Before the highlights this week, the Over the Hill Gang sends its best wishes to Singleton’s manager Richie Brancaccio as he recovers from surgery. Come back soon Richie, “Big Red” is not the same without you!
Break up Barco Construction; they’ve won two in a row! Against division rival Lockie & Nowachek Family Chiropractors. Barco came out on top in another back and forth battle, earning a hard fought 17-15 victory. Barco jumped out with three runs in the first on Dennis “Gimpy Grandpa” Ryan’s triple and Russ Graham’s hit but L&N came back with two runs in the second. Barco responded with five in their half on Terry McPartland, Gary Jambor, Dennis Ryan and Russ Graham’s (two) RBI hits but L&N answered immediately with five runs in the third.
The pattern continued as Barco scored six runs in the bottom of the inning, this time the big hits were Kevin Moloney’s HR along with Tony Ranieri and Jim Hose’s RBI singles. Barco added one more in the fourth on Dave Ringer’s RBI single which plated Dennis R. who again had tripled but L&N came back in the fifth to tie the score at 15. Barco broke the tie in the sixth on another Russ Graham hit, a clutch bases loaded single to plate two, giving Barco the final margin of victory and Russ five RBIs on the night. Russ also provided the night’s entertainment with his swinging “K” and his “did you see that ball move” explanation. Terry McPartland, never one to hold his tongue, answered with “yep it goes up and it comes down and you hit it” response. The team also requested Terry sign up for the league twitter notifications so he knows when the games are.
With only a half game separating them, Autocraft and Bar Boy squared off for the rights to first place in the American Division. In the end, Autocraft came away with a 24-14 victory on a great early summer night for softball. His teammates truly became “believers” as Mike Feretti took his record to 5-0-1 on the mound. The newer, better number two batter, Brian Landy went five for five with a homerun. The former number two, Denny “Ace” Oehl fit well at the bottom of the order going three for three. Johnny Garrity (three for five) and Tommy Vanasco (two for four) both hit homers.
Aldo Balducci had four hits and Joe “Mr. Steady” Lutz was five for five. Bob Huebner and rookie Donny Simone has three hits each and rookie Frankie Quatromani had his best night of the season going three for five.
Paradox Cafe took on McCourt & Trudden Funeral Home on the 60-foot field this past Friday. After three weeks of late games on the large field, Paradox was looking forward to a change of scenery and the early start time. It looked like a nice beginning for Paradox as they jumped to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first on a bomb to left field by Balestrieri. Unfortunately, M&T struck back with eight runs before Paradox could put out the fire and end the inning.
In the second, Brian Mulcahy stroked a single to knock in Walter Hasemann who had doubled earlier. Bruce Kubart then added another RBI for Paradox as both teams traded runs in the second to make it 10-5 in favor of M&T. It looked like this might turn into a barn burner as Paradox put up two more runs in the third as Andy Cohen knocked a SAC fly and Al Celeste delivered an RBI single. M&T offset the gain with another run of their own to keep the lead at 11-7 after three.
The fourth inning came up big for Paradox as Mickey Newbeck drove in a run and Don Carlin went the opposite way and stroked a two-out RBI double. Paradox took the lead at 12-11 for the time being. Both teams quieted down with good fielding and play when M&T struck for a run in the sixth to tie the game at 12. A sac fly by Paradox’s Carlin and another run by M&T kept the score tied into the seventh inning. Time was running out and both teams had one last at bat to break the tie. Paradox took advantage in the eighth as Hasemann and Mulcahy set the table for an RBI single by Lyle Nigro. With Paradox holding a slim one-run lead, M&T looked to win the game in the bottom of the eighth as they proceeded to load the bases. A final fly out to left field enabled Paradox to close out the game and walk off with a 14-13 win and a two game winning streak for 4th of July break.
Paradox Cafe wishes the best to Bob Meyers as he recovers from recent knee surgery and the team all says hello. Thanks also to Jay Donovan for visiting the team this past week.
Zwanger-Pesiri Radiology rallied late against BK Sweeney’s but it wasn’t enough to overcome a huge deficit. The final was 23-13, Sweeney’s. Marc Fischer had the shot of the night for ZP, a monster blast that one-hopped the new fence in left field. Karl Dessel and Richie D’Amico also played well, with three hits each. And a belated shout-out to rookie Vinny Foppiano who belted his first OTHG homer last week.
