Company Softball Deserves Ink

BABY BOMBERS REPRESENT 10-9

BY SPARKY CHALMERS



PARK RIDGE, NJ – Whoever is responsible for scripting sporting events is getting lazy, especially with their grand finales. The Bombers first game of 2010 ended in similar fashion to the championship game of 2009.

For those in attendance at last years Championship, this will be familiar (but don’t skip down).

Tied 9-9, and with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, pitcher Ian Gold doubled through the left side of the infield. One pitch later rookie first baseman Michael Barbara hit a double to right field, letting Gold jog home to give B&E a 10-9 victory over PT in Park Ridge.

“Of course there wasn’t as much celebration as last year, but it felt great to get the win, and to get it with so many of our key pieces out made it a special game,” Gold said. “It was fun to watch new people step up.”

By now the readers of this rag have figured out that Patrice Jones and Eric Svendsen are pretty good. But without them (amongst others), in the scarlet and gray - new names and fresh faces contributed to the victory.

Barbara, holding up his end of the intern bargain, drove in the winning run of the game and used his near blinding speed for an inside the park homer to center. Elisabeth Scarpa, Brian Reilly and Dan Sandin joined Barbara as rookies of note.

On the first play of the game Scarpa tracked down a rocket hit to right field and then later had an RBI to bolster a lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Reilly, a third baseman, made the decision to forgo plastic surgery and catch a rocket line drive – and then by Scarpa’s example, contributed offensively with an inside-the-park Home Run in the sixth.

Reilly’s homer was followed by a triple from rookie outfielder Dan Sandin, who then scored the final run of the inning beating a throw home after a hit by Susan Osterlitz.

“I thought everyone played well,” Osterlitz said. “I usually measure the rookie’s worth by how quickly they bring me water between innings, but today they made the difference in the game.”

Last year the Bombers lost their first game of the year in similarly dire straits. They fell behind early and were never able to fight back and regain the lead.

Once again, B&E fell behind 0-3 after the top of the first inning – but this time no heads were hung, and they chipped away and tightened up the defense.

Gold, the pitcher who watched three PT runs just cross the plate, got the comeback started and didn’t let up until crossing the plate in the 7th. He hit home runs over the left field fence in his first two plate appearances and started off his Cy Young bid with a strong performance on the mound.

Besides for an opposite field homer in the first for PT, Gold teamed with star catcher Janine Lucas to keep a majority of PT hits in the infield and direct them at vacuum shortstop Jason Calcano (who could have been mentioned earlier and is also pretty good).

“I was mixing up signals and got into a pretty good rhythm,” Lucas said. “Slider, curve, 4-seam fastball, 2-seam fastball – yeah right, get real.”

The Bombers will be joined by the rest of their squad Monday at 5:30 when they take on familiar rivals USCG at Park Ridge.