As the U.S. Open fades to “Black”, two questions crossed everybody’s mind. Would Ricky Barnes hang on for victory and would Granny O’Shea’s Pub win their first game of the year?
Ricky Barnes shot an 8 under par heading into the final round of the U.S. Open at Bethpage. Meanwhile, O’Shea’s led off with a run in the first at Allen Park as Andy Cohen and Lenny Balestrieri singled and Don Carlin knocked in the run with a 9 iron sac fly. Lockie & Nowachek Family Chiroprators answered back with 3 runs to take the lead in the second. From holes five through twelve of round 4, Barnes had a tough stretch and bogeyed 6 times to lose the U.S. Open lead. O’Shea’s scratched out 1 more run in the 3rd as Mike Hadnagy and Bill Gonzalez got on the green and Andy Cohen stroked an RBI single but Grannys was still behind 3-2. With the game on the line, Barnes birdied the 13th hole to get back into the thick of the Open competition. Walter Hasemann and Gary Innes singled for Grannys as Mitchell Maghakian sank a putt for 2 more runs. With the score now 4-3 in favor of Grannys, Bob Kirk and Gary Innes plugged up the fairway with some crucial double plays to keep the strong lineup of Lockie & Nowachek in the rough. Bob Thompson threw 7 “par-fect” innings after the 2nd and Kirk teed off a solo shot down the left center fairway ensuring O’Sheas a victory, 5-3. Unfortunately Ricky Barnes couldn’t hang onto his lead as he dropped to 2 under par, but underdog Lucas Glover stayed steady at the end to capture the U.S. Open at 4 under par. Congratulations to Glover on his victory, to Barnes who set the pace and fought hard, and to O’Shea’s on their win.
Barco Construction continued their resurgent play from two off seasons with another close and exciting 14-11 victory over McCourt & Trudden Funeral Home. The Barco Boys started slowly, falling behind 6-2 after four innings before the team started to mesh offensively. Dave Ringer continued his impressive comeback season (on the IR in 2008) with a 3-4 night and 5 RBIs, including a 2 RBI triple in Barco’s 5 run 7th. Also contributing to Barco’s offense were Rick Pedone (4-4 1RBI) who continued his explosive hitting, and Terry McPartland (2-2 2BB 2RBIs), who has the team’s highest batting average. This year’s success for Barco continues to be a result of timely hitting and solid play from the entire line-up and this game was no exception as seven other players had 2 hits along with six guys driving in a run. This was typified by Bob Diamond’s clutch 2 out single in the 7th that drove in 2 to give Barco some needed cushion. The win raised Barco’s record to 6-2. Apparently the comic relief for the night though had to be Gary Jambor’s swinging strikeout to lead off the game, which was surprising but it is even more surprising to see it being published (guess who writes the article).
Autocraft used a tough defense and timely hitting to beat Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology by the score of 20-7. The combination of John Garrity at short and Aldo Balducci at second put together three double plays. Bobby Joyce was like a 50-year-old at third base with solid fielding. That and the masterful pitching of Richie Dargie kept Z-P from threatening. Garrity also had four hits including three doubles. Balducci, Joyce, Benny Macchia, and Bob Cruickshank added three hits each.
Once again Zwanger just could not muster enough offense against a strong hitting team. But a few guys are starting to show signs of life. Ira Berger has 5 hits in the past 2 weeks. Rookie John Hernandez and John DeFalco both had 3 hits Friday while Mark Fischer, Tommy Dittmeier and Vinny Ciullo had 2 hits each. Vinny is also making all the plays at 2nd base.
