Earl’s Team holds on for win
The joke at the number three ball park Wednesday was that Earl’s team is undefeated — at least when they show up.
Plagued by low numbers, division one’s Earl’s Team has been forced to forfeit four of its six games, but with some big hitters the team has won the two that they have played. Their second win came with a 15-11 win over the second place KDFN Chiefs (6-4-2).
“Once we show up, we have a pretty solid nucleus,” said Earl’s captain, Blaine “Bubba” Demchuk, who batted four-for-four and scored twice.
“We’re struggling to pick up our women right now, they’ve been in courses, doing running programs … we’re just starting to come together. Good thing it’s a long season.”
Coming into the third inning down 5-3, Earl’s took the lead with their biggest inning of the game, scoring five runs to go up by three. After holding the Chiefs to a single run in the bottom of the third, Earl’s continued to add pressure, scoring four runs in the fourth and three in the fifth.
However, Chiefs (4-4-1) did not rollover and play dead.
The embattled team almost closed the gap, scoring six runs on a mishmash of hits to come within one at 12-11.
As if worn down by running so many bases in the fourth, the Chiefs suffered a three-up-three-down inning in the fifth, bringing the game to a close.
“For not playing much, we came out and hit the ball pretty good,” said Demchuk. “The field was a little rough tonight because past weather was bad … There were a few bad bounces, but no one got hurt and we had some fun.”
Team Coke upsets number two Wild
Taking the lead with four runs in the first inning, the division three Coke team (6-2-0) kept the lead to itself, getting a 13-7 win off second place Kustom Kuts Wild (7-2-0).
“Kind of typical to the rest of our games, fairly close — all our games have been fairly close this year,” said Coke’s Bud Arnold, who batted two-for-three and scored twice. “We rely on the big inning here and there to put us over the top.”
Like a pair of bookends, Coke’s best innings came in the first and the final inning, scoring four runs in each.
Down by eight runs at the top of the sixth, Wild’s Mike O’Connor tried to get his team back in the game, hitting a two-run homer over the centre field fence. However, a pair of ground-outs brought the game to an end.
Because of the Junior Men’s World Fast Pitch Championship, the co-ed slo-pitch season is going on hiatus for a couple weeks. Games will resume July 2.