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Contact:  Butch Roche, 708-228-0401, roche399@comcast.net

 

Standings after Week 2

Game 2 Recaps

Lawn Manor North: Kelly 15, Schumacher 14

Week 2 brought a slew of great, close games, unlike the ugliness of Week 1 and its grid iron-like scores.  Lawn Manor North saw perhaps the most exciting game of the week as Team Kelly chased a multi-run lead the entire game before pulling it out in the end.

 

Schumacher’s Orange Crush drew first blood with a 6-run, 2-out explosion in the top of the 2^nd, behind the timely hitting of Dan Omiecinski and Pat Knytych, who were both 3-for-3 on the night.  Despite the Super Bowl XXIV-like score, Schumacher actually got good defensive play out of OFs Leahy, Campbell and Flaws, and 1B Matt Evans made several outstanding saves of errant infield throws.  Schumacher’s Knytych gets a Web-gem nomination for fielding a hard shot to 2B and sprinting to first to tag the base and end the inning, which was necessary because 1B Bob Murphy…cough, cough…inexplicably left his post to cover second base. 

 

Ordinarily a Team Captain would have much to say after a victory like this, yet Sean Kelly filed no report.  Unfortunately for him plenty of guys from his team had a lot to say at Quigley’s after the game, and it wasn’t pleasant.  Turns out Sean came to bat in the bottom of the 7^th, game tied 14-14, no outs, and a man on third.  That’s right, the surest of the “Sure Things” that exist in the world of 16 inch softball.  A routine fly ball, a ground ball to the right side, even a caught foul ball out of play brings home the game-winner.

 

But in what arguably might be the biggest bone-headed play in the history of the Men’s League – and perhaps 16-inch softball in general – Kelly struck out looking.  And if not for the 2-out single by Frank Finnegan to break the tie and end the game, Kelly would have been completely emasculated.  The atmosphere was so hostile and the (well-deserved) insults and ball-busting so severe that even the train-wreck that is Team Cisko stopped playing on the other diamond to pile on. 

 

 

Lawn Manor South: Hughes 8, Cisko 5

 In another close-fought battle Hughes outlasted a more competent (than Week 1) Team Cisko.  Hughes’ veteran pitcher John “Chez” Sanchez used a quick-pitch style to put several Cisko batters in the hole, a couple of whom were still knocking the dirt out of their spikes before they realized they were facing 1-and-2.  Sanchez got solid backing in the infield by SS Ralph Soch & 1B Scott Strand.  Offensively Hughes’ was lead by Jon Lunny, Jim “How many kids do you have, anyway, Jim?” Burke, and Bill “The Snorkel” Snoreck who came up with a big RBI.

 

Cisko got a solid outing on the mound from Scottie McCabe and good at-bats from Rob Bittner and Paul Chocola, although Chocola appears to be confusing handsome good-looks with base-running ability as he committed a base-running blunder for the second week in a row, this time getting doubled off at first on a line-drive to left.  The game didn’t have any Web-gem nominees to speak of, although Chez did catch Keith Otto looking at a called third strike, but in Keith’s defense, Chez’ big-step-sideways-towards-3^rd-side-arm-pitch looked like it was coming out of the 3^rd–base line dugout.

 

In a sign of possible dissension in Cisko’s ranks, and therefore plenty of humorous fodder in the coming weeks, several players reported seeing Larry “LD” Daly doing some pre-game cruising on the streets surrounding the fields with Centerfield (“Put me in coach!”) blasting from his car stereo.

 

PIE Southeast: Carberry 5, Krokos 4

In yet another great defensive battle that lived up to its Marquee Match-up billing, Carberry’s Grapes battled back from 2 down in the 7^th to defeat the Reds 5-4. 

 

Team Krokos exploded with 4 runs in the 1st inning, prompting Carberry captain Jerry Carberry to (cryptically) comment to Tony Krokos "Your guys sure hit the ball hard.”  With the hex now in force – something Jerry no doubt learned from his years of attending the culturally oriented St. Nick’s Greek carnival - Team Krokos never scored another run.

