BY SPARKY CHALMERS
Tension mounts in the late summer, football is about to start and it’s the Pearson Softball Playoffs. One loss and the season is done – one win, and rest up for a game the next day. But as grizzled defending champions, B&E fought off a ferocious attack from PT and earned a 19-12 victory yesterday in Ramsey.
The Bombers raced out to a 14-6 lead after four innings in large behalf to clutch hitting from the heart of the order. Jason Calcano set the tone early with a seeing-eye triple, Elisabeth Scarpa took a walk and then Patrice Jones hit one of his mammoth shots that disrupted traffic on a typically quiet suburban street.
“If you have to play Frogger to go and get the ball, it’s a home run,” Director of Baseball Operations Melissa Sabella said.
In later innings the Bombers would lean on their experience to grind out a pair of two-out rallies. With two outs already registered, Michael Barbara, Ian Gold (who was fighting off wicked heat exhaustion while trying to break a sweat record with the Guinness Book of World Records), Janine Lucas (who is receiving the purple heart for injuries earned in battle) and Brian Reilly dug in and produced.
“When the bases are empty sometimes there is more pressure to produce,” Reilly said following a single that brought in two runs. “When there are runners on second and third, all I need is to hit a solid line drive and we score twice.”
Reilly in particular fought off mean early pitches to place balls in the outfield that scored critical runs.
Heading into the top of the fifth inning, B&E assumed that a strong half inning of defense would earn them a mercy rule and get them to the bar before happy hour ended. Instead, strong hitting from PT brought them back from the jaws of defeat. New life sprung into the underdog team and they started to smell an upset three years in the making.
“The series between us and PT has been one-sided up to this point,” Captain Patrice Jones said. “But all a team like that needs is one spark and they become very dangerous.”
When the Bombers believed they would be heading home, they were caught in the middle of a two-run game heading into the last innings couple innings.
In defending champion fashion they tacked on insurance runs. Melinda Haggerty worked on her cardio after a Jason Calcano inside-the-park homer. And James Heine was kind enough to wake up pitcher Ian Gold and allow him to drive in two additional runs.
B&E will continue the one-and-done format tonight against Health and Careers in Park Ridge at 5:30. Health and Careers beat the Bombers in their only meeting of the season.
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