The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“Why aren’t you at the other game”
Monday night I showed up at Gothic Field to cover the Last Steep versus the Black Holes. While taking my seat in the unofficial press area, three people came up to me, three people from the teams playing, to say, “Why aren’t you at the other game?”
Well, because I wasn’t.
I was at Gothic to catch the Black Holes. The Black Holes entered the competitive league last season under the name Cowboys and I was amazed that any new team would throw themselves into the competitive league in their first season.
They paid the price.
Yet, this season they’re back for more and I honor that kind of determination. Rather than drop to the recreational league after last year, they’ve returned to the competitive league. Truth is, they’d have a pretty successful season in the recreational league.
But in the competitive league they struggle against teams like the Last Steep. When the Last Steep is on, they’re really on, even when they’re a player short. Monday night, the Last Steep was on and the Black Holes were the victims of another comp league licking.
The Black Holes scored first as Gracie Coburn tapped a single to shallow leftfield and scored when Tom Markle swatted an error-assisted two-run inside the park home run (EATRITPHR).
The two-run lead soon disappeared though as the Last Steep stepped up to bat in the bottom of the first inning and drove in eight runs.
Neil Gainous stroked an RBI double and Andrea Schultz crushed a two RBI single to left for the first three Steep runs. Josh Schumacher roped a two-RBI double and Jerry Heal jacked a three-run shot over the right field fence for the 8-2 Last Steep lead.
Kyle Anderson led off for the Black Holes in the top of the second stretching a single to right center into a triple and scored when Eric Dishman doubled to left. That would be it for a while for the Black Holes on offense, as the Last Steep proceeded to score nine unanswered runs.
Amy Shellenberger tapped a power bunt single to lead off the bottom of the second inning and scored on a single by Michael Blunck. Rose Reyes tapped an opposite field single and Schumacher cleared the bases with a devastating three-run blast over the leftfield netting.
Gainous and Blunck each connected for RBI base hits in the bottom of the third giving the Last Steep a 15-3 lead heading into the fourth inning.
Coburn tried once more to drop a base hit in shallow left but Gainous motored from his position at shortstop to make an all-star over-the-shoulder grab (ASOTSG) in shallow left center field.
Black Holes pitcher Abe Fisher added his two cents to the defensive highlight reel flagging down a line drive up the middle from Heather Biery and threw her out at first.
Heal added two more runs to the Last Steep lead driving an RBI double (that’s right, Heal hit a double), down the right field line and then scored from second base on a single, (that’s right, Heal scored from second base on a single) by Jeff Banford.
Big time base running from the big man himself. It was some serious Healtime Hustle.v
Black Holes catcher Jill Cooper proved effective on offense and defense driving in a run on a base hit and then chased down a foul pop for a shoestring grab.
Markle poked another TRITPHR for one last gasp from the Black Holes in the top of the seventh inning but the Last Steep defense retired the final two outs to seal the 17-6 win.
By the way, at “the other game” the Isotopes defeated the Lobar to remain undefeated.