 

It was a pitcher’s duel after that between George Lefils (Krokos) and the gritty veteran Leo Novosel (Carberry). Carberry got outstanding defense after the 1^st inning from Tom Duggan, Mark Woznicka, Paul Pieczynski, and Tom Evans.  Down 4-2 in the 7^th, Leo Novosel drove in the tying runs with a 2-out Double, and Bob Stokas drove in Leo for the win.

 

Not content to hex Krokos’ bats, Jerry Carberry also willed a young lady backing out of her garage across the street to smash into Rich Kevin’s SUV, which was parked at least 10 feet from the edge of the driveway.  Thankfully it was just “the kids’ SUV” which allowed Rich to refocus on the game and his pitcher of Lemovoks.  Through all the Harry Potter-like wizardry Mike Shannon umped a good game.

 

PIE Southwest: Phelan 3, McGovern 6

In an ugly game that doomed the pull-hitting, overweight Team Phelan from the start, the gale-force winds out of LF and the (suspiciously) long base paths were just too much to overcome.  Like Week 1 Phelan gave up a boatload of runs in the 1^st inning but this time they couldn’t come back

 

McGovern was lead by the sure-hands of Bob Apato at 3B and the steady pitching of Mike Smith.  Offensively McGovern got a back-breaking (Phelan’s) left field HR blast from Jim Healy, directly into the Katrina-like wind and over the outstretched hands of speedy Jeff Butler.  Matt Glavas once again starred for McGovern in the lead-off man role, seemingly on base all the time.

 

The only real highlight for Phelan was the play of Bob Gorman, who had a multi-hit game at the plate and filled in nicely at short stop.

 

PIE Northwest:  Walton 25, Neylon 5

There was a 14-run inning in this game, which pretty much sums it up.  Everyone on Walton had multi-hit games, as did their wives who took some at-bats to allow the guys time to finish at least 1 full beer before heading back to the plate to inflict more carnage.  In a move that some called motivating, but most called imbecilic, John Neylon stretched a single into a double with a head-first dive into 2b.  While trailing by twenty runs.  Let’s just call it ugly and move on to Week 3.

 

PIE Northeast: Moss 14, Roche 11

Moss raced out to a 9-0 lead and held it until the 4th inning, when Roche erupted for 7 behind a grand slam by captain Butch Roche (3-4, 7 RBIs, 2 HR).  A see-saw battle ensued, and the teams were knotted at 11 going into the 6th.  Moss’ Jack "I’m better at softball than Jim” Reimersma led off with a sharp single that landed in front of a hard-charging Dan Beglin. Riemersma would eventually score the winning run on a double by the shameless self-promoting captain of the team.  Moss pitcher Kevin Lyons held Roche scoreless in the 7th to seal the victory.

 

Dan Dwyer and Ray Kash were the big stars at the plate for Moss. Roche got help at the plate from rookie Jeff Janis and veteran Bob Lukasik.  Web-gem nomination goes to Moss’ Rich Eber who robbed Jim Gannon of a sure line-drive HR that might have turned the tide, batting the ball up in the air and finally reining it in for a spectacular grab.

 

Young Dan O'Shea called an excellent game, showing only slight favoritism when Uncle Jim Prunty was batting to preserve use of the best pool in the neighborhood.  A jubilant and overly confident (even earlier than usual) Bill Moss was spotted after the game lighting up his standard 56 gauge Toro Robusto and overheard talking about “resting his regulars” since he thought a playoff spot was a lock. 

 

In the midst of all the back-slapping and hail-fellow-well-met guffaws among Moss players, Roche’s 3B Jim Gannon – the #1 pick of the 2005 draft (by Bill Moss) – yelled to Team Moss “Enjoy it now boys, because Moss will turn on you like a caged wombat when you start losing.”  Sure as the sun will shine….

 

Week 2 Web-gem Winner

Moss’ Rich Eber for robbing Jim Gannon of a sure line-drive HR.

 

Game 3 – Thursday, 6:30 PM

Lawn Manor North: Moss v. Hughes

Lawn Manor South: Kelly v. Carberry*

PIE Southeast: McGovern v. Schumacher

PIE Southwest: Roche v. Neylon

PIE Northwest: Phelan v. Cisko

PIE Northeast: Krokos v. Walton

* Marquee Match-up