats for Zuni, he stretched and got dirty for an RBI double in the bottom of the fifth to add fuel to the smoldering Zuni fire. Jesse Smith followed that with an RBI double up the middle, partially enhanced by another missed cutoff and KT, Houseman and Schmidt fanned the fire even higher with RBI base hits to push Zuni out front once again.
Lauren Killebrew did offer some pop for Butte & Co with an RBI single but when Arnold went yard for the second time of the game, Butte & Co had already reached their home run limit so what would be a two-run dinger ended up a rally ending automatic out.
DOH DOH DOH!
Zuni then stepped a little harder in the bottom of the sixth inning as Smith and KT combined for RBI base hits, Somrak cracked a two RBI double off the fence in left field and a couple of more RBI base hits had Zuni on top 27-18 for good sending Butte & Co down to the loser’s bracket, down but not out.
