Farmingdale’s Over The Hill Gang (OTHG) softball league opened its 37th season on April 13 at Allen Park. This year the league is showcasing its fantastic talent with a new Player of the Week award. This week’s winner, the first ever OTHG Player of the Week, is Changing Times outfielder Dave Thornburn. Thornburn led off the game with an opposite field homer and kept on hitting all night long. He went 5-5, hitting for a cycle. In left-center Thornburn was equally impressive, with several exceptional catches, including a “layout” grab that helped beat down a McCourt and Trudden Funeral Home rally late in the game. Congratulations to Thornburn and to the Player of the Week runner-up, Lockie and Nowachek’s Butch Flecker. Flecker went 4-4 that included a monster, fence-clearing homer.
For Lockie and Nowachek Family Chiropractors, Flecker was not the only hot hitter in their 29-19 win over Barco Construction. By the end of the third Barco was up 15-9, but in the fourth, L & N scored eight runs on two grand slam home runs, one by Ron Schwabe and the other by James Doyle. It was a complete team effort; everyone had at least one RBI. James Doyle also was 4-for-4. Rookie Rich Apollo was 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Mike Quigley, Ben Greco and Pete Cestare each had three hits.
Changing Times Pub got off to a good start beating McCourt and Trudden Funeral Home 27-17. The team was sparked by Thornburn, the catalyst that the rest of the team fed off.
BK Sweeney’s started the 2012 season by pounding out 30 hits and scoring 24 runs, beating Singleton’s 24-11. Mike Magro, Billy Sutherland and George Moerler all hit home runs and Byron Bodine and Mark Hemminger contributed with three hits each. The first game of the season also marked the return to the field for George Cohan who was severely missed in 2011. It was great to see George back on the field.
In the late game, Paradox Cafe beat LaCorte Family Auto 21-16. The hitting stars for Paradox were Bill Gonzalez 3/4 with two home runs, three runs and five RBIs. Steve Fanelli 3/4 with three runs and one RBI, Lenny Balestrieri 3/4 with three runs and three RBIs, Mitch Maghakian 2/3 with one run and three RBIs, James Mignone 1/2 with three runs and 2 RBIs, and Tony Scime 3/3 with two runs and two RBIs.
Fielding Stars go to Micky Newbeck who raced from RF back and over to the line to make a great reaching grab on a long fly ball that was tailing away from him. Gary Innes playing second base, laying out to his left to field a ground ball to get the out at first. Bill Gonzalez completed his fantastic night in left field with an all out sprint to track down a bomb hit over his head to make a running over-the-shoulder catch to end the game.
